# British tea making skills! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093 "2005-11-15T01:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/81 "2005-11-17T18:44:41Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Is decent coffee really hard to find in Britain?[/size] Well, if you are coming over for a summer, stop off at a branch of [Whittard](http://www.whittard.co.uk/CategoryHome.aspx?language=en-GB&cid=c3000) - they should be able to sort out most hot-beverage related requirements. Mmmmmmmm - Old Brown Java. And as others have pointed out the likes of Starbucks, Costa Coffe, AMT, EAT, Pret a Manger and about 50000 other establishments will be delighted to sell you a good coffee, or even a Seattle-style caffeinated hot milk drink, although not all will be able to whip up a dry skinny soy decaff chai cappucino with shots of vanilla, chocolate, mint and hummingbird ejaculate\*. And even in places that will make things like that, you will probably get grumbles from the queue behind you. There will be a queue - that’s how you will be able to tell you are in Britain 😃 \*Or whatever nonsense it is that Americans are always ordering in an incomprehensible accent when I am standing behind them dying from caffeine withdrawal, money clutched in my trembling hand, cold sweat pouring down my pasty face as the Czech Barista goes ‘Huh?’ for the 15th time. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/82 "2005-11-17T18:48:23Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > \*Or whatever nonsense it is that Americans are always ordering… I usually order a 10-shot espresso. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/83 "2005-11-17T19:08:11Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > The problem with teabags is not the bag per se, it’s the quality of the tea used. An opaque bags hides a lot of sins, such as sweepings (tea powder) from the bottom of the tea chest. With all this (mostly justified) ragging on teabags, I just have to plug [Mighty Leaf](http://www.mightyleaf.com/tea-pouches.aspx), which makes rather decent pouched tea, using shear fabric bags and actual leaves (or at least leaf fragments) rather than dust and stems. It’s still not as good as loose, whole leaf tea, but if you’re at the office or on the road and need to make tea by the single bag it’s the next best thing. I don’t dairy my tea so I’ve no opinion on the merits of milk in the cup before or after, but I’ll concur that the water should be slightly less than boiling for black teas, and significantly less for oolong and green teas. Experiment with steeping times until you get what you want; preferences vary widely. Coffee is the spunk of Lucifer. I only drink it when I need to stay awake (not generally an issue) or the selection of available tea is unacceptible. And yes, Lipton is dreck, the dust sweepings from a pigeon-infested sidewalk. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/84 "2005-11-17T20:24:33Z")
I like Taylors of Harrogate - its not all that far from me. Their teas are not completely typical of English Common tea, much more a higher class. Their loose tea does not tend to brew up as brown as the ‘Common Tea’, all except their specialist Yorkshire Tea, which does have the colourant agents in it. Most English persons would probably try to brew it to their usual colour, but then its so strong its like paint stripper. True tea is actually quite pale and has to be the correct blend to accept and be enhanced by the addition of milk. It is in my opinion, far better than Twinnings, or at least the Twinning stuff that most folk see sold around the place. The specialist Twinnings is very good too, you rarely see it about, mail order is the way for most of us who live outside London. Anyways, you Murricans can get your hands on it, and you should too, [http://www.englishteastore.com/brands-taylors.html](http://www.englishteastore.com/brands-taylors.html) Go for the Darjeeling or the Pure Assam, don’t expect it to be brown, it will be pale as stated earlier. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/85 "2005-11-18T13:13:23Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I usually order a 10-shot espresso. My hero!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/86 "2005-11-30T22:12:38Z")
Just located my copy of the 1940 Canadian Army “Manual of Military Cookery and Dietary.” (Which is in fact, a direct reprint of the British Army manual of the same name.) Since the British Army considered hot, sweet tea a panacea for anything except a stomach wound, their advice should be read in full: > [@](#): > > **Making of Tea.** > > Ingredients for 100 men: Tea, 1 lb.; sugar, 4 lb.; milk, 6 1/4 pints or 4 tins; and 12 gallons of water (1 pint a man). > > Method: Weigh out the ingredients required for number in mess. > > Place the dry tea into muslin bags and tie loosely, allowing sufficient room for the expansion of the tea during infusion. > > Rinse out the tea buckets with boiling water to ensure cleanliness and to heat the buckets, then place the bags containing the tea into the buckets and fill with boiling water. > > Stand buckets near a hot stove from 8 to 10 minutes, then remove the bags and squeeze fairly dry, add sugar and milk. Tea is then ready for serving. > > _Common faults in tea-making_ > > i. Water not at boiling point when poured over the dry tea. > ii. Water boiling for a long period before required. > iii. Buckets not heated before brewing. > iv. Tea bags tied tightly, preventing water from penetrating the tea and extracting the flavour. > v. Tea brewed with a small quantity of water hours before required. This is a common fault, as is also the placing of sugar in with the tea when brewing, thereby losting a great deal of the sweetening by the tea leaves absorbing the sugar. I will only add that the manual also has excellent recipes for Brown Rabbit Stew, Braised Stuffed Sheep’s Heart, and Ox Brains and Parsley Sauce. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/87 "2005-11-30T23:26:17Z")
> [@Rodd Hill](#): > > Since the British Army considered hot, sweet tea a panacea for anything except a stomach wound, their advice should be read in full: I do remember one recent newspaper report from either Iraq or Afghanistan, where the Americans envied the British for the fact that just about every vehicle had a water heater of some kind > [@](#): > > I will only add that the manual also has excellent recipes for Brown Rabbit Stew, Braised Stuffed Sheep’s Heart, and Ox Brains and Parsley Sauce. This adds what? Rabbit is delicious. Sheep’s heart - it’s only muscle, which applies to most other meat you eat. Ox Brain - OK, with BSE, that one’s a bit off-putting. But what on earth is wrong with parsley sauce? ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093/88 "2005-12-01T15:07:05Z")
Oh, no problem with the rabbit, or with the sheep’s heart (I eat haggis every now and then); the ox brains would do me in, however. And the “parsley sauce” itself is fine, but the gist of the recipe was ox brains **in** parsley sauce. “Bayleaf the gardener and Dill the Dog unavailable for comment…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-tea-making-skills/331093.md?page=4)