It has always struck me as curious that the chosen hot beverage of most of Europe is coffee, while that of the UK is tea. We drink around 165 million cups of tea per day (and that does not include the millions of Brits who live overseas). Tea is drunk any time of day, sometimes all day. There is a 1920's song which goes:
I like a nice cup of tea in the morning
For to start the day you see
And at half-past eleven
Well my idea of Heaven
Is a nice cup of tea
I like a nice cup of tea with my dinner
And a nice cup of tea with my tea
And when it's time for bed
There's a lot to be said
For a nice cup of tea
In line seven of this song the word “tea” describes two things. Firstly, the beverage, and secondly the evening meal. There are several variations on “tea” as a meal. Best known is “Afternoon Tea” which is a light meal of tea, cakes and small sandwiches taken between 4.30 and 5.00pm. (equivalent to the Spanish merienda) Some people prefer “High Tea”, which is similar, but with the addition of cold meats. It is eaten later, around 6.00pm. It is called “High” because it is eaten at the high dining room table rather at the low lounge table. Use of the word “tea” to describe the evening meal (cena) is common in northern England and Wales.
Tea as a drink was actually popular in France and Holland before it became popular in England. It was introduced to the English court in the 17C by the Portuguese princess, Catherine de Braganza, consort of King Charles II of England. Gradually, tea replaced ale as the country's traditional drink. Tea trade with India and China helped to make the British East India Company (1600-1874) into probably the most powerful multinational corporation in world history.
Tea is now drunk by people in all strata of society, from the Queen in her palace with her fine bone china cups, to the manual labourer with his big, heavy mug and powerfully strong tea. The Irish Navvies, (immigrants whose physical labour built much of the English infrastructure during the 19th Century) insisted that their tea should be “strong enough for a mouse to trot (walk) on”.
A “Tea Break” is a commonly used term for the legal right of workers to take a short breaks during the working day. If you visit a British home, your hosts will be likely to go and “put the kettle on” in order to brew a pot of tea, though these days they might ask you if you would prefer coffee. Beware of the coffee. It will most likely be instant coffee. If it is made with milk, it will be cold milk and have a taste similar to that of washing-up water.
For a woman, one of the advantages of being married to a Brit is that each morning he will wake you from your slumber with a nice cup of tea, sometimes accompanied by a digestive biscuit. (Mind you, the only other time the average Brit husband goes to the kitchen is to do the washing up). Still, if he is well brought-up he will know how to make a good “cuppa” (pronounced kapa) – short for “cup of (tea).”
Ninety per cent of the tea drunk in the UK is consumed at home. People rarely drink tea in a bar or restaurant, though there are some popular, rather expensive “Tea Houses” such as the “Bettys Tea Rooms” in Yorkshire (Northern England) where you can enjoy afternoon tea and cakes served in the traditional style, such as seen in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple on TV.
The perfect cup of tea should be made in a tea pot. First, warm the pot with a little hot water, then empty it. Add one spoon of tea (or one tea bag) per person to the pot and pour on freshly boiling water. Never use re-boiled water because boiling removes the oxygen and gives a metallic taste to the water. Brew for three to five minutes. Pour a little milk into a teacup, then pour in the tea. Note that the milk always goes into the cup first.
Tea drinking has profound effects in unexpected places. The engineer in the control room of the UK National Power grid has a television tuned to the BBC. Several times a week he intently watches “Eastenders” a popular long running drama about the day-to-day lives of ordinary Londoners. He is not doing this for entertainment, but to see the exact moment when the broadcast ends. At this moment he acts frantically, throwing switches to feed extra electricity into the grid, bringing power from France and starting up hydroelectric power stations. This is to meet the sudden demand created by the simultaneous switching on of electric kettles in millions of households across the UK as everyone gets up to make a nice cup of tea. This is apparently a uniquely British phenomenon.
by Chris Betterton Jones
