Tea

Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Every day we drink 165 million cups of the stuff and each year around 144 thousand tons of tea are imported.

Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot, adding one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot. Most Britons like their tea strong and dark, but with a lot of milk.

The traditional way of making tea is:

• Boil some fresh cold water. (We use an electric kettle to boil water)
• Put some hot water into the teapot to make it warm.
• Pour the water away
• Put one teaspoon of tea-leaves per person, and one extra tea-spoon, into the pot.
• Pour boiling water onto the tea.
• Leave for a few minutes.
• Serve

Tea Words and phrases

Tea break, High tea, tea time, tea party, tea towel and many more terms have derived from the tradition of drinking tea.

Tea breaks are when tea and biscuits are served. The traditional time for tea breaks are at 11:00 am (Elevensee) and 4 pm in the afternoon.

If something is not quite to your taste, it’s probably 'not your cup of tea'.
e.g. Windsurfing is not my cup of tea.

Coffee

Coffee is now as popular in Britain as tea is. People either drink it with milk or have it black and either have freshly- made coffee or instant coffee.

Bitter

Britain is also well known for its ale which tends to be dark in appearance and heavier than lager. It is known as "bitter"

Bitter is served in Pubs

Wine

Britain's wine industry is growing from strength to strength and we now have over 300 wine producers. A growing number of British vineyards are now producing sparkling white wine as well as full bodied red wine. There are over 100 vineyard in Kent.

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