Jason Preston
Writing

How To: Make a proper cup of tea

Jason Preston · 2 min read ·

I’m fairly American. Until a few months ago, when someone asked “do you want tea?” my response would have been “what kind?”

This is not the right response. Tea is tea. Tea, in this case, is English breakfast tea (black tea), and there are also improper ways to make it.

This was all news to me when I got to Brighton in September. After one first, disastrous embarrassment of an attempt at making a cup of tea myself, I decided to sit back and watch all the British people do their thing for a few months.

So now I’m going to break the process down to the most simple rules which will, theoretically, help any crass American break the tea-barrier in any situation:

  1. Use British tea, like Tetley.You can find it in grocery stores.

  2. BOIL the water. Boil it first, and use a kettle, not a microwave.

  3. When you pour the water into a mug, make sure the teabag is already in there. For some reason, it tastes better this way (true).

  4. Add milk. This also makes the tea taste better. If you really want to sweeten it, add some sugar.

Simple? You bet. Taste good? Absolutely.

As far as I can tell, this is more or less the daily layman’s tea ritual in England. There are all sorts of fantabulous methods that are also, apparently, part of the tea-making thing, but this is what I saw day after day.

If you want to serve tea in tea-time style, I’d recommend using Douglas Adams’ Method, which uses Earl Grey instead of regular breakfast tea:

Boil a kettle of water. While it is coming to the boil, open the sealet packet [of tea] and sniff. Careful---you may feel a bit dizzy, but this is in fact perfectly legal. When the ketle has boiled, pour a little of it into a teapot,swirl it around, and tip it out again. Put a couple (or three, depending on the size of the pot) of tea bags into the pot…Bring the kettle back up to the boil, and then pour the boiling water as quickly as you can into the pot. Let it stand for two or three minutes, and then pour it into a cup…if you think you will like it with milk, then it’s probably best to put some milk into the bottom of the cup before you pour in the tea.

- Tea, The Salmon of Doubt

However you make your tea, I suggest drinking it to a background of a crisp winter evening, or in any other situation whatsoever.