Milk first? We nearly choked on our Digestive.
Someone claiming to know what makes a perfect cup of tea is like a pub claiming that it makes the best pint of Guinness.
Surely it’s a matter of taste and purely dependent on individual preference? Right?
That hasn’t stopped the British Standards Institution (BSI) from releasing their best practise guidelines for the perfect cup of tea, however.
The guidelines were released this week and some of them are bound to provoke outrage amongst the tea-drinking community on this side of the pond and plenty of crying over spilled milk.
Here, the BSI say, are the guidelines for making the perfect cuppa.
- Tea should be poured in a porcelain pot, using 2g of tea for every 100 grams of water. The average teabag weighs 2g, meaning two teabags for a small teapot and four for a large one.
- Once the boiled water is added to the pot, the lid should be put back on and the tea should be allowed to diffuse for SIX minutes.
- This is the big one. If you’re having milk with your tea, you should pour it into the cup BEFORE adding the tea. That’s right, BEFORE.
- The temperature of the water should not exceed 85C degrees to ensure the milk isn’t scalded but should be above 60C to ensure ‘optimum flavour and sensation’.
- Do not, under any circumstances, add milk to a cup and then add a teabag before adding the boiling water. Pfft, come on lads, surely that’s just common sense?
To be honest, we can’t argue with a whole lot of what’s said there but the whole milk before the tea advice has already brought the office to a standstill.
We would be in no way surprised if Joe Duffy’s phone lines are hopping over this very hot topic a little later on.
Put the kettle on and get the biscuits ready folks; it’s time to stop milking this debate, prevent it from boiling over and settle it once and for all.
And don’t even get us started on the whole Barry’s v Lyons argument.
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