A nice cup of tea.

1. A nice cup of tea

2. A- This national
obsession is also
reflected in a few texts
by many famous
authors. I have chosen
two ironic approaches.
Firstly, there is a little
article by George Mikes,
a Romanian who moved
to Britain and was
surprised by the
importance of tea
drinking. You can view
the text by following this
link:
http://f2.org/humour/ho
walien.html#Tea

3. B- The British aren’t normally very
particular about flavour or type of
tea (black tea normally does the
trick), but they always have it with
milk. The only controversial point is
“with or without sugar” (a useful
sentence you should know before
getting there is “yes, please. Milk,
no sugar”, or maybe “yes, please.
Milk, two sugars”. “No, thank you”
should not be an option when it
comes to having tea).

4. C- Tea is so important that “a nice cup of
tea” (note that “nice” is always used
together with “cup of tea”, in the same
sense as “decent” is used with a “pint of
beer”) has been included as one of
Britain’s icons. You can follow this link
and read all about it:
http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collecti
on/cupoftea

5. D- I am sure that after reading all
these articles about tea you are on
your way to the kitchen, about to
turn your kettle on and make
yourself a “nice cup of tea”. Enjoy!!!

6. E- When you go to Britain for the
first time one of the most surprising
things is the amount of tea that the
English drink. Not only do they
drink it and offer it to you several
times a day, but there is a whole
ceremony to making and drinking it.

7. F- Brits drink it when they wake up
and before going to bed, when they
get home, before leaving for work,
as soon as they get to the office...
Even football teams have their own
“tea ladies”, women who are in
charge of making tea that players
drink at half time and at the end of
the game (who would want to have
a cold drink?)

8. G- Lastly, I have chosen a text by
George Orwell, the author of 1984,
who wrote this satirical piece on the
British obsession with tea and how
hard it is to achieve the perfect
“nice cup of tea”:
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/e
ssays/nicecupoftea.htm