this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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TIL Brits put a little tea in their milk
They also just drink "tea" and don't conceptualize the different kinds thereof. English Breakfast vs Earl Gray vs an Oolong and all the aromatic teas... AFAIK they traditionally just drink English Breakfast black tea, which is why the Lipton yellow bags aren't even labelled.
The more I learn about British tea culture the more confusing it gets. Drinking unlabeled black tea in a bag is disgusting bottom-of-the-barrel type stuff. No wonder they drown it in milk.
It's the tannins in british tea that help it mix with the milk. All those black teas you get in europe and asia just turn milk into a swirly mess.
British tea is legitimately its own thing
The color of my mug after a (admittedly high-end) black tea leads me to believe it's not lacking in tannins. I've not tried to put milk in it since I was a kid at my grandparents' who always had some good teas as well.
My understanding is that the "default" British tea is English Breakfast tea. Which is not a bad tea at all, but it's not "special", it's unflavored black tea. I don't refute that the tea culture is unique over there but I don't think it has much to do with the leaves themselves which famously don't even grow in England lol
Of course, but the type that we import tends to be of the high tannin Assamica variety from China/Sri Lanka, whereas the european varieties tends to be lighter and more aromatic as you say, making it harder for the milk to bind
This whole conversation is making me feel just a little bit lighter about the fascism going down in my country.
There's 2 tea cultures in the UK. Upper class is straight, perhaps with a little lemon and honey, in quite delicate teas. Working class is strong tea with milk and sugar.
Milk was originally to stop factory tea from cracking cheap cups. It's now just a cultural thing, normal teas taste weird without milk.
TIL I'm upper class
Unless you can trace your ancestry back 5-10 generations, along with enough peerages and titles to matter, you are at best middle class. At least according to the old fashioned mindset.
As a fellow tea snob, I salute you. 👍
*pours milk and shoves soggy biscuits through your letterbox*
That'll teach ya
Yeah, first they make it super strong by just leaving the bags in. Then they add milk because it’s too strong.
I love them anyway
Then they discuss how many centimeters from the rim it should be to avoid the real problem going on in their heads.