For all you tea-lovers.

[thenorthernline]

Comments

[schiaparelli]

Aww. He is right. My mum says that milk-first is traditionally a thing poor families do, because the hot tea kills all the bacteria when it hits the milk. Rich people don't need to worry that their milk is on the turn. Possibly sociohistorically true, if not scientifically accurate.

In China, in cheap restaurants we all sat down and used the first pot of tea for rinsing all the bowls and spoons. Apparently it's because they don't trust the kitchens to've washed off all the detergent. You don't feel wiser, braver or more optimistic with it, but the rice doesn't taste of washing up liquid.

[thenorthernline]

Hah. My parents both put the milk in first. Maybe it's a northern thing. Me, I put it in after the tea, 'cos otherwise it stops it from stewing properly and therefore kills the taste. I've also had tea go stone cold because the milk's gone in first.

[davenotdave]

I always thought that you were supposed to absolutely scald tea and Never scald coffee so surely one should add milk to tea after and coffeee before? This is hypothetical however since the reality of it is that I do not add milk unless I am feeling sorry for myself or need to gulp it down quickly. FACT.

[davenotdave]

Orwell is clearly a fool. The ONLY way to warm the pot is by swilling with hot water. You heat the pot on the hob and you end up with singe marks up the sides.

[thenorthernline]

Don't forget, he was writing in 1946. Teapots were probably made out of recycled WW2 planes back then.

[davenotdave]

But then you are only able to warm a portion of the pot before the handle becomes warmed and causes blistery fun and cursing. Unless he owned such a thing as a teatowel. I'm willing to concede that this may have been the case.

As an aside, that would have been gloriously circular since Churchill conscripted teapots to help with the war effort in June 1940 and most of those were melted down and used as airplane propellers during the Battle of Britain.