Tallulah

Maria: I believe that the milk went in first in order to avoid cracking fine china when pouring in very hot liquid. I don't think that it matters today.

Kayb95

"You can serve a second cup from the same pot of tea, but after 15 minutes a new pot must be made - the same procedure all over again - as the tea will not only have cooled, but will have become bitter with excess tannin."

If you brew the tea leaves in one of those metal or plastic tea filters, you can remove all the tea leaves after the pot is brewed. That way, the tea doesn't keep getting stronger and you don't have the bitter tannins problem. You just have to drink the entire pot before the tea gets cold. Perhaps the tea cozy isn't such an old-fashioned idea after all.

oldie

My mother was another of those who liked her tea strong. She said that you should be able to trot a mouse over it.

Dr_DoGood

Maria H -
antelactarian or postlactarian is indeed another of those famous U/non-U markers.
I actually believe that milk in last tastes better but a chemist friend of mine went to great lengths to prove to me that this was impossible to distinguish. He reckons I'm probably simply trying to justify my exalted view of myself!

Dr D.

Maria_H

At least if you put the milk in last, you can see it changing colour and stop before you put in too much! As my mum-in-law had it so weak, it probably didn't matter. the joke was it was so weak it was fornight tea!
I didn't dare to tell her that my daughter usually makes it with a tea bag in a cup...

Barbara

My daughter and I joke that we need a shade card for our tea, so we put in just the right amount of milk.

Kayb95

One sure way to know your water for tea wasn't hot enough (when using a tea bag) - when you pour the water on the bag in the cup and the tea brews at the bottom of the cup and the water at the top of the cup stays clear.

You just know you're in for a lousy cup of tea when that happens!

Kate

Barbara, I work for a (UK) design company, where we use a colour system based on "Pantone" numbers. It's common practice when you offer to make the tea, for designers who think they're funny to give you a Pantone reference number for the shade of 'beige' they want their tea to be.

Barbara

Kate, LOL!

mvor

Kate, I'll never look at my green tea in the same way again. Now if I could only get that damn song out of my head!

twina49

I'm enjoying this thread, but I admit I'm one of the philistines who likes their tea made in the microwave. I grew up using milk in my tea but dropped that habit when an office I worked in 30 years ago had no refrigerator. My sister's version of making a cup of tea involves boiling water and then practically waving the tea bag over the cup - she can get three cups out of one bag! I like mine a LOT stronger than that!

On t.v. stereotypes - a woman I know from Dartford, Kent loves the American show "Friends" and I told her it is NOT realistic! Four people living in large apartments in NYC with what amounts to low-wage jobs? I don't think so!

Kayb95

True! I lived in NYC right after I got out of college. Large apartments were rare and expensive. My roommate and I lived on the 4th floor of a Brownstone in Brooklyn and paid $1000/month rent (back in 1988.) It was a small apartment, but when we had friends over who lived in Manhattan, they thought it was HUGE compared to what they had - and such a bargain!

rickmav

I'm curious about the apparent "novelty" of electric kettles in the U.S. I've never bought anything but living in Canada and was wondering if it's because of our 'colonial' ties that they are so easily available. I'm not sure if anyone puts the kettle on the stovetop here anymore.

My mother-in-law, whose ancestry is German but many generations ago, calls my lunch 'dinner', and my dinner 'supper'. Has caused many confusions over the years coordinating family events.

Also, can anyone tell me why I drink my coffee black but must have my tea with milk and sugar? I simply can't drink it any other way - although I once tried the lemon on the side of my plate, then still put the milk in. My friends still talk about it.

taggie

rickmav I am in Canada and sometimes use a stovetop kettle, as does an aunt. I also have an electric one.

I think the expression "Put the kettle on" just generally means putting it on to boil... doesn't matter whether that means "on" a stove top or turning it "on" by plugging it in.

oldie

That Friends thing is similar to the situation where a hard-up bookseller can afford a house in Notting Hill.

PalQ

Last night on Corrie they were using a white plastic electric water heater - now from above posts i know that 'to put the kettle on' means not necessarily to put the kettle on the stove, but just to make tea. I thought it weird that folks were always putting the kettle on the stove. Tea aficianados apparently require only the water to be boiling, regardles of how it boils, which makes sense - boiling water is boiling water it seems. And it seems Brits are still really into tea. I wonder if the Irish have Irish Tea to go with their Irish Coffee?

ThinGorjus

I also lived in Manhattan for a few years. "Friends" wasn't that unrealistic because many people in NY have rent-controlled apartments. I know a woman (a margarine heiress) who lives in a 15-room apartment on Park Avenue, paying $2500 a month in rent.

One of my sisters sublet her Manhattan apartment for 20 years. She was paying $800 a month, but subletting it for 4 times that. She finally had to let the apartment go last year.

Kayb95

I think I remember them mentioning on an episode of Friends that it was a rent controlled apartment. Otherwise, theres no way they could have afforded it.

Kate

"white plastic electric water heater". That's the most hilarious description of a kettle I've ever heard. To me, it sounds like the words of a Martian. Bit like calling a cooker a "silver metallic electric food heater". LOL.

I do find it strange that electric kettles seem to be a novelty to Americans from this post. To people in the UK and Ireland, they're as common - and as essential - as having an indoor toilet, hot running water and a TV!

Kate
London

Maria_H

For those Americans, or others to whom they are a novelty, electric kettles come in all shapes and colours. No longer are we restricted to metalic, traditional kettle shaped ones but there are now plastic ones in all sorts of strange colours. As Kate said, they are an essential addition to any UK home - we can't manage without one!