When it’s a little less than this, my mother and grandmother would call it “curate’s tea” or “vicar’s tea” because of the white collar in the mug, and pass it back for us kids to sort it out.
Who comments on other’s liquid level in a mug?
Can confirm. Btw, this is bean tea.
Brits talk about everything rounds to the nearest 10 in metric and then use 1.5cm for asinine shit.
Would you prefer 15mm or 0.5906"
This reminded me of the worst thing about getting tea at a cafe, which is that if you ask for a splash of milk with your breakfast or earl grey tea they bring out a jug with an entire udder’s worth of milk, which then sits there turning sour. I suppose they must have once had a customer who wanted some tea with their milk.
TIL that people get ragged on for not having enough tea in their cup.
_Well, well, look at ol two sips over ere. Twice as many cups as the rest of us today. Looks like the tide’s all the way out on this one. _
A fundamental law of the universe is Brits will take the piss out of anyone for any reason. It is a sign of affection, and also a sign of intense dislike.
“Are you feeling a bit pessimistic?”
“Pessimistic?!?”
"Your cup’s half empty :) "
You underestimate my power to spill
I never fill a mug without 3 cm of clearance
You leave enough room so that the marshmallows don’t cause it to overflow. 🤷♂️
Please do not introduce fun to our national drink. Thank you.
Hot Toddy is pretty fun
How about whipped cream?
Unfortunately, I’m afraid we’d have to categorise that as fun.
Also, you’re now banned from the British Isles, and all of Her Majesty’s overseas territories
TIL Brits put a little tea in their milk
They also just drink “tea” and don’t conceptualize the different kinds thereof. English Breakfast vs Earl Gray vs an Oolong and all the aromatic teas… AFAIK they traditionally just drink English Breakfast black tea, which is why the Lipton yellow bags aren’t even labelled.
The more I learn about British tea culture the more confusing it gets. Drinking unlabeled black tea in a bag is disgusting bottom-of-the-barrel type stuff. No wonder they drown it in milk.
As someone with 2 cupboards full of different teas, herbs and infusions, I’m almost offended when guests reply “just regular tea?”, like there only is the one.
Not everyone likes a ton of milk though, people often prefer but a ‘splash’.On the other hand, I do also buy 600 x breakfast tea bags pack…
It’s the tannins in british tea that help it mix with the milk. All those black teas you get in europe and asia just turn milk into a swirly mess.
British tea is legitimately its own thing
The color of my mug after a (admittedly high-end) black tea leads me to believe it’s not lacking in tannins. I’ve not tried to put milk in it since I was a kid at my grandparents’ who always had some good teas as well.
My understanding is that the “default” British tea is English Breakfast tea. Which is not a bad tea at all, but it’s not “special”, it’s unflavored black tea. I don’t refute that the tea culture is unique over there but I don’t think it has much to do with the leaves themselves which famously don’t even grow in England lol
Of course, but the type that we import tends to be of the high tannin Assamica variety from China/Sri Lanka, whereas the european varieties tends to be lighter and more aromatic as you say, making it harder for the milk to bind
Since we don’t have a tea culture I don’t know that it’s possible to generalize European tea in any way. Feels like half the time when I ask for tea someone pulls out a box with a bunch of aromatic leaves but literally not a single tea leaf (not exaggerating, I’ve had to drink some herbal mix because I didn’t want to be impolite). If they do have some actual tea, it’s either litpon yellow (tasteless and inoffensive) or English Breakfast/Earl Gray (actual proper tea that I suppose you could mix milk in just fine).
Habitual tea drinkers such as myself do have the good stuff though, aromatic or not, and we don’t put milk in it. That behavior eludes me, if you don’t like the taste but want caffeine just drink coffee and milk, and if you do like the taste why dilute it with some hyper-caloric stuff? I posit that’s what makes British tea culture, y’all put milk in your black tea because you don’t like the strong taste but still you drink it for cultural reasons.
It tastes good though! It’s a hot morning broth almost.
When I was living abroad, I genuinely missed having a nice creamy tea to tide me over. Tea instead became this meditation thing I now had to “sip” whilst inhaling the steam. That’s an alien thing in of itself!
This whole conversation is making me feel just a little bit lighter about the fascism going down in my country.
Yeah, first they make it super strong by just leaving the bags in. Then they add milk because it’s too strong.
I love them anyway
Then they discuss how many centimeters from the rim it should be to avoid the real problem going on in their heads.
There’s 2 tea cultures in the UK. Upper class is straight, perhaps with a little lemon and honey, in quite delicate teas. Working class is strong tea with milk and sugar.
Milk was originally to stop factory tea from cracking cheap cups. It’s now just a cultural thing, normal teas taste weird without milk.
TIL I’m upper class
*pours milk and shoves soggy biscuits through your letterbox*
That’ll teach ya
Unless you can trace your ancestry back 5-10 generations, along with enough peerages and titles to matter, you are at best middle class. At least according to the old fashioned mindset.
As a fellow tea snob, I salute you. 👍
I will have it filled to the tipitop and spill some on my way to the computer thankyouverymuch
I remember being bullied about some weird random things growing up, but are people really out there talking smack about the not-quite-fullness of your cup of tea?
Feels like the pettiness is the bit
Gonna be real, if someone is petty enough to comment on how much tea is in my mug I’m never talking to them again
My first thought was that that looks only like 1cm, but with the tape measure there I’m going to have to conclude that the mug is GIANT
When my wife makes me a brew, she only fills it to 3/4. Now I just decline her offers and make them myself. What’s crazy is that she’ll fill her cup to the normal amount; and I’m not known for spilling my drinks.
Aww has the tide gone out? Or something?
Ah the old, “make it consistently bad to discourage them from asking” gambit
That’s illegal.
What’s crazy is that she’ll fill her cup to the normal amount; and I’m not known for spilling my drinks.
This is an outrage. You’re getting the dregs of the kettle, pal. She’s misjudging the amount of water to put in for 2 mugs and pours hers first. I’d bet money on it.
Oh 100%. But she also doesn’t see the problem with it being so low and thinks I’m fussy!
Madness. Absolute madness. Sorry for your troubles.
You clearly cannot be trusted with the power of a full mug of tea.
Which is wild as the sofa is riddled with evidence of her tea & coffee mishaps!
Classic projection. From one of you, at least.
I fill it to the absolute brim and just walk slowly from the kitchen to my living room.
