UK Dopers: Tell Me About British Tea

[Broomstick]

I really wish people would stop trying to foist things like “camomile” off as tea. It’s not tea. It’s an herbal infusion. Worse yet, it does nothing for my caffeine addiction and half of them annoy my allergies.

[TPWombat]

Also worth noting that if you ask anyone how they like their tea and they reply “Nato standard” they mean milk and two sugars.

[BrainGlutton]

@Broomstick

6. Tell me anything I missed.

You’re bound to find something on the TVTropes Useful Notes page on Tea and Tea Culture. Here’s some stuff I did not know:

•The Other Wiki notes that British Tanks contain “a boiling vessel (BV) also known as a kettle or “bivvie” for water which can be used to brew tea, produce other hot beverages and heat “boil-in-the-bag” meals contained in ration packs.” This is an absolute requirement, and a unique one, for British armoured vehicles. (The Americans working with the Brits in Afghanistan and Iraq are jealous; they appreciate being allowed to use them and the Brits were only too glad to let them.)

• During half-time during the FA Cup Final, extra power generation capability is online to cope with all the kettles being boiled. The Brits love plug-in, fast-heating electric kettles (probably precisely because they facilitate making tea) over stovetops or microwaves, a trend that didn’t much catch on in the States except for college dorms (and more for ramen than tea).
◦ Electric kettles sold in the British Isles are generally rated at 3 kW - it’s generally not possible (ignoring the voltage differences) to use an appliance that uses so much power in North American households without getting your kitchen re-wired. A NEMA 5-20R (T-slot) outlet typically found in modern kitchens in the US will only deliver a maximum of around 2.4 kW. There are lower power kettles (cheap junk sold in the UK can be anything from 1.5-2 kW) but they’re slow as hell in comparison.
◦ This is the reason why rapid-response power stations such as Dinorwig were built, which can from idling to full power within seconds to accommodate sudden surges in demand. That’s right: in the UK they’ve built specialist power stations inside mountains just so the entire nation can use their high-powered kettles at the same time.
◦ The same effect also apparently happens far more regularly at the end of soap operas: Britain from Above featured a segment showing a National Grid employee watching TV waiting for the end of EastEnders (IIRC) in order to bring online the extra generators needed to cope with the power surge.
◦ Domestic power consumption can double in a few seconds with the load from kettles. This is why we have the fastest responding pumped storage power station in the world. Dinorwig in Wales can bring 1320MW of capacity on line in 12 seconds. All to make tea.
◦ Immediately after the recent televised wedding of Prince William and now-Duchess Kate ended, British utilities reported a surge of electricity consumption approximating 2,400 megawatts, or about 1 million households boiling kettles. (This was not the all-time record; that’d be 2,800 MW consumed right after the 1990 World Cup England-Germany semifinal game ended.)
◦ In fact, British commercial breaks are designed to accommodate the making of tea. It takes roughly three minutes to boil the kettle and make 1-3 cups of tea. Commercial breaks are roughly just over 3 minutes long and the volume is increased substantially over main programmes so that Brits in the kitchen can hear them.

[Bridget_Burke]

@Broomstick

I really wish people would stop trying to foist things like “camomile” off as tea. It’s not tea. It’s an herbal infusion. Worse yet, it does nothing for my caffeine addiction and half of them annoy my allergies.

The word for those herbal preparations is “tisanes.” They have their places–I quite like Red Zinger over ice–but the marketing folks have packaged Camomile with Green Tea & that nasty Early Gray as The Office Alternative. (Over here, of course.)

Then, there was our long-ago administrator who decided that only decaf coffee would be available in the afternoon. She was corrected very quickly…

[BrainGlutton]

@Damfino

Obligatory link: George Orwell’s A Nice Cup of Tea.

This was of course in the pre- tea bag era.

I thought he was talking about teabags here:

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Anyone care to agree or disagree with the bolded part?

[Broomstick]

There IS a problem with Earl Grey these days - I’ve been an Earl Grey drink for 30 years now. It used to be Earl Grey was:

**TEA **with (bergamot)

Now it is (tea) with BERGAMOT

This is in keeping with the hideous trend of “flavored” teas. If you don’t like the way tea tastes don’t drink it!

[BrainGlutton]

@Broomstick

There IS a problem with Earl Grey these days - I’ve been an Earl Grey drink for 30 years now. It used to be Earl Grey was:

**TEA **with (bergamot)

Now it is (tea) with BERGAMOT

This is in keeping with the hideous trend of “flavored” teas. If you don’t like the way tea tastes don’t drink it!

Do you have proof they’ve actually changed the recipe?

[BrainGlutton]

@BrainGlutton

You’re bound to find something on the TVTropes Useful Notes page on Tea and Tea Culture. Here’s some stuff I did not know:

And here’s some more very interesting stuff I did not know:

• The American Revolution was set off in part by tea. The Boston Tea Party occurred due to Parliament assuming it could tax the colonies without their say so, although, ironically, the final straw was lowering the tax on tea with the Tea Act, making it cheaper than tea smuggled in or imported legally from elsewhere, upsetting the smugglers and merchants who weren’t in on the deal, who were the ones who actually dressed up and threw the legal tea into the harbor, then convinced most Americans that they were protesting a tax increase. Since most Americans bought from a smuggler (either directly or not) they had no clue as to what real prices were, so they bought the whole thing and followed the smugglers’ lead. Consequently, the Intolerable Acts were enacted after several hundred pounds of tea were destroyed. The Intolerable Acts led to much chaos, protest, and generally warlike tendencies within the colonies. Soon, the British decided it was a good idea to seize the arsenal in Concord, Massachusetts. The result was the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which ignited the American Revolution.
◦ The reason coffee tends to be so much more popular than tea in America is mainly due to tea being associated with British imperialism - during the American Revolution, it was popular to give up tea in favor of coffee as a symbolic act of defiance, and coffee’s popularity stuck. Of course, this really pissed off the tea smugglers that started the whole thing.

[Baron_Greenback]

@BrainGlutton

You’re bound to find something on the TVTropes Useful Notes page on Tea and Tea Culture. Here’s some stuff I did not know:

I’m not sure about the veracity of the entirety of that TV Tropes link, but there have been a few documentaries about grid engineers monitoring TV shows/ big football matches/ big national events in order to make sure that there’s capacity to absorb the spikes. A load of that will be kettles switched on, other house lights going on (maybe toilet flushes?)

[eldowan]

@Bridget_Burke

Texan here–where we drink most of our tea iced.

Texan here, Houston as well.
well not all of us drink it mostly iced. I prefer mine freshly steeped, hot.

@Butterscotch

In Italy the tea bags are also all individually wrapped in paper which strikes me as strange but I assume it to be because they don’t use them quickly enough and worry about staleness.

@Omega_Glory

That’s the way Twinings is packaged here in the US, too.

The tea that I get are EG, but they’re packed 4 to a pouch, in a kind of metallic paper wrapper. I assume the metallic interior coating is to prevent the paper taking or giving any taste/smell to the final brewed result.

@BrainGlutton

and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Anyone care to agree or disagree with the bolded part?

I disagree, with qualifications.
I think that if the loose leaf container contraption does not impede the leaves in a significant manner, then it’s probably peachy.
By that I mean that when I use a wire ball or plunger kettle (kinda like a french press, sorta) I allow for enough room for
a) the tea to fully expand without cramping, and
b) add enough water so that the water line is high enough to allow a, when using my kettle w/ integrated plunger hole.

Now, I’m among the unwashed masses, so that may be completely incorrect. But you didn’t ask for fact, you asked for opinion.

[Dangerosa]

@BrainGlutton

Do you have proof they’ve actually changed the recipe?

Twinings Changes Earl Grey Recipe: Tea Lovers Outraged

[BrainGlutton]

Also from that TVTropes page – boy, this stuff is hard to believe! No doubt Brits will be along to tell us it’s all nonsense!

• During World War II, Britain shipped, by weight, more tea to her troops than anything save bullets. Small arms ammunition, that is: the British army got through more tea than artillery shells. By weight. Contemporary soldier Spike Milligan observed that they were damn lucky that Rommel never tried baiting minefields with tea.
◦ Arthur C. Clarke recounted in his autobiography that during WWII, one of his jobs in the civil service was to coordinate the dispersal of tea stockpiles throughout the country, as the government feared civil disorder if the main warehouses were taken out by a chance bombing.
◦ In 1942 the Luftwaffe decided that, deprived of tea, the British Empire would pretty much grind to a halt. They therefore decided to bomb Mincing Lane - center of all British and Imperial tea trading - flat. It worked too. The tea industry was sent into chaos and tea was rationed to two ounces a week - which is very very little. From a morale point of view it was one of the most successful bombing strategies of the war.
◦ On D-Day, the British troops started to make tea on Sword Beach almost as soon as they landed, even though they were still under fire. Later, after the beaches were taken and troops started to move inland, the Americans got upset over reports that the British stopped advancing to make tea, as the plan called for soldiers to advance until nightfall in order to capture as much ground before the expected German counter attack.
◦ Certain early machine guns were water-cooled, and the British discovered that, just like hot water from other sources (imagine!), the water could be used to make tea when you were done with it. In fact, it was so efficient at heating the water (it reached boiling after just a few seconds of sustained fire) that the British were apparently known to fire the guns just to make their tea.
◦ Spike Milligan’s mate Harry Edgington showed bravery under fire in North Africa. A German aircraft strafed their artillery position while Edgington was making a brew. Rather than duck for cover, Edgington took off his steel helmet and used it to protect the precious brewing tea, lest it get shot up…

:rolleyes: I mean, it’s just dried leaves in hot water! It’s not that important! What do you Brits think this stuff is, coffee?!

[Baron_Greenback]

I cannot recall the source, but this

• During World War II, Britain shipped, by weight, more tea to her troops than anything save bullets. Small arms ammunition, that is: the British army got through more tea than artillery shells. By weight. Contemporary soldier Spike Milligan observed that they were damn lucky that Rommel never tried baiting minefields with tea.

reminds of reading somewhere that, at the outset of the war, the UK government tried (and mostly succeeded) in buying the entire world stock of black tea.

[BrainGlutton]

@Dangerosa

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/roundup-nationwide-papers/twinings-changes-earl-grey-recipe-tea-lovers-outragedthe-daily-mail-uk-155011

So, they just changed it this year?

[Broomstick]

Yep, and it’s NOT Earl Grey! Not anymore!

[Candyman74]

I’ve always despised Earl Grey. Disgusting substance.

[Ximenean]

@BrainGlutton

Also from that TVTropes page – boy, this stuff is hard to believe! No doubt Brits will be along to tell us it’s all nonsense!

:rolleyes: I mean, it’s just dried leaves in hot water! It’s not that important! What do you Brits think this stuff is, coffee?!

You shouldn’t take these threads too seriously. I sometimes think that Brits, and those from other tea-drinking countries, enjoy playing up to the mythology of tea drinking as much as they actually like drinking the stuff itself. Truth is, it’s an inoffensive hot beverage whose value lies in its very inoffensiveness. If you’re seeking to break the ice in a slightly awkward social situation, offering someone a cup of tea is a tried-and-tested way of going about it.
The spectacle of people earnestly discussing which strain of tea plant to use, and precisely how to prepare the infusion, is slightly bemusing. Tea is not that kind of drink. You don’t drink it because of its enchanting flavour. You drink it because the ritual of serving it and drinking it gives people something to do.

[BrainGlutton]

Say, if you tried making tea with fresh leaves instead of dried, what would happen?

[Candyman74]

[QUOTE=Ximenean;]
I sometimes think that Brits, and those from other tea-drinking countries, enjoy playing up to the mythology of tea drinking as much as they actually like drinking the stuff itself.
[/quote]

Yet we never bring it up. It’s always Americans. Being members on a messageboard, we often answer American questions about us, since it seems the sociable thing to do. I don’t think any British person has ever felt the need to start a conversation about tea.

The spectacle of people earnestly discussing which strain of tea plant to use, and precisely how to prepare the infusion, is slightly bemusing

Nobody does that. They buy their favourite brand in the weekly shopping and chuck it into a mug a dozen times a day. We don’t talk about it any more than we discuss each others’ walking or breathing techniques.

“Hey, I like to put one foot forward, then put the other one forward! What do you do?”

[BrainGlutton]

Did you know that some prisoners get high on tea?