How do you make tea?

[northepaul]

We buy good quality tea bags - usually whats on offer, Sainsburys Red label, PG, Typhoo and (my particular favourite) Tetley.

I dont buy Twinings out of principle, the same as I no longer purchase Cadbury's items. I know it probably makes no difference to them, but at least I can show my solidarity.

How we make it....plonk a tea bag in a mug, pour on boiling water, add sweetener, stir and dunk for a little while, remove tea bag put in compost bin, add skimmed milk (goats)
I dont like creamy milk, and I like strong tea. OH is the same without the sweetner.

[Rhona]

Morning; five large pinches of loose Earl Grey in a stoneware teapot, boiling water. Drink black, no sugar, plain china mug. I don't like milk much anyway, but think it's horrid in tea!

Afternoon; don't often drink tea after 11.00 a.m. but if I do, Lapsang Souchong or green tea, made as above, but in daintier cup.

I occasionally squeeze lemon juice in, during the summer, if I'm feeling racy.

[Two_Sheds]

I used to drink Earl Grey with milk, but since I gave up milk 6 months (?) ago, I can't stand tea any more Black or white

I do like a herbal though: one or two rosehip bags in a mug, leave bag in while drinking

[StephenH]

Why would bone china crack when adding hot liquid to cold? Surely it would crack when adding hot liquid to the cup without the milk?

I think that's what s/he meant! You add milk first, then pour the tea slowly into the milk, to prevent the china warming up too quickly and cracking. That is why it's considered common (or used to be) to add the milk last: the working classes could do that, because they used plain earthenware cups, which were much more robust. The advantage of adding milk last is that it's easier to gauge exactly how much to add. However, I've spent all my adult life, and I'm 59, putting the milk in first, so I'm not likely to change now.

[StephenH]

It was the old 'upstairs downstairs' thing.

If you were 'upstairs' you poured the hot tea into the cups, and added the milk. The cups were bone china and completely heat resistant.

If you were 'downstairs' the cups were made of pot, and if you poured the hot tea into them they would craze, therefore milk in first.

It may well be an urban myth, but it is an explanation.

valmarg

I think you've got that the wrong way round - see my previous post.

[Jeanied]

I'd heard the milk in first argument as well - stemming from a time when the china cups were expensive imported wares which all seemed much too delicate to withstand thermal shock. It wasn't till they perfected firing high temperature porcelain in this country that people realised that this was not the case.
Low firing temperature earthenware - for the 'below stairs' cups - was softer and more easily cracked. Again supporting the MIF case!
Personally I drink coffee...

[zazen999]

I think that's what s/he meant! You add milk first, then pour the tea slowly into the milk, to prevent the china warming up too quickly and cracking. That is why it's considered common (or used to be) to add the milk last: the working classes could do that, because they used plain earthenware cups, which were much more robust. The advantage of adding milk last is that it's easier to gauge exactly how much to add. However, I've spent all my adult life, and I'm 59, putting the milk in first, so I'm not likely to change now.

Yeah - I know that.....

I know that pouring hot liquid into a cold cup might be considered to crack it.

However; I wasn't questioning that. I was questioning the reasoning that bone china would crack when you added hot water to cold milk; which wouldn't happen.

I personally add my milk in first as I don't like strong tea and like to see the colour with the milk otherwise it is too strong and bleugh.

[FionaH]

How do I make tea? Under sufferance, can't stand the stuff

[SarzWix]

I plonk a teabag in a cup, pour still boiling water over it, slosh it around with a teaspoon til it looks brown, take it out and dump it on the side of the sink (just above the bin), pour milk in it, and forget to put the lid back on the tea bag cannister and the milk.

[FionaH]

I plonk a teabag in a cup, pour still boiling water over it, slosh it around with a teaspoon til it looks brown, take it out and dump it on the side of the sink (just above the bin), pour milk in it, and forget to put the lid back on the tea bag cannister and the milk.

You mucky mare

[di]

Apparently not very well
If I have to then it's boiling water on top of a teabag,give a stir and add some milk.(takes far too long to brew with milk first)

[Hilary B]

EITHER a teabag in a mug, boiling water direct onto teabag, stir/squeeze until strong enough, remove Tbag before adding milk, sweetening whenever seems like a good idea,
OR tea (bag or otherwise) in warmed teapot, add boiling water, milk in cup first, strainer if not using teabags, sugar/sweetener when required.
I always had the impression that 'milk last/milk first' was a North/South divide, although the 'milk last' approach seems to have been adopted by some people to allow for strength of brew (I add extra SUGAR to strong tea, rather than extra milk, it's usually strong because it is the 'second cup' from the pot, so it is cooling a bit by then and too much milk will just make it cold).

[lindyloo]

pour a bit of boiling water into cup or pot, swill it round to heat the cup or pot up. tip it out, then either put the t bag into cup, and pour in water, take out when ready and then add milk, or, if i make it in the pot; after tipping out water which i warmed the pot with, i add a spoon of tea for each person, plus one for the pot, cover and let steep for a few minutes. put milk into cups, and then add the tea, which i add a small amount into all the cups, then go round to top up cups so everyone has uniform strength tea

[DarkCrow]

Oi missus make me some tea! tea is that swelling you get when you get slapped isn't it? if so thats how i make it

[Hilary B]

OH had a thought about the 'milk first' idea.
"Above Stairs" the tea would be poured all at one time, so whether the milk went in first or last was pretty irrelevant, but maybe 'milk last' was traditional (maybe originally milk wasn't used at all).
"Below stairs" someone might make the tea for everyone, and maybe even put milk in the cups/mugs, but perhaps leave the pot on the side of the range to keep it hot, until people had time to pour their own tea and drink it....