To say something to the waitress about my tea not having boiling water poured on the teabag?

[MirandaGoshawk]

In a cafe mid-morning with a friend. I ordered tea and when she brought it over it was a mug of hot water with a wrapped teabag on the side. I was so surprised that I said "Oh no, that's not the way to make tea!" (I mean you get used to it like that abroad, but not in the UK!) The waitress was young and said, "Am I supposed to put the teabag in the cup and then pour on boiling water?" When I said yes, she said that she'd remember that next time I came in.

But my friend said it doesn't matter and I shouldn't have said anything - to mention it was rude. What do you think? My instinct is that they serve it like that so that you can see the teabag wrapped, so you know what you're getting.

I blame the parents. Or the Russians or Brexit!

It is quite obviously that Jeremy Corbyn's fault. I haven't seen him defending proper tea making.

OP, YANBU. If we can't even rely on a nice cup of tea in this time of uncertainty we truly are fucked.

I prefer this issue to the (now less common thankfully) Harris and Hoole chain. I stopped ordering coffee there after getting fed up of the mini lecture every time about how they serve their coffee cooler so you get the better flavour. I gave up on them completely when I ordered a peppermint tea and they gave me instructions about how long I had to leave it to brew. I'm in my 50s, I think I can be left to work out myself how long to let a drink brew to my own taste.
I don't go there anymore.

YANBU
This is how they serve tea in France and the main reason why am I shortly moving back to the UK. (So excited after 25yrs abroad).

Yabu.
Places do this as some customers don't like strong tea.

clumsy because if you work in a cafe you are not a human and people can talk to you any way they please

Just as many don't like weak tea though. Surely if you ask for tea you expect the tea to be made for you, if you want the ingredients separately you would ask for it that way.

Costa do this now. It's really annoying. Some branches of Neros also do it.

YANBU obviously tea needs to be made with boiling water and then brewed before serving....the youth of today!

Reminds me of the time I asked for a ham roll with English mustard and the barmaid said 'is that the yellow stuff'? and promptly slapped it on like ketchup!!

For a second there I thought I'd stumbled on to that spoof thread..

I like strong tea.
It's not hard to put a teabag in a cup of hot water though.
It's gets annoying throwing away cups of tea when people say they are too strong.
No, people do not ask for them separately till after you've made them..

I'm with OP on this one. I remember having to describe how to make a proper cup of tea for Brownies, many years ago. Mum taught me. It had to be in a pot and you had to warm the pot first and use boiling water.

Oh, I love this thread! As part of my old job as a process chemist I used to facilitate training sessions in process design, and we used to use tea making as an example for how everyone knows how to do it perfectly, and everyone's method is different to everyone else's. What is also brilliant is that it's also a great illustrator of how sometimes people know the ideal way of doing it, and they think they do it the ideal way each time, but actually they do all sorts of shortcuts and fiddles they don't think about (and that matters in chemical manufacturing, not so much in tea making...) - my ideal method is

1. Warm the pot with boiling water
2. 1 teabag per person plus one for the pot
3. Pour on boiling water
4. After 3 minutes or so pour a small amount to check for colour. If not done, wait another 1-2 minutes and repeat. DO NOT STIR
5. Pour into mug with milk and sugar, if required, already in

What I actually do

1. Stick teabag in mug
2. Boiling water straight onto the teabag
3. I can't be arsed waiting for my tea to either brew or cool down , so at this point, take a Mr Freezy ice pop out the freezer and stir the tea vigorously. This will both help to brew the tea and also cool it down, as the Mr Freezy (which can then be popped back into the freezer for next time) melts. Remember to do this step before the milk goes in, as using the Mr Freezy on the undiluted tea will give the best rate of heat transfer.
4. Add milk and sugar to taste

OP, you probably were in Sweden. I'm so sorry.

So she served you tea the way that cafe does it (she's a waitress it's unlikely it was her decision) when you said you preferred it made a different way she said she would make a point of making sure you got your preference next time ......which incidentally was great customer service if she does remember and you are still moaning. Did you tip her?

I work in a cafe, we pop a teabag into a small ceramic teapot, hot water from the boiler (think that what its called) lid on and served with a cup and saucer and milk jug on the side.
One pot per person, it usually make just two cups. It works for almost all customers.
Only occasional changes are:
One pot with two cups, small appetite or budget conscious we don't mind
Teabag on side
hot milk
whole/semi/skimmed/soya/cream
extra pot of hot water
Decent cafes shouldn't mind, not everyone's the same!

Water needs to have just boiled.

I don't think you were BU to tell the waitress - she should know that serving tea like this is not acceptable to the vast majority of people in the UK. It doesn't taste at all the same with merely hot water.
IVe only ever had tea served like that in the US.

RiverTam you can get loose Yorkshire tea

I'd've nagged about having a teapot rather than a cup...

Across the pond, if you order tea (including herbal) you get a cup of boiling hot water and the bag placed neatly on the side.

No way they open the bag and pour hot water on, ain't no one got time for that shit

However, in England, where things are done properly, the tea bag should be placed in the tea pot, hot water added, steeped accordingly, then poured into tea cup. Hopefully served with a slice of date and walnut.

Can anyone link the maggie smith scene from marigold hotel part 2?

she sums it up nicely

I can fully understand thats how you like it and how the majority of the time people make it but I do understand the other side of it. If she remembers next time that will be good customer service.

I do it teabag > boiling water>let it stand for a while> take the bag out> add milk and stir.

DP prefers ...Teabag >Milk!!! >sugar> boiling water >let it stand for a while take the bag out> and stir.

I do understand cafes giving hot water in a mug or perhaps in a jug, with milk in a jug and teabag separate. It's probably the easiest way to provide for different tastes as I know my dp wouldn't want water on the teabag first or it to be brewed long as he likes it weak and milky not strong.

I guess the main issue is safety why half the time why isn't necessarily just boiled (often I think it's madness) but after having hot water split on me twice by other customers at two different extremely busy coffee shops (I must choose bad seats!) I can say that by the time they got to the table it was most definatly hot enough to still brew tea and I can see why it isnt always freshly boiled for that reason.

You pay for a cup of tea, of course you are entitled to ask for it to be served correctly to your taste.

The only correct way is in a pot, with leaf tea and a jug of hot water to go with it. I wouldn't drink tea anywhere that didn't do it that way!

I totally agree, tea needs boiling water on top of it and the brew for a good few minutes, otherwise it's just hot water flavoured with tea, yuk.
if it isn't Yorkshire or Tetley though, it's not worth it anyway.

Maggie smith knows about tea watch this!

the cafe near here asks if you want the tea bag put in or on the side. Lots of people in there ask for it on the side. I think it's like the way everybody does milk and sugar different I never put mine in until the teas brewed but Mum puts her milk and sugar in first

Well it sticks in my throat to hand over money for a cup of tea that is nowhere near as good as one I would have made at home for pennies. I have been known to take an insulated cup to avoid the whole issue. If I'm on my own and there is no one to get embarrassed I ask for drinks the way I want them. I also don't want a steaming vat of coffee that will scald my throat unless I leave it for 15 minutes. If I'm on my own it is probably a pit stop. I just want to sit down for 15 mins, refresh self and move on. I would honestly rather get behind the counter and do the whole thing myself, it has come close but typically it is not permitted.