This Is Why the British Drink So Much Tea

In America, tea has two primary associations: iced (served on a Southern porch on a sweltering day) or salty (giving some fish a caffeine boost at the bottom of the Boston Harbor). In Britain, however, tea is inextricably woven into the fabric of everyday life. The proof is in the numbers: The British drink 100 million cups of tea every day. That’s almost 36 billion cups per year, divided among British men, women and children (they start them young over there). It begs the question: Why do the British drink tea with such devotion?

For Brits, tea isn’t just a daily habit—it’s practically a national identity. In contrast, they drink only around 70 million cups of coffee a day, and it’s not because their coffee is terrible.

So what’s behind the nation’s deep-rooted preference for tea vs. coffee? Read on to find out why the British drink tea and how it became a cultural staple.

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How important is tea to the British?

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If you thought British foods like fish and chips had a large fan base, wait until you learn how tea plays a role in British culture. Because their love for the drink is like no other.

Many Brits firmly believe that no task—from studying to data entry to putting up a shelf—can be accomplished without a good cuppa. Some even measure the length of a task by how many cups of tea are required to finish it (painting a wall might take three cups, say, while researching for your thesis could be five or more).

Tea is the default response to a myriad of situations: waking up, hearing shocking news, returning from a boozy night out, getting good news, breaking up, giving birth, meeting a friend, feeling uncomfortable or feeling happy. How you take your tea also indicates your social class, personality and tribal affiliation. Make tea:  It’s what Brits do instead of panicking.

Still, the country that consumes the most tea annually is Turkey. Tea isn’t even from Britain! So what gives?

Why do the British drink tea?

For tea lovers, the answer’s easy: Because it’s pure, sippable deliciousness in every cup. But for an outsider trying to understand why the British drink tea all the time, there are two main reasons:

The history of tea

In 1946, George Orwell wrote in the Evening Standard, “tea is one of the mainstays of civilization in this country.”

Tea had been such for nearly 300 years, ever since Catherine of Braganza arrived from Portugal and married King Charles II, bringing with her a ritual of daily teatime. The other nobles followed suit, and the British East India Company began to import much more tea from its colonies in the Far East, where it had been grown and drunk for thousands of years. The price fell, and suddenly every Briton had a tea habit.

OK, but why do the British drink tea to this day? There’s another factor at play: the social element.

Social inclusivity

Tea is one of the few experiences in Britain that cuts across social class divides, race, ethnicity and income levels (the other is the weather). It also gives socially awkward Brits something to do with their hands. After centuries of ritual, the British identity is now at least 10% tea.

So there you have it: easy access, a rich history and a culture that sees tea as a great social equalizer—that’s why the British drink tea. But most cultures that drink tea (such as China, Japan and Turkey) don’t add milk, so why do the British? Let’s find out!

Why do the British drink tea with milk?

A proper British tea is brewed in a pot and poured into individual cups. Historically, most people couldn’t afford fine bone china, and the cups they did have would often shatter under the heat of the boiling tea. Milk was therefore added first to the cups to lessen the heat of the hot tea and keep the cups intact. Many people apparently grew to like the taste, although some take their tea with sugar or lemon instead.

In modern times, the “milk first” issue is a hot topic. Friendships have been lost over whether it’s correct to add milk to your cup before the tea or after, but history and science both say before: Scientists note that cold milk poured into hot tea heats unevenly and can give tea that awful “skin” on top.

British anthropologist Kate Fox, author of Watching the English, notes that milk in tea also gives off social cues to Britain’s all-important social class system. According to Fox, tea strength wanes as the social class gets nearer to the aristocracy. The strongest brews of black tea are drunk by the working class, who are then required to temper the bitter taste with plenty of milk and sugar to make what’s known as builder’s tea. “Taking sugar in your tea is regarded by many as an infallible lower-class indicator,” Fox writes.

As for tea of the iced variety, that’s an infallible American indicator. If you want to sip a cuppa like a Brit, don’t forget the milk and hold the sugar.

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Sources:

• UK Tea & Infusions Association: “Tea FAQs”
• BBC: “Why do the British love the taste of tea so much?”
• The Orwell Foundation: “A Nice Cup of Tea”
• The Atlantic: “Map: The Countries That Drink the Most Tea”
• The Guardian: “How to make tea correctly (according to science): milk first”
• Watching the English by Kate Fox

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