To just want a good cup of tea?

[Theveryhungrycaterpillar123]

I love a good cuppa. Good strong tea (think builders tea), brewed and not much milk. Bliss.

I get so disappointed when other people make me tea and I get given some watered down milk. I like strong tea and I think friends interpret this as not much milk, when actually I like the tea bag to sit for a bit first. Obviously I drink it anyway, I'm not that rude!

Worse is in any coffee shop and the rare occasions I get a tea to take out and it's like cat's piss (probably).

So aibu to just want a nice cup of tea?

Before anyone tells me I'm way over thinking this, I'm bf DS2 and so I'm not drinking much caffeine. A nice, mug of tea is a lovely treat. And helps me get through the day with a 2 year and a 5 month old.

Any tea sympathisers out there?

now

YANBU. I'm an expat and just had a huge shipment of Yorkshire Tea delivered. Bliss! I live in the U.S. and had to resort to a local supermarket's so-called English Breakfast Tea the other day. It's going back. Needed about 5 teabags to even be anywhere close to a proper cuppa and was, quite frankly, an insult to a good English cup of tea! IME, the U.S. is not the place to find a good cuppa! I don't even like coffee but I'd rather have coffee than bad tea!

I feel your pain. It's nigh on impossible to get a decent cuppa out and about. I think cafes use cheap, weak, bags so "strong" is actually stewed. I had a cup yesterday in Waterstone's caff and it was practically undrinkable.

So, you order a tea and get some hot water with a bag in it, plus some sugar In a packet and some free milk if you're lucky. And there's nowhere to put the rubbish! I hate that.

Should we start a campaign?

Strong tea with a good slosh of milk. Perfect.

Unfortunately I live in a country where a ordering cup of tea means you get a cup of hot(ish) water served alongside a tea bag containing a few micrograms of tea dust.

When in the UK, I get really excited at being able to order tea and get something that at least resembles what I make at home without having to explain what I mean

I've found my spiritual home . Bad tea is so disappointing. I need one of these

Thanks for the replies!

It obviously is down to how you like your tea.

I went to a cafe the other day and was given a teapot full of tea leaves and it produced the weakest tea. How that happened I have no idea. Really disappointing.

I am completely in agreement, OP. Strong, extremely hot and a mere drop of milk. Heavenly.

Actually, just thinking, the one place that seems reliable for good tea on trips home is the M&S cafe - I've had good cuppas in a few different shops. Could be worth a try? And you get a teapot.

Tea is a really poor afterthought in most coffee shops, it's most disappointing. If somewhere can put effort into good coffee it's not too hard to also provide good tea.

I will send you either ds1 (21) or ds2 (19) to make your tea for you. They make mugs of tea using not one, not two, but three teabags in each one - and leaving them to brew until the beverage is creosote-like in consistency! They do use big mugs for their tea, which is their justification for this - but I still dread to think what it is doing to their insides.

And when they go back to university at the beginning of term, our teabag bill drops dramatically!!

YANBU - I drink Yorkshire tea at home and we'll brewed with an average amount of milk.

I have NEVER had a cup of tea 'out' that was anything like half decent

I've given up now and drink decaff coffee when out as I'm not too fussed about how that comes (it's not as good as tea though )

This place:
www.charteas.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=61

Is my heaven. I was in their little shop once and they have the most amazing blends, flavoured, non-flavoured, everything you could think of. That Earl Grey Supreme I don't think I'll ever get over.

I drink tea non-stop at home. Yorkshire tea, brewed in the cup 2-3 minutes, good squeeze of the bag before removing and a splash of milk. It's the drink of the Gods.

I take my own tea bags on holiday to ensure I get a decent cuppa.

It took 2 years to train DH to make my tea and I won't drink tea outside the house. It has to be strong, not too much milk and 2 sugars. I describe the colour as somewhere between chav tan and Oompa Loompa

Agreed OP. The reason I think for a lot of crap cafe tea is that they use hot water from coffee machines which is not boiling. It has to be BOILING WATER FGS.

And no no no to the milk going straight in after the bag, or worse, before the bag.

Forget their dubious tax arrangements, I stopped going into Starbucks after having the worst cup of tea in my entire life from one of their cafes. Hot water and milk

completely agree. have recently opted to accept coffee rather than tea at friends' houses, as collectively, their tea -making is woefully poor. And so few people seem to own a teapot! Tepid weak tea never fails to vex me...

I never seize to amaze people with my nonchalant attitude to tea. I really have no strong opinions about it. Never drink it at home. But then again am foreign.

You all know the solution to this problem don't you?

Open the Mumsnet Tea-Shop as a franchise in town across the UK.

Sorted

I used to love a cup of tea, strong and with a dash of milk. No sugar. Now it's latte with three brown sugars. I wonder what I ever saw in tea

In towns across the UK

What a good idea, salmotrutta. It would serve lemon drizzle cake and sandwiches with naice ham.

Latte is rubbish.

I like my coffee like my tea - strong.

I'm very good at ideas like that.

It's a skill

We could serve pom bears in our Mumsnet Tea-Shops.

Pom bears would be a good idea, after all someone has to think of the children