Tea in Glasgow
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Nicholas Tomaino, "The Most Spoken Words in Glasgow", WSJ 1/6/2024:
When someone says, ‘Would anyone like a cup of tea,’ he isn’t offering the best-tasting thing one’s ever had. But that isn’t the point.
The author begins:
I was 23 when I drank my first cup of tea. As an Italian-American, I was raised on coffee. My life changed, however, when I met my wife.
Maddy is a Scot. If you’re from the U.K. or otherwise acquainted with the country, you understand. Tea is imbibed there as if it were water. It features at nearly every meal, and often between them. As William Gladstone wrote, if you’re cold, it’ll warm you; if you’re too heated, it’ll cool you; if you’re excited, it’ll calm you. It can afford to be everywhere, James Boswell noted, because “it comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spiritous liquors.”
Unlike Tomaino, I never drank coffee. Like Tomaino, I learned to drink tea around the age of twenty when I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, and it promptly became the love of my life. It would warm me up when I was cold, it would cool me down when I was too hot, and it would soothe me when I was agitated. I've been saying that for more than sixty years, long before I read nearly the identical sentiments attributed to William Gladstone (1809-1898). There must be some deep truth to them.
…
Some notable Britons have set out to memorialize the culture’s ground rules over the years. In the Jan. 12, 1946, edition of the Evening Standard, George Orwell published “A Nice Cup of Tea,” his 11 rules for brewing the beverage. Those ranged from “the pot should be warmed beforehand” to “take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about.” Christopher Hitchens agreed on both counts more than a half-century later, noting that they were “essential.” Hitchens deemed Orwell’s other rules optional: namely, “use Indian or Ceylonese—i.e., Sri Lankan—tea”; make it “only in small quantities”; and “avoid silverware pots.”
Both writers acknowledge that such rules are steeped in controversy. Orwell observed that the best manner of making tea—“one of the mainstays of civilization” in Britain—is the subject of “violent disputes.” Hitchens added that family feuds have “lasted generations” over the relevant steps, such as when to add milk.
I beg to differ with Tomaino, who avers:
Tea’s taste is incidental. It isn’t very good, even when cups are brewed by the book. The drink’s most commendable quality is its warmth, invariably too fleeting anyway. It is, nevertheless, everywhere. The house was strewn with half-sipped mugs. “Of course,” Maddy said. “Drinking it isn’t the point.”
What is the point? To borrow a phrase, tea for tea’s sake. There isn’t a time of day when the kettle isn’t humming, the cups on the shelf aren’t clinking. Breakfast tea in the morning, decaf after lunch, maybe fruity after dinner, chamomile before bed. A biscuit or piece of chocolate won’t be far away. Perhaps the most often spoken words in Glasgow are, “Would anyone like a cup of tea?” They’re said with affection. Whoever speaks them is offering up his time in an act of humanity, a gesture of goodwill. The result isn’t the best-tasting thing one’s ever had. Nor is it a caffeine fix. That’s the coffee addict’s game. Just a nice hot cup of comfort, made with care.
In my estimation, there is nothing potable that is more satisfying than a good cup of loose leaf tea (e.g., Oolong from the high mountain estates on Taiwan; they also have excellent Darjeeling, though I still prefer 1st and 2nd flush from the eponymous estates in northeast India) from a high quality, reliable purveyor such as In Pursuit of Tea (Wakefield, MA), brewed properly at the right temperature (I found a unique metal tea kettle [actually, I think it's for pour over coffee] with a built-in thermometer on the street in West Philadelphia), with one teaspoon of turbinado sugar and three tablespoons of half and half poured in at the end. Divine, with an aftertaste that lingers for an hour or more!
Now I get to ask all the assembled Glaswegians, are “Would anyone like a cup of tea?” really the most often spoken words in Glasgow?
Selected readings
- "Steeped in Tea", by Samuel Hughes, The Pennsylvania Gazette (1/1/10) — photographer Candace diCarlo had me pose for two and a half hours and hundreds of shots
- "Two brews" (2/6/10) — there are dozens of other Language Log posts on various aspects of tea
- Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh, The True History of Tea (Thames & Hudson, 2009)
[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]
Laura Morland said,
January 9, 2024 @ 2:07 am
Aren't we the lucky ones who were introduced to tea at crucial period in our lives? Like Tomiano, I married into tea — my first (late) husband, the Celtic scholar Brendan O Hehir, grew up in Dublin — but like you and apparently not like him, I love the taste of it.
Strangely enough, one of the best places to find a range of excellent high-end teas is in Paris, at Mariage Frères. Strange because it's a frustrating experience to order tea anywhere else in the country; they'll normally bring out a little ceramic or metal teapot containing water that may or may not have been boiling at some point in its lifespan, and then present you with a box of teabags, many of which are "infusions" and not proper tea.
By the time you locate a true black tea in the mix (studiously avoiding the packets of Earl Grey which the French don't quite understand but always seem to have in great quantities), rip open the packet, and drop the sachet into the pot, the temperature of the water has dropped to 30° less than optimal. (My Brendan temporarily became a coffee drinker while in France.)
What do Orwell and Hitchens have to say about the temperature of the water used to be baptise one's tea?
Little linguistic point: in Ireland, at least, it's called "a cuppa" tea, and not "a cup of".
Daphne Preston-Kendal said,
January 9, 2024 @ 3:22 am
This being Language Log, and seeing mention of Scotland in connection with ‘tea’, I half expected this to concern the other use of the word ‘tea’ in Scotland and Northern England, where it refers to the main evening meal of the day. This causes confusion when encountered by those from more southerly areas for whom it refers pretty much only to the drink — or, if to a meal, then to a smaller, sweeter meal taken with tea, somewhat earlier in the day, in the afternoon.
Rob Grayson said,
January 9, 2024 @ 4:14 am
"It features at nearly every meal, and often between them."
As a Brit who grew up in Yorkshire (I now live in the Midlands), I well remember having a mug of tea with every meal. This was simply something everyone did. Only when I went away to university in Nottingham did I realise that this was a distinctly northern practice that raised eyebrows among those from further south. Furthermore, I suspect it's more or less died out even in the north of England now (I don't know about Scotland).
Levantine said,
January 9, 2024 @ 4:32 am
Daphne Preston-Kendal, the use of “tea” to refer to dinner extends at least as far south as London, where I grew up. If, like me, you were from an immigrant family, the usage was one you knew only from your ethnically English friends.
ajay said,
January 9, 2024 @ 7:14 am
I half expected this to concern the other use of the word ‘tea’ in Scotland and Northern England, where it refers to the main evening meal of the day.
In parts of Scotland at least there is also the distinction between "high tea" and "low tea" – the high/low referring not to class or ceremony, but being literally the altitude above the floor at which the tea is served. High tea is at a high table – ie a dinner table, high enough to get your knees under – and is more or less your full evening meal, but with tea as a drink. Low tea is at a low table – a tea table/coffee table – and is much smaller, just actual tea, in a teapot, plus biscuits or cakes or whatever.
"You'll have had your tea" is the traditional greeting in the less generous parts of Scotland, according to people in the more generous parts of Scotland. They are referring to the evening meal and are saying "I hope you are not expecting me to feed you because I'm not going to".
David Marjanović said,
January 9, 2024 @ 10:17 am
More on "high tea", along with "tea" as a meal, "coffee" as a meal in Brazil, the etymology of lunch, and many other topics.
/df said,
January 9, 2024 @ 11:12 am
"You'll have had your tea" was popularised to us Sassenachs and our ilk by radio punsters Hamish and Dougal, played by Barry Cryer (sorely missed) and Graeme Garden. In case we might have taken the phrase as an insulting cross-border stereotype, it's nice to discover the internecine aspect. Where are these "more generous areas of Scotland", anyway? You might guess, wherever Rod Stewart (he of the £10k tip) comes from, but that's Highgate (London N).
Aardvark Cheeselog said,
January 9, 2024 @ 11:48 am
I have nothing in particular to say about Scottish tea-drinking habits, other than to note that the modal UK tea-drinker does not drink top-shelf loose-leaf tea, and Tomaino doubtless never encountered a tea-snob's idea of a good cup. There *is* good tea in the UK: go to Twinings on the Strand, head to the back of the shop where they keep the real unadulterated single-origin teas, and you can find some pretty reasonably-priced tea that won't make you frown even if you're a snob.
Though OP has literally written the book on tea history, that vendor he points at is really expensive for what they're selling. I'm pretty sure that there's no such thing as 21st-century Jingmai shu puer that an educated shopper would buy at $300+/kg for example. There's no good reason not to buy your tea straight from Asia these days.
Dan Milton said,
January 9, 2024 @ 1:06 pm
Far, far south of London, as an American geologist in central Australia, it took a while to get used to “Will you stay for tea?” invariably leading to beefsteak (and good, at a station run by a manager, the best, not the weakest, beast was slaughtered).
katarina said,
January 9, 2024 @ 1:14 pm
As a child I was familiar with two ways of drinking tea, the English way, with milk and sugar, and the Chinese way, just boiling water over loose tea leaves, with no milk or sugar.
But in Calcutta, India, where I lived for a few years in the 1940s, I saw a third way, also very English, though with a difference. We were living in a rented flat in an old Victorian mansion on a road that had become commercialized and was no longer fashionable. There was a tiny teashop right next to the entrance to our driveway. Customers were served with boiling hot tea-with-milk-and-sugar in a cup on a saucer, the English style. The shop had no space for customers, of which there was an unending stream all day long. I could tell the customers were all coolies because they were all dressed with just a loincloth. They drank their tea on the sidewalk in front of the shop. They did not drink standing up. They all drank stooped on the ground, holding the cup of tea in one hand and the saucer in the other. Each coolie poured some hot tea into his saucer, blew vigorously on it to cool it, then drank from the saucer. This was repeated until he had drunk up all his tea. There was no food, no snacks. And no talking, each man concentrated on blowing and drinking. I thought it a strange use of the saucer. I wonder if you can still see this way of drinking tea in Calcutta, now named Kolkata.
Coby said,
January 9, 2024 @ 1:44 pm
In America, "high tea" is often mistakenly used for what in England (I don't know about elsewhere in Britain) is known as cream tea — served in mid-afternoon, and accompanied by scones, clotted cream and jam.
By the way, tea culture is not exclusive to either the Anglosphere or East or South Asia. It is also found in Turkey, Russia and other places.
Philip Taylor said,
January 9, 2024 @ 2:16 pm
Katarina — "I thought it a strange use of the saucer" — my late father drove London ’buses for over 35 years, and "saucering" (the practice of pouring one’s tea into the saucer in order to cool it more rapidly) was standard practice in (e.g.,) Well Hall ’bus station, if one or both crew members (driver, conductor/tress) were short of time for their break.
katarina said,
January 9, 2024 @ 2:35 pm
Thank you, Philip. Now I see it was not a strange way of using the saucer but a sensible way of using the saucer.
katarina said,
January 9, 2024 @ 2:48 pm
Just now, an American who read my comment on "saucering" in Calcutta emailed me:
" In Laura Ingalls Wilder's book _Farmer Boy_, a sister says it's low class to cool and drink tea from one's saucer. She is chastised for such a comment. This would have been the 1860's/70's in rural NY."
Peter CS said,
January 9, 2024 @ 3:42 pm
Growing up in middle-class Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1950s, high tea was what most ordinary families had when Dad got home from work. It comprised typically a hot dish, followed by bread with butter and jam, scones and cake. The adults drank tea and we children drank (full-fat un-homogenised) milk. Everyone would previously have had 'dinner' at mid-day – at school, office or home.
Afternoon tea was what was served in hotels or the dining rooms of department stores – and reputedly in the homes of posh people. It comprised dainty sandwiches (such as cucumber) and again scones, maybe biscuits/cookies and individual cakes, with tea as the drink.
Tea for home consumption was sold loose in packages and brewed in a teapot covered with a crocheted cosy to keep it warm – few houses had central heating. Tea bags, when they arrived maybe 1960-ish, were considered abhorrent.
I've never heard the term 'low tea'. 'Cream tea' is a West Country thing, ie the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in south-west England and is characterised by scones with clotted cream and jam – none of which has an exact equivalent in US cuisine.
My sister (still in Edinburgh) still refers to the evening meal as 'tea', but it is now typically what the rest of us call 'dinner', ie two or three courses and no cakes etc, and is usually followed by coffee.
I expect some people still use cups and saucers, but at home I think most British people use mugs for tea or coffee nowadays (though it's still called a 'cup of tea').
Scott P. said,
January 9, 2024 @ 3:57 pm
I now know the meaning of the expression that the American Senate is "the saucer that cools the drink." Never thought of a saucer as cooling anything.
Julian said,
January 9, 2024 @ 4:53 pm
In New South Wales, c1975, we had:
– in the middle class city home: breakfast, lunch and dinner;
– at the boarding school: breakfast, lunch and tea (Mondays to Saturdays); breakfast, dinner and tea (Sundays);
– while working in the bush: breakfast, dinner and tea.
The meals were the same in all cases (something like a sandwich in the middle of the day; the main hot meal at the end of the day), except that at the boarding school the main hot meal on Sunday was in the middle of the day, probably so they could send some of the kitchen staff home early to minimise overtime.
This city boy was intrigued by the idea that in the bush the midday meal was always "dinner", even if it was just a sandwich eaten while sitting under a tree in the middle of the paddock. I suspect that was a holdover from the language of earlier days.
katarina said,
January 9, 2024 @ 5:34 pm
Just found this on the web:
" Cup and saucer" is a metaphor , used by George Washington to Jefferson, to differentiate the roles played by the House of Representatives and United States Senate. – The Senate (Reason) was created to "cool" House (Passion) legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea/coffee.
Victor Mair said,
January 9, 2024 @ 7:55 pm
A recent PhD presented me with a canister of Brodies Scottish Afternoon Tea, with 50 afternoon tea bags in it.
On the back it says:
Brodies have been blending tea since 1867
When the great tea clippers would dock in Scotland at the port of Leith
Laden with precious cargo
The tea clippers are now gone
But we are still sourcing and blending
The finest teas from around the world
The Perfect Cup
Step 1 Always warm the cup
Step 2 Add a tea bag per person
Step 3 Pour on freshly boiled water
Step 4 Wait 3-5 minutes to infuse according to taste
=======
VHM: The result — just about the best cup of tea I've ever had from a tea bag.
Chester Draws said,
January 9, 2024 @ 8:18 pm
It is amusing that the British go into a tizz if you put the milk in wrong — when most of the world considers putting milk in at all to be wrong.
I myself have my tea piping hot, very weak, with a lot of lemon juice. I learned that way from my very English upper working class grandmother.
If you put milk in it I won't drink it. When you put it in matters not a jot.
Chris Button said,
January 9, 2024 @ 9:44 pm
What about the whole debate over whether milk should be put in the cup first?
Stephen J said,
January 10, 2024 @ 1:32 am
"tea" meaning evening meal is still pretty common in New Zealand, and if someone asks you if you would like to come over for tea, they are inviting you to have dinner, not to drink the beverage (and in fact tea the beverage will probably not be served at that meal). There might be class overtones.
Philip Taylor said,
January 10, 2024 @ 4:48 am
Peter CS — "[afternoon tea] comprised dainty sandwiches (such as cucumber)" with the crusts cut off — most important …
"most British people use mugs for tea or coffee nowadays" — most, perhaps, but at least one does not — Rombout’s coffee cups and saucers for everyday coffee (my gardeners get told off if they do not use the saucers), Prinknash Abbey cups, saucers and coffee pot for coffee on special occasions, Bohemian porcelain cups and saucers for English-style tea, and Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese cups (no saucers) for Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese tea !
I do own two mugs (both gifts), but one is used mainly for holding eggs while they are being whisked while the other has a photograph of my cat Squeaker incorporated in the glaze and is therefore treated with the greatest reverence,
Peter Taylor said,
January 10, 2024 @ 5:26 am
@Victor Mair, do the instructions really say to warm the cup or should that read "Always warm the pot"? As transcribed, they seem to suggest that everyone will be drinking from the same, large, cup.
Philip Taylor said,
January 10, 2024 @ 6:41 am
With a tea bag, Peter, one typically makes the tea in the cup, not in the pot, so warming the cup is indeed almost certainly what was meant/intended.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
January 10, 2024 @ 8:39 am
Poll for the room: Does anyone drink both tea _and_ coffee?
bks said,
January 10, 2024 @ 8:59 am
Benjamin, coffee before noon, tea after.
Rob Grayson said,
January 10, 2024 @ 9:00 am
@Benjamin: coffee with breakfast and mid-morning, tea after lunch and after dinner (aka evening meal).
Philip Taylor said,
January 10, 2024 @ 10:46 am
Until very recently, three cups of Monsooned Malabar to start the day, and occasional refreshers thereof thereafter, tea (Chinese) with a Chinese meal, tea (Indian) never. The Monsooned Malabar has had to be set aside for the time being, as it seemed to be provoking an adverse oesophageal reaction. It has been replaced by iced coffee made using full-fat milk (ideally Jersey) and a fairly substantial quantity of Camp coffee, which is a concentrated liquid coffee made from coffee and chicory; if anything, this iced/milk-based version pacifies my oesophagus rather than irritates it.
David Marjanović said,
January 11, 2024 @ 12:39 pm
That's simply because most of the world uses, say, two teabags per liter, not "one per person and one for the pot". The tea I've had in England was simply too strong (some say oversteeped) to be drunk without milk. (With milk, it was good – I'm not complaining!)
…apart from most of the world being lactose-intolerant, of course.
The Turks, in huge quantities.
They're the reason why cheap looseleaf tea is available in supermarkets in Germany.
Philip Taylor said,
January 12, 2024 @ 5:12 am
Do the Turks drink "conventional" coffee (filter, cafetiere, Cona, …) as well as Turkish coffee, David ? I ask because I can still remember the shock when I tried to order a Greek coffee in an Athenian café (a 100% Greek café, that is, not a multinational chain such as Starbucks) and was told that they served only "conventional" coffee — I would have to go to a specialist café if I wanted Greek coffee.
ajay said,
January 12, 2024 @ 7:40 am
it's nice to discover the internecine aspect. Where are these "more generous areas of Scotland", anyway?
The Highlands think themselves more generous than Glasgow; Glasgow, than Edinburgh; Edinburgh, than Aberdeen.
It is amusing that the British go into a tizz if you put the milk in wrong — when most of the world considers putting milk in at all to be wrong.
You should visit India – in south India at least, and among south Indians elsewhere (like Malaysia), tea is drunk, very strong, from a tall glass with a layer of condensed milk at the bottom. If you don't like milk in your tea, don't stir it (it will still get milkier and sweeter as you work your way down the glass).
In Tibet they add yak butter, which I don't think I could ever get used to.
Chris Button said,
January 12, 2024 @ 11:09 am
I used to drink the condensed milk version a lot in Burma/Myanmar. No tall glasses or milk at the bottom though. Regular teacups with it all stirred in at the outset.
Rodger C said,
January 12, 2024 @ 11:48 am
A Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington, IN serves tea with what's probably good old Hoosier cow butter, but blended into the tea, not floating on top.
Chas Belov said,
January 12, 2024 @ 1:36 pm
Re the polls, I abhor the smell of coffee and don't even like to be in the same room as a cup of coffee, so tea only. If I'm drinking tea tea, I'll have it without milk, although recently I've discovered that I like to do some herbal teas with whey protein (and will also do them without).
I have special places in my heart for Hong Kong Milk Tea and boba drinks. I consider them guilty pleasures, so only have them perhaps once a year each on average.
Thinking about "tea tea" I'm wondering if I would also use "milk milk" as opposed to soy milk or oat milk or other milks. I don't think so, but it could happen. One could go on about this as with "Portuguese Portuguese tart" as opposed to "Hong Kong Portuguese tart" (Macau Portuguese tart? I suspect Hong Kong adopted it from formerly Portuguese Macau.)
Philip Taylor said,
January 12, 2024 @ 2:44 pm
I don't think I am normally aware of the smell of coffee, in the sense of the smell of a cup of coffee that is, but the smell of roasting coffee is, for me, one of the greatest pleasures in life. I have fond memories of walking down Bromley High Street (Bromley, Kent, that is, not Bromley, Bow) with the most wonderful smell emanating from the branch of Importers Ltd that was established there. The smell permeated virtually the whole high street, and I could never walk past without going in for a cup of Blue Mountain with fresh cream … Sadly Importers, Ltd., is no more — when it ceased trading the premises became a charity shop and a hamburger outlet, although I no longer remember in which order. I still feel the loss of Importers, Ltd., to this day.
Anthea Fleming said,
January 12, 2024 @ 7:29 pm
Australia -When I was young, the evening meal was always tea. Think lamb chops, potato, green veg, followed by junket or bottled fruit. But we didn't drink tea with it. Water jug on the table. Tea drunk at any other time. My husband's family call it dinner as i do now.
I knew that a 'high tea' was an early evening meal, met in other families, with cold meat, salad, bread/butter and probably cake and biscuits. And a teapot etc. I am very annoyed to hear it applied to an up-market, over-priced afternoon tea in a restaurant, where the scones are nothing like my mother's and the jam and cream come in teaspoonfuls.