General Chat

I'm surprised at this....

It seems the English need lessons on how to make tea! :-0 :-0 :-D

http://food.ninemsn.com.au/news/8958684/english-remind-english-how-to-make-tea

The Scots, Irish & Welsh must know how to make it :-D ;-)

:-D

Waiting for the tea lovers to post lol

Old standards have gone by the board since tea bags came into being.
Most people these days put a tea bag in a mug and let it stand for however long they want it to brew and throw tea bag away.

Cups and saucers have been relegated to the back of the cupboard...unless you have a tea party,then the best china comes out.
I like a thin china mug and not the thick pottery ones,but then I'm old fashioned.

I must say that having been in Oz they like various varieties of tea,but tend to make it very weak..have had a few sessions with the full set of teapot,cups and saucers,!

unless you go to a posh hotel or restaurant in the UK.you don't get the same service that we had 20/30 years ago.
:-( :-(

I don't like tea (except for chrysanthemum tea, DH calls it perfume). Just the tea, nothing added.

He drinks tea very strong (builders' tea :-D) with lots of milk & sugar, and it's made in a pot. Doesn't appeal to me at all.

I have a fancy tea set that was my Mother's, lovely roses on it........ in the cupboard, and I've never used it.

:-)

I have 2 china tea sets.one was. Wedding present from my gran,and the other is a beautiful set that was a wedding present from my mothers MIL in 1931

.I really love that one,but it came out about 2 years ago when my friends 95 yr old mother came and I made scones and a nice afternoon tea.

I like some fruit teas but still prefer English breakfast tea...milk ,no sugar.
I drink more tea than coffee.

Read the instructions. My response? Good Grief!

They've failed to take into account one VERY important factor.
The type of water :-0
Having lived in the Shetlands (very soft, peaty water) and now living in Hampshire (very hard, chalky water) the process for making the 'perfect' cuppa is totally different!!!

I agree Maggie...I lived in the north then when I moved to London I could not stand the scum and taste you got on tea...bought a filter which did improve it.

So many people say they don't like tea and neither do I if it is made with a tea- bag.

I always use loose tea and a china pot which I warm.

The pot needs to be kept clean, as do the strainers. Steradent does that very well, as does Brobat!

Our mate in Namibia didn't like tea until we made him a proper pot.

When I was working and doing a hall test we would make a cup of tea for the respondents if they wanted one and I was told by a man that I made the best cup of tea he had ever had in Kingston! Although we only had mugs and tea- bags, I had warmed the mug and used freshly boiled water like I would have done with a pot.

I drank tea when I was a child (in my parents house you ate and drank what was put in front of you, or you went without). Tea was "typically Scottish"....... very milky and two sugars. I stopped drinking tea after I started work, and bought my own coffee, much to my father's disgust.

I think what really finalised my dislike was the office tea........ in the days of a Tea Lady with a trolley..... two big urns, one full of tea the other with hot water. I would wait until everyone else got their drinks, then add hot water to my coffee, and stir it with my own spoon. That office tea smelled horrible.

I used to prefer tea over coffee but have gone right off it in recent years. Agree with Sharron that teabags just don't hit the spot - always find there's a sort of 'under taste'. I've tried china and stainless steel teapots but nothing seems to taste right. Perhaps it's our water? Recently had a water softener installed, mainly to reduce limescale on washing machine, shower etc. but it's not that nice to drink - we have kept a mains tap in the utility for drinking. Perhaps filtering it would help? I use teabags out of laziness so maybe it's time for a change...

Been away all day (all night, to most of you) - so sorry for the delay.

About 55 years ago I went to live on my own. I had a perforated metal 'acorn' and the cap, attached to a 'twig, was unscrewed, tealeaves inserted into the body, and duncked in to a cup of hot water. One of the early teabags?
I stopped having milk because I didn't have a fridge. Took a long time to stop the sugar.
B

Those type of things are still available.

I bought a funny one for mum-in-law....... a duck.... the duck's underside came off, fill the cavity with tea leaves, put the underside (with holes in it) back on, and drop it into a cup of hot water........ it bobbed about for a while. MIL said it was fun, but made very weak tea.

Yeah LS,
That's what ducks do to lakes too.
B

It was rumoured that when I was in the army, bromide was put in our tea to supress our sexual appetites. I think it has just started to work on me. Bob

lol Bob

I think there was something in public service tea that made lots of people fall asleep in the afternoon.

:-D

...from my experience in Portsmouth Dockyard circa 1973, what made 'higher ranks' in the civilian branch fall asleep in the afternoon was gin. :-D

...so I changed their filing system.... :-D :-D :-D :-D