Talk:Tea in the United Kingdom

==Tea leaves OR dust from a ripped open bag?==

This seems very odd. How could mere dust from a ripped open bag be an alternative to tea leaves? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.166.31.159 (talk) 05:05, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Why with milk?

Does anybody know why did British started to drink their tea with milk? It tastes awful (to me at least), so i'm wondering what was the initial reason to serve tea like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.134.160.232 (talk) 20:07, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

• It's just a matter of opinion. You may think it tastes awful, but I'm almost certain that the grand majority of British tea drinkers prefer their tea with milk. In my case, milk is added for taste, plus to make the tea a little less bitter then it is straight from the pot. I'm not sure if that's the main reason milk is added to tea, but it makes sense. It also matters how much milk you put in of course. Kiyoshi Yamokani (talk) 22:23, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

How it tastes depends very much on the type of tea. I wonder if the use of milk followed from the availability of cheap blended black teas with a high tannin content. Adding milk helps to reduce the astringency of this type of tea, producing a flavour that many people prefer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.176.171.107 (talk) 15:36, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Milk in First

As far as I can determine, the idea of milk going in first so as not to risk damaging the cup with the hot tea is an urban myth. I've added a note; if no-one can come up with one then I'm going to remove that claim. MarkSG (talk) 20:06, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

• Deleted section on poor peoples' cups cracking if hot water was added before milk. For one thing, a rich person's thin china is more liable to thermal shock than a thicker cup. Also, every reference I actually encountered said that that adding milk first was the upper class thing contradicting the claims that milk first was lower class. George Orwell apparently opined [1] that milk should go in second on purely pragmatic grounds of getting the right amount of milk in the cup. Merry Christmas. Waerloeg (talk) 03:29, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Per Capita Consumption

This page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consumption_per_capita#cite_ref-euromonitor_0-0 appears to state the UK as the largest per capita consumer of tea in the world, rather than second largest. Obviously, one of the pages is wrong, I do not know which... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.241.20.194 (talk) 16:12, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, the article referenced by this one, footnote 1 as I type this, dates to 2003, and it would be good to get a more up-to-date one - especially since said article suggests that India may take second place from Britain "by 2004". Has it? If so, our article is wrong. If not, we need a better reference piece. 86.154.8.126 (talk) 17:27, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Citation Needed In Intro

I know that here on Wikipedia we like to get things done professionally and with full references, but as a Brit, I can confirm that tea breaks ARE considered an essential part of the day for the vast majority of the public. I'm not going to bother looking for a website that confirms that, but I suggest the suggestion of a citation is removed, because any British person can confirm what is said on the page, and what I'm saying here. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BlueVane (talk • contribs) 15:06, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

One more question conserning milk: Why is milk added AFTER tea is poured into the cup and not before? Or is both accepted? It tastes much more better. Has anybody ever tried? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.192.136.175 (talk) 17:46, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Stewed tea

Removed the "allow to brew for several minutes". Do not believe people do this, as it results in bitter "stewed tea". Usually the tea is drunk almost immediately after the water is poured on the leaves. 92.29.125.34 (talk) 21:05, 19 November 2010 (UTC)