Tea

1. Let´s learn to have tea like the British do

2. Tea is so much a part of everyday life in
Britain but it comes from faraway China
There are various legends
surrounding the origins of tea.
Perhaps the most famous is the
Chinese story of Shen Nung, the
emperor and renowned
herbalist, who was boiling his
drinking water when leaves from
a nearby tea shrub blew into the
cauldron. He tasted the resulting
brew, and the beverage of tea
was born.

3. How tea came into English
social life
In 1662 Charles II
married the Duchess
of Braganza, a
Portuguese who
brought into England
the social habit of
drinking tea with her
noble lady
companions. She
became the first tea-drinking
queen.

4. The origin of tea time
In 1880 Ann the Duchess of
Bedford complained of
feeling hungry at about 4 o
´clock in the afternoon; so
she asked her servant to
bring her a tray of tea bread
and butter. Later on she
started to invite her friends
to join her for tea, so it
became an upper-class
social event. She was a
lady in waiting to Queen
Victoria who started having
her own Royal tea parties

5. Tea in Britain nowadays
Britain is a tea-drinking nation.
A cup of tea is a vital part of
everyday life for the majority of
people in modern Britain. The
United Kingdom drinks about
165 million cups of tea a day,
that is 62 billion cups per year.
Each year around 144
thousand tons of tea are
imported mostly from India.

6. The traditional way of making tea is:
 Pick up your tea (tea leaves or
tea bags)
 Boil some fresh cold water (use
an electric kettle)
 Put some hot water into the
teapot to make it warm and the
pout it out.
 Add the tea and then pour boiling
water over it. Remember to put
one teaspoon of tea-leaves per
person, plus one extra tea-spoon,
into the pot.
 Stir gently and leave it to brew for
2 to 4 minutes.
 Keep it warm with a tea cosy and
serve using a strainer.

7. Adding milk into the tea
 The tradition actually originates in France
around 1680. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, a
French writer, talks about adding milk to her
tea in her letters.
 Milk is only added to strong teas where the
flavour of the tea can be tasted through the
milk.
 By adding the milk afterwards, it is easier to
dissolve sugar in the tea and also to ensure
that the desired amount of milk is added, as the
colour of the tea can be observed.
 But some people add milk to their china cup
first to make sure that the boiling tea from the
pot does not crack their cup.
Milk not lemon
Why?

8. Why Do the
British Like
Tea So Much?
They drink tea
because it’s a social
habit.
 Bur it’s also a mildly
addictive as tea contains
caffeine.
 Tea is also good for
your health as it has
antioxidants and it is
used to recover from a
shock or when you feel a
bit under the weather.

9. Tea Words and Phrases
• Tea break, High tea, tea time, tea party, tea
towel, teaspoon and many more terms have
derived from the tradition of drinking tea.
• Tea breaks are when tea and biscuits are served.
The traditional time for tea breaks are at 11:00
am (Elevensee) and 4 pm in the afternoon.
• If something is not quite to your taste, it’s
probably 'not your cup of tea'.
e.g. Jogging is not my cup of tea.

10. Did you know…?
• If someone asks you if you
'would like a cuppa', they
are asking if you would like
a cup of tea.
• If someone says 'let me be
mother' or 'shall I be
mother', they are offering
to pour out the tea from
the teapot.

11. Thanks for listening
And please join me for a
traditional cream tea!
Nicola Williams