Is it rude...

[Quail]

...to bring your own teabags to someone's house? I only drink herbal tea because proper tea is theft I don't react well to caffeine or enjoy drinking black tea/coffee. On one hand it seems like it would be rude to expect people to accommodate my weird tea requirements but on the other hand maybe it seems like I'm being rude and elitist by bringing my own teabags, as though normal hot drinks just aren't good enough for me. What is Revleft's opinion?

[Art Vandelay]

I think you'd have to be pretty uptight to seriously take offence to something like that. I'd just tell them exactly what you said here if anyone asks about it.

[Ele'ill]

If anyone asks, look them in the eyes and tell them you think you're above their tea and that you are better than they are because of the food-stuff choices you make then ask them if they are vegan or if they're a murderer

[Sinister Intents]

Sounds perfectly fine to me in all honesty, I drink a lit of tea

[tallguy]

If anyone asks, look them in the eyes and tell them you think you're above their tea and that you are better than they are because of the food-stuff choices you make then ask them if they are vegan or if they're a murderer
:lol::lol::lol:

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

If you feel weird about it, and don't want to ask before hand . . .

There's always the option of just having hot water and a bit of honey (unless you're the type of vegan who doesn't eat honey, in which case . . . a bit of sugar?).

[BIXX]

If anyone asks, look them in the eyes and tell them you think you're above their tea and that you are better than they are because of the food-stuff choices you make then ask them if they are vegan or if they're a murderer


This. It's the only way.

[Quail]

I've done it a couple of times lately and just said I don't drink caffeine so brought my own chamomile teabags. But it still feels kind of awkward. I dunno, this is a weird thread haha.

[Tim Cornelis]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1972324_749167865107985_1796735729_n.png

[Agent Ducky]

This is the most English problem ever.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

...to bring your own teabags to someone's house? I only drink herbal tea because proper tea is theft I don't react well to caffeine or enjoy drinking black tea/coffee. On one hand it seems like it would be rude to expect people to accommodate my weird tea requirements but on the other hand maybe it seems like I'm being rude and elitist by bringing my own teabags, as though normal hot drinks just aren't good enough for me. What is Revleft's opinion?

Kill people, burn churches, socialise the means of production.

As for tisanes (I'm a tea chauvinist), I think that depends on the situation. If the person whose house you're going to is a friend or a long-term acquaintance, and they know you're coming over, I would expect them to stock up on tisanes beforehand (that's what I would do at least). In this sort of situation, bringing your own... er, tisane-bags (?) along could be interpreted as a lack of trust.

If not, then bringing them might seem a bit strange, but not rude by any means.

That's how I see it, anyway.

[La Guaneña]

This would totally fit into the "English stereotype jokes" catergory we have here

[The Feral Underclass]

I think you'd have to be pretty uptight to seriously take offence to something like that

This.

But don't underestimate a British person's relationship with tea.

[The Feral Underclass]

This is the most English problem ever.

Scottish and Welsh people feel just as strongly about tea.

[The Feral Underclass]

I've done it a couple of times lately and just said I don't drink caffeine so brought my own chamomile teabags. But it still feels kind of awkward. I dunno, this is a weird thread haha.

Did they offer you an alternative and then you were like, 'erm, no thanks, I've brought my own special teabag'?

[Sasha]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t1.0-9/1962628_10153911332205034_2130757666_n.jpg

[The Feral Underclass]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t1.0-9/1962628_10153911332205034_2130757666_n.jpg

Oh dude, that is amazing.



EDIT: If only I could thank it :p

[The Feral Underclass]

I shared that on FB, that's how good it is.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

No, it would be rude to turn up and just expect your hosts to have the kind of tea you like / prefer and being an arse if they didn't have it...not something I'd imagine you doing.
Bringing your own brew bags is top notch ettiquette (sp?).

[Queen Mab]

But don't underestimate a British person's relationship with tea.

Never drank a cup in my life. Cease with your hegemonic discourse.

[The Feral Underclass]

Never!


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[Ele'ill]

Half tea, half vanilla soy/almond milk

As a struggling vegan, I would put honey in that too, sometimes with ice.

[Jimmie Higgins]

...to bring your own teabags not in the least. In fact i never drink tea I'm offered ... Or even drink from a cup at someone's house. I carry cups, a kettle, cozy and my own tea wherever I go! :P

[synthesis]

I bring my own teabags when I go to my friend's house to play Halo.
(I don't actually play Halo)

[Agent Ducky]

Scottish and Welsh people feel just as strongly about tea.
The most British problem ever?

[The Feral Underclass]

The most British problem ever?


Yeah :)


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[The Feral Underclass]

I bring my own teabags when I go to my friend's house to play Halo.
(I don't actually play Halo)


Wait, so you just rock up to your friend's house with some tea bags and watch them play Halo?


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[PhoenixAsh]

^ I never could get those Halo cars to go in the right direction. I pretty much have to when I don't want to let the nasty alien lizards win.

Either way...in regards to the tea-party issue here. I think you should pretty much adopt a mind set of "I don't care if they think I am strange". I think Dr. Seuss explained it like this:"Those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter."


"A Nice Cup of Tea" by George Orwell
Originally published January 12, 1946 in the Evening Standard.

If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.

Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britannia ware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tea leaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

[Thirsty Crow]

...to bring your own teabags to someone's house? I only drink herbal tea because proper tea is theft I don't react well to caffeine or enjoy drinking black tea/coffee. On one hand it seems like it would be rude to expect people to accommodate my weird tea requirements but on the other hand maybe it seems like I'm being rude and elitist by bringing my own teabags, as though normal hot drinks just aren't good enough for me. What is Revleft's opinion?
I can't see why would that be rude. It's not elitist to like something and by extension dislike something.

Though keep in mind that I'm not that well versed in social conventions, not even here where I live, and even less in relation to Britain.

[synthesis]

Wait, so you just rock up to your friend's house with some tea bags and watch them play Halo?


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[Lynx]

I don't wish to be rude, but I hate tea. No thanks.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

depends who it is. Surely people have decaf coffee/green tea in their house no?

The midd-class snob in me is coming right out^^:lol:

[Blake's Baby]

The most British problem ever?

The Irish drink more tea per head than the British.

But they might not drink herbal. I just don't know.