# Time to move to the UK



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

I'm being persecuted by heathens in southern California for putting milk in my tea.


----------



## CupofJoe (Dec 4, 2012)

Ah... before you move here.
Do you put the milk or tea in the cup first?


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

CupofJoe said:


> Ah... before you move here.
> Do you put the milk or tea in the cup first?



I've done it both ways. Is there a preferred order? Just now I did tea first, but a couple of days ago I put milk in the cup first while I was waiting for the tea to be ready


----------



## Aidan of the tavern (Dec 4, 2012)

Californians don't have milk in their tea?


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 4, 2012)

The milk first?

Were you wearing a red coat and a white wig?

Seriously. That's about as un-American as... un-apple pie.



That's all I got.



My wife tells me that you should pour the cream into coffee _while _stirring. Since Chinese tea is served without milk or sugar, and Hong Kong _was_ British-owned, there's a chance, albeit a small one, that her way is the British way, which _might_ apply to tea, not just coffee.

In any case, it's _her_ way, so I gotta do that.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Aidan of the tavern said:


> Californians don't have milk in their tea?



Hardly anyone I know in the U.S. puts milk in tea, with the exception of chai, which often comes that way.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Legendary Sidekick said:


> Were you wearing a red coat and a white wig?



Yep. And when someone challenged me on it, I said "Blimey, governor! You shut yer gob!"


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 4, 2012)

I love chai.

And it's the only tea I add milk to.

Delight, actually.



Maybe I'm the one who's un-American.

Or am I just wussy?


----------



## Leif Notae (Dec 4, 2012)

Simple, just purchase a monocle and talk about scones... They'll leave you alone.


----------



## MadMadys (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Hardly anyone I know in the U.S. puts milk in tea, with the exception of chai, which often comes that way.




I put milk in my tea but I'm not one to follow the rules.  You could say that's one of the rules of my life but alas, I don't follow any rules.  Even my own.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Yep. And when someone challenged me on it, I said "Blimey, governor! You shut yer gob!"


Good show, chap.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Leif Notae said:


> Simple, just purchase a monocle and talk about scones... They'll leave you alone.



A monacle isn't a bad idea. If I get one, I also need a pocket watch, so I can take the watch out of my pocket and squint at it through the monacle when someone asks for the time.


----------



## Aidan of the tavern (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Hardly anyone I know in the U.S. puts milk in tea, with the exception of chai, which often comes that way.



Wow, I must be more British than I thought, the number of cups of tea with milk I get through.  Do Americans even drink much tea without milk?


----------



## Devor (Dec 4, 2012)

I put hot cocoa in my coffee.  When I put in cocoa powder first, then milk, then coffee, there ends up being a thin layer of foam at the top that isn't there the other way around.

I don't usually put milk in my tea, but I don't really drink much tea.  I have friends who are big on it, though, and they would say it depends on the tea.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Aidan of the tavern said:


> Wow, I must be more British than I thought, the number of cups of tea with milk I get through.  Do Americans even drink much tea without milk?



Iced, mostly. With sugar to the saturation point if you're in the south (which is why you add the sugar hot, then ice the tea. If sugar doesn't come out of solution, there's not enough in it). I'm an outcast there as well, because I drink my iced tea unsweetened


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Devor said:


> I put hot cocoa in my coffee.  When I put in cocoa powder first, then milk, then coffee, there ends up being a thin layer of foam at the top that isn't there the other way around.



I've done that before as well. It's good.


----------



## Aidan of the tavern (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Iced, mostly. With sugar to the saturation point if you're in the south (which is why you add the sugar hot, then ice the tea. If sugar doesn't come out of solution, there's not enough in it). I'm an outcast there as well, because I drink my iced tea unsweetened



Maybe over here drinking tea is something you end up doing because everyone else is doing it.  

I don't know if you really want to move here though, a lot of the cities are hardly the most pleasant places to be.  Nice enough if you live in the countryside or a rural village though.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Aidan of the tavern said:


> I don't know if you really want to move here though, a lot of the cities are hardly the most pleasant places to be.  Nice enough if you live in the countryside or a rural village though.



Well, according to a slip of paper I have, I own one square foot of land somewhere on the Isle of Islay, courtesy of the Laphroaig Distillery. I thought I might get a pole roughly a square foot in diameter, plant it on my square foot of ground, and then just build at platform at the top of it. Saves on rent and I'm close to the scotch.


----------



## Philip Overby (Dec 4, 2012)

In Japan you can buy milk tea.  That's right.  The milk and tea are already together!  So you could move to Japan too if you wanted.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Phil the Drill said:


> In Japan you can buy milk tea.  That's right.  The milk and tea are already together!  So you could move to Japan too if you wanted.



I would like to live in Japan just for the experience. An ex-gf of mine lived there for a year and taught English on an island somewhere. She loved it.


----------



## Leif Notae (Dec 4, 2012)

Ooo, ooo! This is where you speak in a thick accent about the hunt and prattle on about the Queen. Throw something in about the colonies and what the savages do... Yes, this will do quite nice.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 4, 2012)

Phil the Drill said:


> In Japan you can buy milk tea.  That's right.  The milk and tea are already together!  So you could move to Japan too if you wanted.


Hong Kong has that. Coffee tea, too. I think coffee tea comes with milk, and for some reason I think it comes without sugar and so does the restaurant.


Also, 20 replies in less than two hours? On the topic of tea and milk? Who'da thunk it?


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I would like to live in Japan just for the experience. An ex-gf of mine lived there for a year and *taught English on an island somewhere.* She loved it.


So did I.

Why the hell did I leave?


----------



## Philip Overby (Dec 4, 2012)

Convince me not to leave as well, Sidekick.  I have no plans to, but I feel like I'll regret it if I do it in the future.  

By the way, I tried milk tea, but it made me do a spit-take.  I do like some kind of ginger tea au lait thing I found here.  I drink it almost everyday.  So I guess I do like milk tea, as long as it's a flavor I like.


----------



## Ghost (Dec 4, 2012)

I flavor my tea with half & half and honey. Milk is too weak for me, probably because I don't care for bitterness in drinks. (On the rare occasions when I drink coffee, my cup has more milk and sugar than coffee.) No one I know drinks hot tea, unless they're sick and then it's lemon tea or green tea.

I'm the last person anyone would go to for tea tips because I drink matcha with heavy cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and maple syrup.


----------



## Ireth (Dec 4, 2012)

I adore a good cup of tea, with cream and plenty of sugar. Earl Grey is possibly my favorite, and chai isn't far behind. I don't care for green tea, and I only drink fruit teas on occasion.

Also, chocolate chai lattes are amazing. Full stop. I first had one in a coffeeshop in Jasper, AB this past summer, and fell in love. Seriously, it was a "where have you been all my life?!" moment.


----------



## Reaver (Dec 4, 2012)

Legendary Sidekick said:


> I love chai.
> 
> And it's the only tea I add milk to.
> 
> ...



The Legendary One could never be a wussy. Saying you're a wussy for drinking chai is like saying Chuck Norris's beard isn't awesome. You've just made drinking chai cool.


----------



## Reaver (Dec 4, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I would like to live in Japan just for the experience. An ex-gf of mine lived there for a year and taught English on an island somewhere. She loved it.



Umm...Japan _is_ an island buddy.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 4, 2012)

Reaver said:


> Umm...Japan _is_ an island buddy.



LOL. True. Let's say, on a SMALLER island somewhere in Japan


----------



## Chilari (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm British and I don't even drink tea at all.

No objections to mum's homemade banana tea bread though. That stuff is delicious. So I eat tea occasionally. In a cake.

For the record, a milky tea with two or more sugars is known as a "builders' tea", as in, when you've got people working on your house, building an extension, installing a new bathroom, fixing the roof, etc, and you offer them a cuppa, that's most likely what they'll ask for. I don't know why.


----------



## CupofJoe (Dec 5, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I've done it both ways. Is there a preferred order? Just now I did tea first, but a couple of days ago I put milk in the cup first while I was waiting for the tea to be ready


According to etiquette when making tea from leaf tea in a pot you must put the tea in to the cup before adding the milk - it proves you are not using second quality tea [that had dusk and various detritus in it] and are therefore generally richer and posher than everyone else... We must have our standards!


----------



## Jess A (Dec 5, 2012)

I drink quite a lot of tea. I suppose you'd add milk to some tea but not other types of tea. And I'm the sort who sometimes feels like milk and sometimes doesn't. I'm the same with coffee. I never add sugar (detest sugar in coffee and tea, yuck, but others in my family disagree). But I will sometimes have various types of milk, or soy/almond etc milk. If I order coffee and tea out, I usually get milk. If I'm at home, I drink it without. I rarely use milk for anything else so unless I have miniature milks, it would be a waste because it'd just go off in a few days. So I guess it's habit and practicality for me!




Chilari said:


> For the record, a milky tea with two or more sugars is known as a "builders' tea", as in, when you've got people working on your house, building an extension, installing a new bathroom, fixing the roof, etc, and you offer them a cuppa, that's most likely what they'll ask for. I don't know why.



It's so true. That is exactly what they ask for every time. Almost without fail.


----------



## Rebekah-Marie (Dec 5, 2012)

Just to let you know, you aren't alone on the adding milk to tea in California. My best friend loves to add milk. Though interestingly enough she will be moving to the UK very soon... But, even without that I can assure you that you aren't alone as I'm a barista at Starbucks and there are several people that order Tea Mistos.


----------



## Steerpike (Dec 5, 2012)

Rebekah-Marie said:


> Just to let you know, you aren't alone on the adding milk to tea in California. My best friend loves to add milk. Though interestingly enough she will be moving to the UK very soon... But, even without that I can assure you that you aren't alone as I'm a barista at Starbucks and there are several people that order Tea Mistos.



Heh. Good to know I'm not alone. I've never ordered tea at Starbucks. I'll keep that in mind next time I am there.


----------



## Rebekah-Marie (Dec 5, 2012)

Yeah, just tell them the type of hot tea you want and what type of milk you want. They might call it a Tea Latte. This is only if you want the milk hot obviously, otherwise you can just add it.
Also, I have no idea how you'll feel about this, but we do have two tea drinks that people order that aren't on the menu: The London Fog-an Earl Grey tea misto with vanilla added-and the sick tea-one tea bag of mint tea and another of chamomlie and then steamed lemonade is added on top. People swear that it helps a sore throat.


----------



## Mindfire (Dec 5, 2012)

I only really drink herbal teas, and never with milk. Milk goes horribly with peppermint as I once discovered. xP


----------



## Chilari (Dec 5, 2012)

When I said I'm not a tea drinker, I didn't consider herbal teas. I mean, from a British point of view, herbal teas aren't realy tea. They're hot cordials in teabags if anything. Any tea but brown tea isn't real tea, not of the (in)famous British tea drinking variety. So I do drink herbal teas (often with sugar, not attempted milk though) but not real tea.

Rebekah-Marie: what is "misto"? Does that mean milk? Never heard of that. As for the London Fog tea, never heard of anyone adding vanilla to their tea either. Cinnamon to coffee, sure, but never vanilla to tea. Weird.


----------



## Butterfly (Dec 5, 2012)

Nothing like a good Ty-phoo...


----------



## Rebekah-Marie (Dec 5, 2012)

Misto is typically half coffee half milk, but for the tea misto it's obviously half tea and the rest milk.


----------



## Chilari (Dec 5, 2012)

That would be a really milky tea. You're basically drinking flavoured milk at that stage. Half milk is more even than a builder would dare. Weird.

Just goes to show why us Brits are the guardians of tea and Californians are not.


----------



## Aidan of the tavern (Dec 5, 2012)

When I was young I used to have really milky tea.  People used to say "do you want any tea with that milk?".  However now I'm older I do appreciate a nice strong tea, what a Brit would call "tea with a spot of milk".


----------



## Rebekah-Marie (Dec 5, 2012)

You can let the barista know that you want more tea. We have several people that do almost all tea with just a few inches of steamed milk. if you don't say anything than we'll do the default of about 3/4 tea and 1/4 milk.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 5, 2012)

Phil the Drill said:


> Convince me not to leave as well, Sidekick. I have no plans to, but I feel like I'll regret it if I do it in the future.


I was warned by other teachers that I'd regret it, and I do. One said, "over here, you're the King of English. Back home, you're [#$%*!]." I forgot his exact words, but "you're #$%*!" was implied. I like having a house and land, and I hate crowds, so I might be better off here. But the job will never be that high-respect/low-pressure lifestyle I enjoyed in HK, where one in every seven days I'm at Pacific Coffee listening to the White Album, having chai tea and chips, and writing bits of my novel after I'm done correcting papers.



Phil the Drill said:


> By the way, I tried milk tea, but it made me do a spit-take. I do like some kind of ginger tea au lait thing I found here. I drink it almost everyday. So I guess I do like milk tea, as long as it's a flavor I like.


Ginger tea is cool. It's cool because I said so. If you don't think that's a reason, take it up with Reaver.


----------



## Reaver (Dec 5, 2012)

> Originally Posted by *Legendary Sidekick*:
> 
> Ginger tea is cool. It's cool because I said so. If you don't think that's a reason, take it up with Reaver.



Damn straight they can take it with me, Legendary One!


----------



## Sparkie (Dec 6, 2012)

Legendary Sidekick said:


> But the job will never be that high-respect/low-pressure lifestyle I enjoyed in HK, where one in every seven days I'm at Pacific Coffee listening to the White Album, having chai tea and chips, and writing bits of my novel after I'm done correcting papers.



I wish I could have that life.  (sigh)

Anyway, this thread has me back on my herbal tea kick.  I'm drinking apple cinnamon right now.  Cheap stuff, but I don't care as long as it's good.


----------



## Jess A (Dec 6, 2012)

Think I'm going to get some tea what with all this chat. With some milk. Earl gray I think, loose leaf.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Dec 6, 2012)

Sparkie said:


> I wish I could have that life. (sigh)
> 
> Anyway, this thread has me back on my herbal tea kick. I'm drinking apple cinnamon right now. Cheap stuff, but I don't care as long as it's good.


Bigelow apple cinnamon? That's a decent brand, and they used to sell a flavor called Fruit and Almond, or something with almond anyway. It had the best taste _and_ smell of all the Bigelow herbal flavors.

Another good one taste-and-smell-wise (same brand) is vanilla chai. This might sound stupid, but the flavor comes out best when I nuke it! Seriously... I was boiling water as if having to wait ten minutes made me a tea purist, but when I added a spoonful of Delight, I basically ended up with hot milk with a hint of tea.

Now I pour water in a cup, drop the bag in, press 99 (or 333 for two cups) and make The Strongest vanilla chai tea (and vanilla honey chamomile for my wife).


(Note: I repeat digits because the display on my microwave doesn't work, and for some reason I feel less likely to make a mistake if I just press the same button 2 or 3 times. That probably invites opportunities for tragedy. ["3333" A half hour later, the house explodes.])


----------



## Reaver (Dec 6, 2012)

I have a fear of herbal tea. I won't divulge the reason why.





​


----------

