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(Dieter Folz) wrote in message m>...
> Hello to all,
>
> Reading some books by Kazuo Ishiguro lately, I noticed a great "fuss"
> about the tea and it's way to be served. I don't understand that at
> all. As I understand, the "orthodox" English way is to serve (and
> take, of course) tea always with milk. Well, esp. in the afternoon I
> presume there is mostly a decent Earl Grey or Darjeeling been drunk.
> Preferring a nice blend of FTGFOP1 Darjeeling First Flush (and an Earl
> Grey from time to time) by myself, I can't imagine drinking those with
> milk! So, I hope someone here can enlighten me about the English way
> of drinking tea ;-).
>
>
> Regards,
> Dieter

Dieter:

If you look at the English tea set, you will see- six cups and
saucers, One tea pot, one milk pot and one sugar pot. I guess English
way to drink tea is- drinking tea with a tea set. That means- brewed
tea with milk and sugar.

Tea culture in U.K. & South Asia:

When S. Asia was British colony- the English people started the tea
cultivation around this region because to take some control on
Chinese tea trades. But the tea seed was from Mainland China. However,
in south Asia English tea style is still the elegant way to serve tea.
If you ever been to South Asia you will see- when you go to a house or
in a office, first they will ask you-do you want a cup of tea? If yes
then you also have a choice to say- you want ginger tea or lemon tea
etc. But if you just say yes, that means milk tea. The way tea is
presents here also represent the specific family's or company's classy
taste. Sort of Japan-tea presentation indicates the style. The true
English way is- Brewed tea pot covered with a (nice, hand woven) tea
cozy. cups and saucers numbers depend on the guests numbers. Full
sugar pot(sugars quality also represent the style & status).A full
milk pot with different kinds of snacks(again the quality and amount
represent the style and status)LOL. But no one will ask you like in
US-"Do you want milk 2% milk (I had hard time in US about this 2%(Low
fat milk or full cream milk option LOL). English way milk means-full
cream milk but again not creamer. I had the same experience in UK- tea
with a whole tea set.

Well, about different blends and different teas- When people drink
Darjeeling, a lot of people drink straight even some people put some
milk or lemon etc. I think more then a billion tea drinkers live in
south Asia but few people still know about the SFTGFOP1 grading
system, I guess also in US and UK. But majority people still like full
body, strong tea. That's why TG tips, Marks & Spencer are the most
popular tea in UK. In south Asia Assam CTC dominates the tea cups. But
Masala Cha or Chai Masala is not a UK culture, it's totally a South
Asian tea culture. Though South Asian "Chicken Tikka"(Grilled chicken)
is very popular in UK and as far as I know Masala Cha's popularity is
also growing there in UK.

"English Breakfast"(EB) Blend:- Most of the time it is Chinese Keemun
but sometimes EB can be also only Ceylon OP, example- Sir Tomas
Lipton's EB Blend. Even EB can be a combination of Keemun and Ceylon
OP. Anyway the result is EB blend is a strong blend so some milk and
sugar go fine with it. I never heard any EB has Darjeeling, which is
more kind of a light ,delicate tea. By the way, I had English
breakfast tea in US as Bond Street Blend which was a combination of
Assam and Ceylon.

Irish & Scottish breakfast Blend: Most of the time entirely Assam
sometimes can be combination of Assam, Bangladeshi CTC or Ceylon. But
mostly Assam I guess. Irish breakfast blend is mostly made from CTC
tea.

So you can see most of the English ways of teas are strong that's why
it comes with milk and sugar.

Actually I can write a whole book about English way of tea LOL. I
always love to talk and drink about EB blend or any blend. Because
English way of drinking tea is also our way of drinking tea. It is an
art to have a good cup of tea.

> P.S.: Does anybody know something about Ishiguro's tea habits?

K. Ishiguro is a Japanese-English writer(though both of her parents
were Japanese) but I have no idea about his tea habits, sorry.

Ripon
(From Bangladesh)