What is 'white tea' when builders ask for it?

[Liriope]

Not from the UK, and currently living in Cambridge. Every time I've offered tea or coffee to builders, plumbers, electricians they ask for 'white tea'.

Is this just normal tea with milk?

DH says they mean Silver Tip White Tea.

My daughter likes white tee to my mock horror. I order catering packs of PG Tips two cup pyramid bags (which make one cup not two) and choose coffee when out because tee will be a herbal infusion (except at work where I have my own tea bags).

@Patroclus Filipinos make lovely tea! I'm a Brit and converted to tea drinking when I lived in the Philippines 🤣
I love White tip @Liriope, lucky 'home theatre calibration expert'!!! And my brother had to be sent loose leaf Lapsang souchong and Rose Puchong over to him when on active service in Afghanistan. He kept that quiet obvio so no one could take the piss. But we all did of course as his loving family getting 'emergency' emails to send decent tea 😆

I'm a massive tea fan and have cupboards full of fancy teas, but at your British dh thinking white tea meant silver tip white tea. White tea is like white coffee - i.e. with milk! I'd be pretty astonished to meet a fellow Brit who didn't know that, tbh.

I meant White Tea 🤦🏽‍♀️
@lazylinguist not sure if OP's husband is british..?!

OP, nip to the shop and get milk,first rule of thumb when having work done!

I always thought "Builders' tea" was strong white tea with two sugars.

Loving the stories about lapsang souchong and Italian colleagues with their own tea leaves.

Sorry for the confusion: DH and I are not British (and milk + tea is not a thing back home), but the home theatre calibration expert is.

He's still here, and has asked for another cup of silver tip tea and pea milk! In an Ikea mug, which is the only kind we have.

You need a builders/tradesman box. Yorkshire teabags, a jar of Nescafé, some sugar sachets pilfered from cafes, a half pint of long life semi skimmed milk and a packet of hobnobs.

Do they drink different tea in the phillipines though, myname, cos hes a bit old fashioned

Well ,I'm in SE and have never heard a workman/builder etc ask for white tea .

Did the exchange go OP "Would you like some tea ? "
Calibration expert * Yes please.White "

Though I've never heard that either it would be "yes please ,milk, no sugar thanks " .

I'm baffled by reports of builders asking for white tea.

Hi peredito, he asked for "white tea"

Would you like some tea or coffee?

Oh yes white tea please.

We are in Cambridge, and I've had this request from four or five different people over time (electricians, plumbers, joiners, etc.)

This is cute. I actually love hearing about things that non brits do not understand, and love when I don't understand things overseas. I remember when i was so confused about what a link was in US... the sausage :-)

Did they actually drink it all??? Why not get in some regular tea and a carton of long life (if they are there for a while) or a one Pinter of normal milk. Pea milk is making me laugh. I have experimented with soya milk and almond milk but pea? Really? Even if I drank a random milk, I wouldn’t give it to the builders, I’d get a pint in like normal people!

It's a bit patronising saying it's "cute" when people don't understand other cultures. Cultural differences are Interesting though.

Liriope well that sounds strange to me ,I wonder if it's a regional thing ? Are their Londoners on the thread who've heard this useage of "white tea" to mean tea with milk ?
.Honestly I'd have thought the same as your DH ie they want white tea .

I'm finding it hard to believe that the op has never heard of tea with milk/white tea in the UK. If you've set up home etc surely you've been here long enough to know what type of tea the average brit drinks?

I think they ask for white tea because academic types in Cambridge can be into wanky tea.

It means chimps, well brewed, milk and sugar. Preferably with the pot warmed first .

Nothing scented with
flowers floating on top, lemon, or anything green.

I'm from London and I've never heard of anyone asking for "white tea". Don't forget that you MUST boil the water and pour it onto the tea (bag), not warm water with a bag on the side

I'm British, love a cup of tea. (Pg tips) White, 1 sugar. Not sure if I've ever had pea milk though!

Are you sure they asked for white tea, and not 'tea, white, no sugar'. Because that's the usual way of phrasing it.

@Somanysocks
Better than pee in milk😁👍

Hi the night sky, yes they always ask for 'white tea'. But when we have had British colleagues/friends at our house they never say this, they do say 'tea with milk, no sugar'. I wonder if it's an East Anglian/Suffolk builder thing (past requests). But then the HT technician today was from Manchester.

katmandoo

For the perplexed, let me rephrase my question, which I wrote in a rush in an effort to stop DH from going for the Tea Pigs (too late though):

"In the past, when there have been workmen at my house and I offered them a hot drink, they have asked for 'white tea' (those specific words). I have always given them normal tea with milk, but never knew for sure if that was exactly what they wanted.

Today, DH had a home theatre technician over and DH was the one who was asked for 'white tea'. DH is a somewhat literal person and he said it must mean silver tip white tea (as it says on my box of teabags). Mumsnet, please tell me if he is wrong."

I can only apologise for not having proper dairy milk at the ready!

@Davros thanks for posting ,glad it's not just me that's never heard of this .Trouble is now I'm late 60's there are all sorts of things in common parlance that I've never heard of !

To me it's similar to asking for green tea .

I think it must be regional ,maybe the Manchester guy is familiar with Cambridge worker's dialect as he works in Cambridge .

But then again ,Cambridge is close to the Fens where all kinds of strange behaviour may be expected to take place .

Haha well DP (not actually a builder but similar profession) complains when i buy Yorkshire Tea - it’s not good enough apparently

How thoughtful that you’ve gone to the trouble of finding out what they mean so you can give it to them.