Tea the British Way! British Tea Slang.

I'm British, so I think I know a thing or two about making a decent cup of tea.

1. Boil the kettle. Experts say you shouldn't use boiling water - let it cool down a little first. However, I'm usually in a rush so I use boiling water.
2. Pour onto the teabag. Let it brew. This means waiting a bit for the tea leaves to infuse in the water. This usually takes about 3 minutes. Again, I'm often in a rush, so usually I just brew for a minute or two.
3. Add milk. If you put the milk in first, the tea leaves won't infuse properly in the water, so always add it last!

Do you know any special British slang words for tea? When we ask someone if they want a cup of tea, we usually say "Do you want a cuppa?" or "Do you want a brew?" When we make a toast with a drink, we say "Cheers", but another British phrase is to say "Chin chin!" This is a bit old-fashioned, though. If you're serving cups of tea from a teapot, you can say "Shall I be Mother?" which means "Shall I be the person who pours the tea?" This phrase is old-fashioned, too! Another old-fashioned thing to say is "Will you take some more tea?" rather than asking "Will you have some more tea?"

There are lots of wonderful quotes about tea, too, particularly from authors. Here are some of my favourites:

“Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.”
— Alice Walker

“A woman is like a teabag — you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt

“Tea should be taken in solitude.”
– C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

“Tea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties.”
– Confucius

What's you're favourite tea quote or tea slang? If you want to talk more about tea and British culture, book a conversation class with me, and we can chat about it over a cuppa!

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日本語	不便を感じない
中国語	日常会話程度
スウェーデン語	カタコト

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