This is my first post in several years. I stopped doing MA around 5 years ago and haven't had a reason to come to the site. Then, last night, I had a dream that the site was shut down and turned into a mailing list. I just had to check to be sure this wasn't true, and upon visiting the forum, I remembered that this is a largely British group, and thought it might be a good place to ask about some tea I recently purchased. I was at the grocery store looking for tea. I usually like a strong black tea in the morning, like an English breakfast tea, and also sometimes Earl Grey. As I was wandering the aisle, I came across a large tin with the British flag that said "Championing the Great British Cuppa Since 1997" on the front and a triangular street sign on top, overlain with a picture of a workman and the text "make mine a builders". The very next thing I noticed was that it was 80 tea bags and didn't seem very expensive. This was slightly troubling because I was worried that, unable to restrain myself, I would purchase 80 bags of terrible black tea in a kind of neat tin. I added the tea to my cart. When I got home, I had to try it out. I looked at the instructions, which said something about whistling a jaunty 20 second tune. After adding a tea bag and hot water to my cup, I found that it takes me exactly 20 seconds to whistle the refrain of Rule Brittania (I think there's a repeat in there, right?), and then waited a little bit longer because as the box suggested, I "really like it strong". I took the tea bag out, squeezed it (as per the instructions on the box), and took a sip after 30 second. Despite the numerous promises of a really strong tea, I decided it still needed to steep longer. Maybe I've been drinking too much coffee lately. I don't ever put creme and sugar in my tea, because to me, usually, I think it's like drinking watered down, kind of sweetish milk. However, I decided to follow the instructions on the tin and added some almond milk (I didn't have creme or regular milk) and honey, rather than sugar. So, my thoughts? I actually enjoyed it, and I've been drinking it like this almost every morning when I get up for the past few weeks. But I am kind of curious about this stuff. Is it a really common tea in Britain? Is it a well known brand? Is it considered a really cheap low quality tea (I don't think I can tell)? Average? Good? Is it considered strong (it didn't seem particularly strong compared to anything with "breakfast" in the name)?
Never heard of it to be honest. But over here PG Tips and Tetleys are the Coke/Pepsi of the black tea world.
Builders tea is just a slang term for cheap black tea served with milk and sugar. So if someone asked for a tea, milk, 2 sugars - that would be a builder's tea.
Ah, thank you! That makes sense. I suppose I could literally spend 5 seconds googling it to find out, but I'm guessing, based on the way the whole thing kind of looks like a logo, that "make mine a builders" is actually the brand name.
My own recipe for genuine builders tea ; Take one chipped sports direct or jewson's mug , empty of sawdust,plaster,ancient dry bag etc. and wash out with dregs of kettle. Refill kettle with fresh water, insert fresh teabag (commonly PG tips, Tetley or Yorkshire tea) , pour boiling water and stew to taste . The colour is critical and will vary from a light oak to a dark teak , each person's preference to be noted Milk should be full fat and sugar white . All the above to be performed by the most junior member the team on site , on arrival and at regular predetermined times of the day . That said I don't take sugar , drink both green and fruit teas and am partial to a cup of lapsang souchong , as are many other builders I know .
I like Typhoo. As everyone had said, builders tea is really just milk and two sugars. Semi skimmed milk. Not almond.
Shouldn't builder's tea be strong enough to stand the spoon up in? Anyway...."builder's tea" is a fairly well known expression in the UK so I imagine a company has just taken that and "branded" it into a product. Probably covered it in union jacks, spitfire roundels and bulldogs? Not heard of it myself but then I don't touch tea. And for the record if you've put almond milk and honey in it it ain't builder's tea anymore. That would be what builder's would call "ponce's tea".
Oh, yes, milk and sugar are always the first things that come to mind when I picture a really tough guy I do like actual creme in coffee, although most of the time I take it black, but in general I don't like the taste of regular milk at all, so I never buy it.
Also known as Nato standard. You can also have Julia Andrews (white none). Mama Cass (sweet black). Whoopie (Goldberg) (black none).
If you like tea, you should try this "Pouchong tea" at least once in your lifetime. It may change your opinion about what a good tea suppose to taste like. My grade school owns many tea mountains. Every week there was 2 hours that grade school kids had to go to those mountain and picked up this tea leaf. I fell in love with this brand of tea since then. It costs $196.00 a lb, not cheat. http://www.tenren.com/supo.html
It's probably a function of me leaving the tea bag in for way too long. In the mornings, I usually don't bother to take the bag out while I'm drinking it. Also, at work, I used to drink Darjeeling from whole tea leaves, which was really mild, but I've switched to coffee.
