UK: Put the Kettle On????
Mar 27th, 2013, 11:49 AM
#269
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wow - this English if not British fascination with tea simply boggles my mind.
Coronation Street folks are generally loutish scumbags but even the toughest folks on The Street alwayws say "I'll put the kettle on" as a response to any problem - say some serious discussion about some problem - it's always "I'll put the kettle on and everything will be all right!"
Even the hippest of younger folk on The Street - even these types who should be chugging Red Bull energy drinks say 'I'll put the kettle on' - that is one thing that shocks me - younger hip folk would still routinely sip tea.
But the whole meticulous cumbersome way of making tea - steeping it and all just seems way overblown - heck a bag with good tea in it and boiling water is all you need - no need to be a rocket scientist to make a good cup of tea - yet Brits when crossing the pond inevitably clamor that 'we couldn't find a decent cup of tea!
Meanwhile scuse me I gotta go put the kettle on!
Coronation Street folks are generally loutish scumbags but even the toughest folks on The Street alwayws say "I'll put the kettle on" as a response to any problem - say some serious discussion about some problem - it's always "I'll put the kettle on and everything will be all right!"
Even the hippest of younger folk on The Street - even these types who should be chugging Red Bull energy drinks say 'I'll put the kettle on' - that is one thing that shocks me - younger hip folk would still routinely sip tea.
But the whole meticulous cumbersome way of making tea - steeping it and all just seems way overblown - heck a bag with good tea in it and boiling water is all you need - no need to be a rocket scientist to make a good cup of tea - yet Brits when crossing the pond inevitably clamor that 'we couldn't find a decent cup of tea!
Meanwhile scuse me I gotta go put the kettle on!
Mar 27th, 2013, 12:26 PM
#270
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"Brits when crossing the pond inevitably clamor that 'we couldn't find a decent cup of tea!"
Possibly because Americans don't understand boiling water. (It's tea, bagged or loose, boiling water and the water added as it's boiling that's all you need)
Or because Americans have a thing about using wimpy, poncified, tasteless tea in the first place (tea in the US being what only wimpy, poncified, taste-obsessed East Coast commies snobs and tourists drink).
Or because their milk's disgusting (nothing personal. Every other country's milk is horrible, for 99% of Britons tea needs a dash of coolish milk and if it's foreign muck, the tea's undrinkable. FWIW, US milk is closer to palatable than the muck the Frogs. Krauts and other Euros use0
Or because it's foreign (the only places it's possible to get decent tea outside Britain is Ireland, Australia, NZ and one's own Dordogne or Tuscan villa with the boxes of Sainsbury's one's brought back. DEFINITELY not China or India, where the tea's barbarian)
Incidentally: "You'll have had your tea?" has nothing to do with the beverage. It's Scotch for "you've turned up at a time hospitality requires me to feed you ("tea" as in "high tea"). But I'm Scotch, so I'm not going to"
Possibly because Americans don't understand boiling water. (It's tea, bagged or loose, boiling water and the water added as it's boiling that's all you need)
Or because Americans have a thing about using wimpy, poncified, tasteless tea in the first place (tea in the US being what only wimpy, poncified, taste-obsessed East Coast commies snobs and tourists drink).
Or because their milk's disgusting (nothing personal. Every other country's milk is horrible, for 99% of Britons tea needs a dash of coolish milk and if it's foreign muck, the tea's undrinkable. FWIW, US milk is closer to palatable than the muck the Frogs. Krauts and other Euros use0
Or because it's foreign (the only places it's possible to get decent tea outside Britain is Ireland, Australia, NZ and one's own Dordogne or Tuscan villa with the boxes of Sainsbury's one's brought back. DEFINITELY not China or India, where the tea's barbarian)
Incidentally: "You'll have had your tea?" has nothing to do with the beverage. It's Scotch for "you've turned up at a time hospitality requires me to feed you ("tea" as in "high tea"). But I'm Scotch, so I'm not going to"
Nov 4th, 2014, 12:14 PM
#271
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I'm addicted to Coronation Street and on there everyone says put the kettle on all the time "I;ll put the kettle on" anytime there is a discussion.
And even kids take tea - do young kids really drink tea that much at tea time?
Has there been any move from tea to say coffee?
does everyone in the U.K. drink tea at tea time or anytime all the time?
Curious as to if anything has changed with this thread started in 2005?
And even kids take tea - do young kids really drink tea that much at tea time?
Has there been any move from tea to say coffee?
does everyone in the U.K. drink tea at tea time or anytime all the time?
Curious as to if anything has changed with this thread started in 2005?
Nov 4th, 2014, 12:30 PM
#272
Pal - I can drink tea at any time of the day or night, though I prefer coffee after a meal - in fact I'm drinking a cup of coffee now.
wickedly we introduced DD to tea at about the age of 1 when she started drinking from a cup and she's drunk it ever since; when we tried to introduce DS to it at about the same age, he spat it out and hasn't drunk either tea of coffee since. [he's 23].
so whether kids drink tea is just a matter of taste - a bit like adults really.
wickedly we introduced DD to tea at about the age of 1 when she started drinking from a cup and she's drunk it ever since; when we tried to introduce DS to it at about the same age, he spat it out and hasn't drunk either tea of coffee since. [he's 23].
so whether kids drink tea is just a matter of taste - a bit like adults really.
Nov 4th, 2014, 01:12 PM
#275
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I've been researching antique hob grates and those seem wonderful to heat a kettle on. Does anyone have a replica in their fireplace?
I bought an electric kettle after a trip to England but tea just doesn't seem as soothing to me here, even in frigid Chicago, without that particular damp-chill I feel after a day walking in England.
I bought an electric kettle after a trip to England but tea just doesn't seem as soothing to me here, even in frigid Chicago, without that particular damp-chill I feel after a day walking in England.
Nov 4th, 2014, 01:40 PM
#276
dotheboyshall - that describes us too, though DH has a distressing tendency to like some of the more refined teas like orange pekoe. I don't really see the point - builders' tea is more in my line.
Chgogirl, tea is also very refreshing on a hot day - taken in the garden under a sun-shade.
Chgogirl, tea is also very refreshing on a hot day - taken in the garden under a sun-shade.
Nov 4th, 2014, 09:43 PM
#277
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"I've been researching antique hob grates and those seem wonderful to heat a kettle on"
I grew up with them. They were a nightmare.
Remember (see above) that water has to be boiling when it hits the tea. Some experts say this is a fetish in Britain, and it needs only be 90-95 C - but the problem's the same. It's difficult to get the water that hot on hob grates without the kettle handle becoming too hot to touch. So to retrieve the kettle once it's singing, you've got to find the kind of insulating glove few of us keep in a sitting room (or a suitable cushion), stick your hands into the hot area, take the kettle off and get it to a teapot before the temp drops below 95 or so.
Doing this means organising the sitting room not around letting everyone watch TV (as nature intended) but around making tea without scalding yourself, any coffee table books, the newspapers scattered round the floor, the new carpet or the dogs. For an activity that happens at least half a dozen times a day.
If you've got a fire in the kitchen and spend your evenings there, it's marginally less of a horror - but even dozier, since it's just doing messily, inefficiently and dangerously what the John Lewis kettle on the worksurface does effortlessly.
And the hobs are equally impractical for warming plates or for slow casseroling.
Though everyone's got a fire in their sitting room these days, and people with the space often do have hob grates, there are obviously a lot of these hobs around, and from about now till some time in Feb, those fires will be lit most evenings.
No-one uses the hobs. Ever. Once the firelighting season's over, they're fine for storing or displaying things. But that's about it.
I grew up with them. They were a nightmare.
Remember (see above) that water has to be boiling when it hits the tea. Some experts say this is a fetish in Britain, and it needs only be 90-95 C - but the problem's the same. It's difficult to get the water that hot on hob grates without the kettle handle becoming too hot to touch. So to retrieve the kettle once it's singing, you've got to find the kind of insulating glove few of us keep in a sitting room (or a suitable cushion), stick your hands into the hot area, take the kettle off and get it to a teapot before the temp drops below 95 or so.
Doing this means organising the sitting room not around letting everyone watch TV (as nature intended) but around making tea without scalding yourself, any coffee table books, the newspapers scattered round the floor, the new carpet or the dogs. For an activity that happens at least half a dozen times a day.
If you've got a fire in the kitchen and spend your evenings there, it's marginally less of a horror - but even dozier, since it's just doing messily, inefficiently and dangerously what the John Lewis kettle on the worksurface does effortlessly.
And the hobs are equally impractical for warming plates or for slow casseroling.
Though everyone's got a fire in their sitting room these days, and people with the space often do have hob grates, there are obviously a lot of these hobs around, and from about now till some time in Feb, those fires will be lit most evenings.
No-one uses the hobs. Ever. Once the firelighting season's over, they're fine for storing or displaying things. But that's about it.
Nov 4th, 2014, 10:21 PM
#278
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None of my family ever for one moment regretted the disappearance of the kitchen range and open coal fires.
However, for some reason it took years before my parents threw caution to the winds and bought an electric kettle. So to get round the sitting-room problem (they only replaced the coal with gas fires, so going downstairs to the kitchen meant braving unheated stairs and corridors), she would take the kettle up with the tea-tray for the evening, and keep it steaming on one of those vertical paraffin heaters so as to top up the pot (you can get away with that if it's builder's tea).
(PS: I still drink tea all day long, one cup of coffee at 11am, or occasionally after dinner if I'm eating out - not more).
However, for some reason it took years before my parents threw caution to the winds and bought an electric kettle. So to get round the sitting-room problem (they only replaced the coal with gas fires, so going downstairs to the kitchen meant braving unheated stairs and corridors), she would take the kettle up with the tea-tray for the evening, and keep it steaming on one of those vertical paraffin heaters so as to top up the pot (you can get away with that if it's builder's tea).
(PS: I still drink tea all day long, one cup of coffee at 11am, or occasionally after dinner if I'm eating out - not more).
Nov 5th, 2014, 01:16 AM
#279
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What a trip down Memory Lane! My grandmother had one of those paraffin stoves, and may even have boiled kettles on it. She also had a coal-fired stove, which would also have been used for boiling kettles. I am surprised that Patrick had to go downstairs to the kitchen, since I have always associated that type of arrangement to houses where you rang a bell when you wanted tea, and the maid brought it to you.
As for Flanner in his Cotswold fastness, I cannot associate boiling kettles n the fire with watching television. Surely one had died out before the other seriously began? I can agree that an electric kettle is by far the best option, and am always surprised that other countries have not discovered that yet.
My childhood home was a large late 1930's semi, so had no archaic arrangements. However, my wife's parents boiled a kettle by the fire, and they mainly used driftwood from Southampton Water. Since this had fallen off ships from all over the world, it contained various oils and chemicals and produced a variety of brightly-coloured flames.
The golden rules in all of this are that to make decent tea, you take the pot to the kettle, not the kettle to the pot, and always warm the pot first.
Now do you pour the milk or the tea first?
As for Flanner in his Cotswold fastness, I cannot associate boiling kettles n the fire with watching television. Surely one had died out before the other seriously began? I can agree that an electric kettle is by far the best option, and am always surprised that other countries have not discovered that yet.
My childhood home was a large late 1930's semi, so had no archaic arrangements. However, my wife's parents boiled a kettle by the fire, and they mainly used driftwood from Southampton Water. Since this had fallen off ships from all over the world, it contained various oils and chemicals and produced a variety of brightly-coloured flames.
The golden rules in all of this are that to make decent tea, you take the pot to the kettle, not the kettle to the pot, and always warm the pot first.
Now do you pour the milk or the tea first?
Nov 5th, 2014, 01:29 AM
#280
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From not having electrical kettles, the Yanks have gone OTT
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...&tag=tea01b-20
You make tea with freshly boiled water. Why on earth would you want to keep it hot for twenty minutes?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...&tag=tea01b-20
You make tea with freshly boiled water. Why on earth would you want to keep it hot for twenty minutes?
