"That's a brilliant cuppa brew."
I have been waiting to hear these words for the last year.
"Sorry, can you repeat that?" I ask.
"I said, that's a brilliant cuppa brew."
Bliss. This is the only word that can describe the affect this phrase has on me.
"Yessssss," I whisper as I fist pump and return to my desk.
Having a Brit tell you you've made a good cup of tea is like having Marc Jacobs tell you you've got style or Jamie Oliver tell you you're a good cook. It is, by far, the best compliment I've received while living in London.
Here's why. Just like the local pub, football matches and steak & ale pie, tea is an integral part of the English identity. You might say (incoming pun), their culture is steeped in it.
Now, I have always been a tea drinker. My Canadian family maintains a number of English traditions (call them our faux British tendencies) but even so, nothing would quite prepare me for the very British tradition of brewing a perfect cup of cha.
In our house we always make tea by the pot, which is fine for a family of four sitting down for an afternoon cuppa, but not so convenient around a busy office. Tea by the pot has its own set of rules, which I will not delve into today. Tea by the cup, now that's a different story. Let's start at the beginning. I'll call it Pre-Tea.
This is when you first arrive at the decision to have a cup of tea.
* An important note here. This can occur at any time of day. Teatime is by no means an afternoon only affair. It's an all day occurence. In fact, Brits have a fun little mid morning tradition called "elevensees" where, at 11 o'clock, everyone breaks for tea and snacks on biscuits and cakes (there's a reason I love it here!)
Your decision to have tea can occur in one of two ways. You can a) decide independently that you would like a cup of tea or b) be asked by a colleague if you would "fancy a brew."
There are some rules of etiquette when it comes to making tea in your place of work. To begin with, if you're getting up to make a cup of tea for yourself, it is expected that you ask your colleagues if they would like one as well. Beware, failure to do this can result in returning to your desk to work mates who give the evil eye and exclaim, "Well, I see you've made a cup of tea for yourself then, have you?!"
A word of warning. Try to limit your offers of tea to only the four to five people closest to you. Otherwise, you will spend half your day ferrying scalding tea back and forth from the kitchen to your desk, all the while looking like the office bitch.
Now, if someone is so kind as to make you a cup of tea then there are two things to remember. First, don't forget to return the favour, otherwise they may never offer again and you run the risk of feeling like the last kid to get picked at dodgeball when everyone else but you has a steaming cup of cha.
Secondly, don't complain if your tea isn't made just right. If there's too much sugar, or not enough milk, or the brew's not strong enough, just handle it. Otherwise fear the above mentioned consequences.
Once these initial steps have been completed it's time to move onto the big event: Preparation.
A truly delicious cup of tea requires a few things, experience, technique and luck. The trick is to get the brew just right, not too strong and not too weak, while maintaining optimal drinking temperature and avoiding any tea scum buildup on your mug.
This last part I haven't quite figured out just yet. I don't really know where tea scum comes from, let alone how to avoid it. However, I regularly hear people discussing techniques to combat tea scum, so I figure it must be important.
You may encounter some challenges on your way to creating the perfect cup of tea such as:
1) Impatience.
Allowing each mug the perfect amount of brewing time can be tough, but hold fast, there's nothing more embarrassing than a weak cup of tea.
2) Excess milk.
Inexperienced brewers may overdo it in the milk department. Caution, this is a beginners mistake and will surely give you away.
3) Tea bag removal.
This could be an olympic sport. While a seemingly simple task, it actually proves quite difficult to compress and remove the tea bag with the use of only a teaspoon, while avoiding getting your fingers involved. Some people don't even bother and just dive right in fingers first. Others have perfected the coveted one spoon swoop. Everyone has their own unique style for bag removal and discussion of the best techniques are often hot topic around the kettle (see: water cooler).
A mastery of tea preparation comes only with time, and possibly the help of a mentor whose brewing abilities you admire. And yes, my ability to make a good cup to tea does fluctuate daily (that's where the luck comes in). But on the whole, I can say that I can quite proud of my to brewing capabilities and, while not of Olympic quality yet, before I leave here I plan to have perfected my own version of the one spoon swoop.
I have been waiting to hear these words for the last year.
"Sorry, can you repeat that?" I ask.
"I said, that's a brilliant cuppa brew."
Bliss. This is the only word that can describe the affect this phrase has on me.
"Yessssss," I whisper as I fist pump and return to my desk.
Having a Brit tell you you've made a good cup of tea is like having Marc Jacobs tell you you've got style or Jamie Oliver tell you you're a good cook. It is, by far, the best compliment I've received while living in London.
Here's why. Just like the local pub, football matches and steak & ale pie, tea is an integral part of the English identity. You might say (incoming pun), their culture is steeped in it.
Now, I have always been a tea drinker. My Canadian family maintains a number of English traditions (call them our faux British tendencies) but even so, nothing would quite prepare me for the very British tradition of brewing a perfect cup of cha.
In our house we always make tea by the pot, which is fine for a family of four sitting down for an afternoon cuppa, but not so convenient around a busy office. Tea by the pot has its own set of rules, which I will not delve into today. Tea by the cup, now that's a different story. Let's start at the beginning. I'll call it Pre-Tea.
This is when you first arrive at the decision to have a cup of tea.
* An important note here. This can occur at any time of day. Teatime is by no means an afternoon only affair. It's an all day occurence. In fact, Brits have a fun little mid morning tradition called "elevensees" where, at 11 o'clock, everyone breaks for tea and snacks on biscuits and cakes (there's a reason I love it here!)
Your decision to have tea can occur in one of two ways. You can a) decide independently that you would like a cup of tea or b) be asked by a colleague if you would "fancy a brew."
There are some rules of etiquette when it comes to making tea in your place of work. To begin with, if you're getting up to make a cup of tea for yourself, it is expected that you ask your colleagues if they would like one as well. Beware, failure to do this can result in returning to your desk to work mates who give the evil eye and exclaim, "Well, I see you've made a cup of tea for yourself then, have you?!"
A word of warning. Try to limit your offers of tea to only the four to five people closest to you. Otherwise, you will spend half your day ferrying scalding tea back and forth from the kitchen to your desk, all the while looking like the office bitch.
Now, if someone is so kind as to make you a cup of tea then there are two things to remember. First, don't forget to return the favour, otherwise they may never offer again and you run the risk of feeling like the last kid to get picked at dodgeball when everyone else but you has a steaming cup of cha.
Secondly, don't complain if your tea isn't made just right. If there's too much sugar, or not enough milk, or the brew's not strong enough, just handle it. Otherwise fear the above mentioned consequences.
Once these initial steps have been completed it's time to move onto the big event: Preparation.
A truly delicious cup of tea requires a few things, experience, technique and luck. The trick is to get the brew just right, not too strong and not too weak, while maintaining optimal drinking temperature and avoiding any tea scum buildup on your mug.
This last part I haven't quite figured out just yet. I don't really know where tea scum comes from, let alone how to avoid it. However, I regularly hear people discussing techniques to combat tea scum, so I figure it must be important.
You may encounter some challenges on your way to creating the perfect cup of tea such as:
1) Impatience.
Allowing each mug the perfect amount of brewing time can be tough, but hold fast, there's nothing more embarrassing than a weak cup of tea.
2) Excess milk.
Inexperienced brewers may overdo it in the milk department. Caution, this is a beginners mistake and will surely give you away.
3) Tea bag removal.
This could be an olympic sport. While a seemingly simple task, it actually proves quite difficult to compress and remove the tea bag with the use of only a teaspoon, while avoiding getting your fingers involved. Some people don't even bother and just dive right in fingers first. Others have perfected the coveted one spoon swoop. Everyone has their own unique style for bag removal and discussion of the best techniques are often hot topic around the kettle (see: water cooler).
A mastery of tea preparation comes only with time, and possibly the help of a mentor whose brewing abilities you admire. And yes, my ability to make a good cup to tea does fluctuate daily (that's where the luck comes in). But on the whole, I can say that I can quite proud of my to brewing capabilities and, while not of Olympic quality yet, before I leave here I plan to have perfected my own version of the one spoon swoop.
