Tea [S. Worthen | Weblog]

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I've known for a long time that tea was endemic in Britain, staple comfort drink and source of caffeine. I've observed all sorts of instances of this over the years. Nothing, however, had quite prepared me for today's class.

The class began at 1 pm. There were approximately 25 students. Every single last one of them of them had already drunk at least one cup of tea.

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There are 27 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

...well, what did you expect?

*is confused*

About a third of the class is Eastern European. I thought that might have some effect on the numbers.

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Tea is also big in Eastern Europe. Think of all those samovars!

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only one cup by lunchtime? most of my colleagues would be on five or six by then!

*at least* one cup. A minority had drunk more than that.

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I would be on at least one pot by then, possibly two (caffeine is irrelevant; tea doesn't wake me up and I feel no more or less awake without it, I just like it).
I do freely grant that my tea consumption is above the UK average, but I assert it is not greatly above.

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Goodness, is that all?

About a third of them aren't from this country. I thought that might have a bearing on it. Or that there would be one or two people who would be coffee addicts instead.

But no.

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There's a woman I have some classes with who's just moved here from Cali to do a degree and has instantly converted to drinking tea - the thing that changed her mind being electric kettles. She'd never seen one before. I was boggled by this.

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Target and Macy's. 'swhere I got mine.

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Electric kettles are unknown in other parts of the world?!?

Boggleboggleboggle!

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I'm pretty sure electric kettles are not uncommon in Canada and I would guess the Northern US (if nothing else for making stuff like instant hot chocolate and instant coffee).

What's strange to me is that the kettle that keeps a couple of litres of water on boil for you seems ubiquitous in Asia (and among immigrants from there) but the Brits I know boil there water up as needed. My parents are ex-pats and they instantly converted to Asian way of doing things when they discovered it.

Personally I find coffee way to bitter to drink, so I stick to (relatively weak) tea. I also don't go in much for caffeine though, I'm often too lazy to make it and too cheap to buy it or other caffeine sources. In principle you can make tea as strong as coffee by adding more tea bags/leaves, also I just checked different varieties of tea have different caffeine content.

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Huh. They have them readily available in most shops around most college campuses in my experience, in the U.S. because many dorms will allow an electric kettle, but do not allow hot plates, due to the fire hazard.

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Substitute "Starbucks beverage" for "tea" and then you're in my classes. ^-^;;

Every single last one of them without exception?

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Not every time, but it has happened.

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That sounds familiar. I think most people I knew in Britain would have at least one cup of tea by lunch. Although for some I think coffee would have been more likely. Personally, I think tea is one of the greatest things about Britain. I've learned that there really isn't anything more comforting than a nice cup of tea. In fact, I think I'll go make myself a cup right now.

You remind me that it's 1.30 pm and I have not yet had any tea. Must fix, at once!

Let's see ... 6 a.m., my first cuppa is on my desk with me; before PK goes I will have had my morning cup of home-brewed fluffy coffee (this is the only cup of coffee I drink at home each day, for historial reasons ... too lazy to make more)and by 8 a.m. I will be on my second cup of tea. I almost certainly will have had half a dozen cups of tea by lunchtime. Oddly I can cut it out entirely if it is not available, and not suffer, but if it's there ...

Were I on campus, it would be coffee, because most places are incapable of brewing a decent cup of tea.

PK is apparently legendary at work because he makes a cup of tea on the hour, every hour, like a striking clock. He can't work otherwise.

Edited Date: 2009-10-23 05:10 am (UTC)

Aha!

I can cut it out entirely if it is not available, and not suffer, but if it's there ...

Someone else who just likes it and isn't addicted to its caffeine! I can do fine without it but everyone around me at work refuses to believe this and claims I'm in denial about my caffeine addiction. No, tea does not provide me with any caffeination or other stimulation. I just like it.

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Whee, two of us!

I can drink coffee late in the evening and still sleep quite happily; people often don't believe me about that, either. For me, with tea and coffee, it's about the taste and the ritual habit rather than the 'can't physically function with out it'.

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I am not sure about this. I can certainly sleep very well after coffee - but then, if I don't get my two cups I CERTAINLY sleep, so it's a matter of raising my threshold.

That's why I can't do tea in the morning. Just doesn't has enough caffeine to keep me awake.

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And the tea is good, and strong, and not what you get here...

This reminds me that I need to bring milk into work, because I can't drink tea without milk, and this is why I turn to the dismal coffee we make...

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I'm willing to bet that they'd all drunk black tea. (Now I'm tempted to do a more thorough survey next time the class meets!)

I'm just baffled that there were no coffee drinkers in this class. I'd be willing to believe 90% tea consumption and two coffee-or-other-drink people, it's the 100% I'm struggling with!

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Perhaps you should check whether any of them had drunk coffee as well. Quite a few of my colleagues will alternate between.

I find it hard to cope with how little tea the rest of the world drinks...

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I'm willing to bet that they'd all drunk black tea

Almost certainly one of the standard tea-bag "British workman's strong and murky". But black as in "without milk"? Heresy!

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I don't quite get the surprise. Granted, I' expect one or two to be coffee-drinkers instead, but tea is a very routine morning drink for most folks, old and young. In the war it was considered important for morale, even though it had to be imported via convoy in place of foodstuffs offering more actual nutrition.

October