30.8.08

Tea and laughter


I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. ~Woody Allen"

We like milk in our tea... There's a reason for this:

In days of old, before the US was even discovered, cups were made from clay and baked hard. This clay was brittle, but the Brits still knew that to make a proper cuppa, you need to boil water, and scald the tealeaves. The problem with this was that when boiling water hits a clay cup, it tends to smash it as the clay expands rapidly on contact. To avoid the rapid expansion, a small amount of milk was placed in the bottom of cups, thus stopping the rapid expansion and making a perfectly drinkable drink.

7 comments:

abcd said...

I have also heard that wealthy people used to put the tea in first to show they have china which doesn't crack rather than clay.
Is that you in the gold dress, having tea in the picture? :-)

Barb said...

How interesting, you taught me something new today!
Best wishes . . .

Autumn said...

I had never heard that before. It was really interesting!

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

I still put my milk in first.

Louise said...

With leaf tea I put my milk in first, with a teabag I put my milk in last! What an interesting fact, one I hadn't heard before. x

Marja said...

Here in NZ they put milk in the tea and I always asked myself why. In Holland this is unthinkable.
This is my first visit here and I absolutely love your blog

Tressy said...

interesting n informative!
thanz.