In general, the British custom is to pour milk in your cup first, then tea. Whereas, the European custom is to pour the hot tea in first, then milk.
Not only was adding milk seen as a means of cooling the tea down and improving on the bitterness of the beverage, it also prevented the boiling water from cracking the porcelain mugs.
A commonly circulated theory posits that first pouring milk into a china teacup helps avoid the heat shock of directly filling it with hot fresh tea and stops low-quality china from cracking.
Based on the research conducted by Dr Stapley of Loughborough University, it has been confirmed that putting the milk in before the hot tea is the correct way to make a brew.
It's customary for the person doing the hosting to pour the tea out, and for the teapot to be left on the table with the spout facing the person who poured. If sat at a table, the proper manner to drink tea is to raise the tea cup, leaving the saucer on the table, and to place the cup back on the saucer between sips.
Milk's only purpose in this concoction is to fill the cracks of the cereal and contrast with the dry, coarse flakes. Pouring the milk first undermines this purpose and plants in the consumers head the wrong idea that cereal is the secondary component in the dish.
Doodh pati chai, literally 'milk and tea leaves', a tea beverage drunk in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Teh tarik, a kind of milk tea popular in Malaysia and Singapore. Suutei tsai, a salty Mongolian milk tea. Shahi haleeb, a Yemeni milk tea served after chewing qat.
You can add milk to any tea you want. Don't listen to tea snobs who tell you that milk and tea do not go together. The best teas in the world taste beautiful, no matter how you choose to prepare them. In fact, milk can bring out interesting new flavors in tea.
What Kind of Milk do British Put in Tea? Usually, and in the past it's been whole milk that Brits use in their tea. In the US, 2% milk is passable, but don't offer me 1% or even talk to me about skim milk. The cream that's in whole milk adds a lot to the flavor of a cuppa.
Grant went on to note that the Queen always adds milk to the cup after the tea because it is the "proper" way of doing things. "Since the 18th century, the 'proper' way of brewing tea has been to serve tea before milk, and this is something that the British royals adhere to,” he said.
A massive 85% of British Earl Grey and English breakfast tea drinkers have their tea with milk. Brits are definitely in the minority here, with the next milkiest country being Sweden, where just 32% take their Earl Grey/English breakfast with milk.
Many assume that adding milk to tea started in England, but that's not actually the case. The British didn't start drinking tea until the 17th century, whereas dairy may have been added to tea in Tibet as early as 781, when tea was introduced to Mongolia from China.
Enhance your Earl Grey tea
Traditionally, Earl Grey tea is served with a slice of lemon and sugar to taste. According to YouGov, a massive 85% of British Earl Grey and English breakfast tea drinkers enjoy their tea with milk. In the US, they like to add milk and sugar to their Earl Grey tea.
Their preference: Fill a kettle with fresh, cold water and boil it on the stove. Don't forget how long you've been steeping your tea. Put your tea in your cup, then pour boiling water on top. Steep for three-to-five minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea.
Tea without milk is typically referred to as "black tea."
But a closer look reveals the Welsh have a much sweeter tooth as 42% admit to having some sugar in their tea compared with just 30% of the English and 27% of Scots. Despite calls by the government and health bodies to cut down on sugar, only 9% of Brits take sweeteners in their tea.
A: 97.5%. Q: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF TEA IS TAKEN WITH MILK? A: 57% of tea drinkers add dairy milk, 10% add a plant milk, 27% add sugar and 12% use a low-calorie sweetener.
The Brits started adding milk to their tea somewhere around the 18th century. The ordinary cups of commoners couldn't bear the heat of piping hot tea.
Mongolians drank tea with milk. Chinese did not. The simple fact is that China was never traditionally a country where cows grazed in vast numbers. Milk was available in England in the countryside and it was common to drink Chinese black tea with milk even before Indian tea arrived in the 1840s.
Turns out, it's all to do with taxes. Tea was first brought to Britain in the early 17th century by the East India Company and was presented to King Charles II. His Portuguese wife, Princess Catherine of Braganza, set the trend in drinking tea, which then caught on among the aristocrats of the time.
The #MilkFirst contingent insists filling up the bowl with liquid first is the only way to keep cereal from getting soggy.In 2015, @polls on Twitter found 94 percent of people pour cereal first, with just 6 percent claiming to pour milk in their bowl first.
… Your two best friends for a restful night. Milk (and other dairy products) are a really good source of tryptophan. It's an amino acid that can help promote sleep, so it can come in particularly handy especially if you're used to tossing and turning before finally getting off to sleep.
Adding milk in first was a way of separating the classes in a period when simple wealth was not enough. To minor aristocrats and their hangers on, such social distinctions were highly interesting.
Americans typically drink their Earl Grey with milk and sugar, but Chatterton prefers it the British way — with lemon and sugar. "Milk has a tendency to do strange things to black tea," he says. "It dulls the flavor a bit. It's not as crisp and sharp.