How do you make YOUR perfect cuppa?

[Bren In Pots]

My teas loose leaves from the Co-op, made in a ceramic tea pot and left to brew for 4 minutes.

Not this week though, we've been camping so have had to use teabags, and I can still hear my Gran saying not to use those bags because they're filled with the sweepings ups off the floor.

[NOG]

Yes , milk in first,

When tea was first drunk in England the Rich drank it like the Chineese do (no milk). But the poor started puttin milk in the mug first because of the earthenware mugs. They would shatter if they had boiling water put in the so the milk was added to brop the temp of the water. The sugar was added as a pick me up to give energy when in the factory.

[OllieMartin]

Tea was first referenced in Britain in a London newspaper in 1658 where it was announced as "China Drink, called by the Chinese, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alias Tee'.

Pre-1784 the tax on tea was 119%, as a result around 7 million lbs of tea a year was illegally smuggled into the country, compared with 5 million lbs of legally imported tea.
To make this bootleg tea go further it was often mixed with already brewed leaves and leaves from other plants. This caused the tea to look weaker, so it was mixed with sheep dung or poisonous copper carbonate!

Although tea was originally imported from China, the Britiash East India Company began growing tea in Assam in 1834 and by 1888 Britain imported more tea from India than China.

The tea bag was invented in America in the early 1900s, but was not adopted in Britain until the 1970s. Today there are 165,000,000 cups of tea drunk every day in the UK.

According to the UK Tea Council, "Even now though most tea lovers in Britain have their own rituals - the first cup of the day, the favourite mug, the method of stirring, tea first or milk first - which still illustrate the comfort and peace that can be found in the familiar act of making the perfect cup of tea." (although they do say "Brewing tea from a bag in a mug? milk in last is best")...what do they know?

[NOG]

Oh sorry I didn't say Coffee any time....tea is yuck.......tastes like its been drunk once already.

[SarzWix]

Only major point of disagreement is the snob attitude to sugar...

For me, the sugar thing isn't down to snobbish-ness, tea with sugar in literally makes me gag I can even taste it if my tea is stirred with a spoon which has previously stirred a sugary brew, and it has to go down the sink and start again. Drives the OH mad!

My favourite thing to dunk is a McV's digestive, closely followed by home-made ginger biscuits.... Mmmmmm....

[Lottieval]

Mine is gnats p.... , made in a pot cos I nearly always have more than one mug and Lidl gingernuts to dunk. Mind you I have a friend who has a cup of tea that's never seen a t-bag - i.e. hot water, and for coffee she only has three grains coffee maximum!

[Bren In Pots]

F I can even taste it if my tea is stirred with a spoon which has previously stirred a sugary brew, and it has to go down the sink and start again. Drives the OH mad!

I'm showing your post to DH so he can see that its not only me who thinks their tea is spoilt by a few grains of sugar.

[maytreefrannie]

I've just remembered...my grandpa used to pour a bit in his saucer and rest it on top of his cup for a few minutes to cool down!( I wonder what all that was about????) ..I've seen other peeps do that many years ago!

I remember when I was a child, adults very often did this - don't see it now. Mind you, you hardly ever see saucers now!

Anyway, this thread makes me thirsty, I'm off to brew a perfect cup of tea.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I HAVE to dunk. I can't have a cuppa without a biscuit. I'll often destroy an entire packet on one cup! The end of the mug os like soup!

I've attempted 'dunking' my Victoria Sponge this morning...it didn't work

[OllieMartin]

I've attempted 'dunking' my Victoria Sponge this morning...it didn't work

Oh I'll ofetn dunk cake. I'm so addicted to dunking, if I don't have any biscuits I'll dunk cake, crips, I've even dunked a poppdom!

But with God's help I'll conquer this terrible affliction!

[SarzWix]

I'm showing your post to DH so he can see that its not only me who thinks their tea is spoilt by a few grains of sugar.

Nice to meet a fellow... sufferer? perfectionist? I'm not sure what the word is, but I'm sure we're right

[ginger ninger]

I only drink Earl Gray, it has to be boiling water on top of teabag...teabag plopped in and out 3,4 times ,squeezed, NO sugar, No milk and in a nice china mug....and a digestive to dunk in it....heaven
Then when teabag is cold, rip open and recycle the leaves on the compost heap

[finefencer]

Heathens
A measured amount of tea LEAVES to a pot...warm the pot...add the leaves...pour over boiling water...fit teacossy...leave stand...your chosen cup, add milk and pour...and a digestive goes down well with it too...haha

[ginger ninger]

I'm not a heathen (she sniffles into her tea)..... Us digestive munshers need to stick together...haha..we're a dying breed

[indigox]

LMAO This is how my dad drinks his - murky dishwater I call it! Even worse, my friend Janet does this with an Earl Grey tea-bag, and then adds loads of full-fat milk Bleeuurgh!

Is your friend Janet my Mum?
She drink tea exactly this way. And she's called Janet.