particular type of food or drink which they become associated with. Swiss

chocolate, Cuban rum, American burgers. What are the English most

associated with?

Well, for many, the English are seen first and foremost as a nation of teadrinkers.

Everything stops for a cup tea. How would the English cope without

their afternoon cup and all the social rituals and formalities that come with it?

But is this really true? Or is it just a stereotype? In this programme we're going

to find out. First of all, I asked some English people what role tea played in

their lives? How many say it's important? Listen to find out.

English people

Lady 1: On special occasions I do drink coffee, but most of the time I'm definitely a tea

drinker.

Man: I have to one cup of tea, at least one cup of tea some time in the afternoon about 2

o'clock generally – 2-3 o'clock.

Lady 2: I'm much more of a coffee drinker it really just sets me up for the day. I just have to

have my cup of coffee pretty well as soon as I'm out of bed.

Jackie: Well, the first two people are definitely tea lovers. The third says she's more of

a coffee drinker. She said coffee 'sets her up' for the day, which means it gives

her energy and makes her feel full of life. 

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The tea drunk here in England is grown mostly in Asia and other parts of the

world, but there is a tea plantation in the UK: the Tregothnan tea estate in

Cornwall. We sent our reporter Tim there. As you listen to him try to answer

this question: How many cups of tea are drunk in the UK every day? Over to

Tim in Cornwall.

Tim

It's absolutely beautiful here. Did you know in the UK we drink 165 million cups of tea a day.

Isn't that a staggering amount? And 96% of that tea comes from teabags.

Jackie: Did you get that? 165 million! That's a lot of tea, or, as Tim put it, 'a staggering

amount', which means it's hard to believe we drink so much tea. Tim also said

96% of tea comes from teabags. So most people make tea by putting a small

ready-made paper bag in each cup they make instead of using a teapot. A

teapot is a container which you usually put loose leaves in and can use to make

more than one cup of tea at a time. A beautiful porcelain teapot, complete with

a set of matching cups and saucers was traditionally a great source of pride to

many people – something they might want to show off to their friends. But if

96 % of cups of tea are now made with teabags what does this mean for the

future of teapots? Listen to find out.

Tim

The sales of teapots are suffering as a result, they're down two-thirds in the last five years and

it seems that most 18-40 year olds think that teapots are quaint and stuffy and old-fashioned

and don't really want to buy them.

Jackie: Did you get the answer? Not so many people are buying teapots any more.

Most people aged 18-40 don't think much of tea pots. Let's look at the words

they used. 'Quaint' and 'old-fashioned' sort of mean the same thing. If

something is quaint or old-fashioned, you associate it with the past, it's not very

modern. 'Quaint' can be quite a positive word. It can mean it's unusual and old-

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fashioned in an attractive way. But 'stuffy', the other word we heard is not at all

positive. It means something is too formal, too old-fashioned and serious.

Speaking of which, there has traditionally been a great deal of etiquette or rules

surrounding tea-drinking. Which direction should the teapot face on the table?

How should you hold your cup when you drink from it? One of the biggest

debates people have is if you're pouring tea from a teapot into a cup, should

you put the milk in before you pour the tea, or after?

Well Mark is a true English tea drinker and expert on tea etiquette. Listen to

him telling us what we should do and why.

Mark

Traditionally, one should add milk to the cup first, and then hot tea the reason for that is that

fine bone china will crack if you add very hot liquids to it. Unfortunately, nowadays it is quite

common for people to just use any old mugs, not of a particularly fine quality and tea will

often be added to the cup before the milk, which is quite incorrect.

Jackie: Mark says you should put milk in first so the cup doesn't crack from the heat.

But nowadays, people tend to drink tea from mugs, which are much simpler

and stronger – than the delicate traditional fine bone china cups.

Sadly, tea-drinking in England today no longer seems to involve much

etiquette at all. It involves drinking it at pretty much any time of the day from

any old mug without any real sense of formality. But, as we've heard, teadrinking

is still a very popular activity here, in fact, I'm off for a cuppa now.