FIVE THINGS ABOUT THE TEMPEST IN A TEA MUG
The U.K.’S Ambassador to the U.S. (lightheartedly) called on U.K. Forces to demonstrate how to make a proper cuppa, after outrage started by a video of an American woman making her version of hot tea.
1 TIKTOK, TANG AND TROUBLE
“Michelle from North Carolina” mixes a third of a cup of milk with Tang orange mix, powdered lemonade, cinnamon and cloves before adding copious amounts of sugar, saying it is how “this American girl likes it.” She then dunks in a tea bag and puts the mixture in the microwave.
2
BUT DID THEY USE BONE CHINA?
Britons expressed horror at the recipe and the use of a microwave. Karen Pierce, the U.K.’S ambassador to the U.S., stepped in to show how to make an “authentic brew,” calling in the military to get it on the record. Members of the British Army, Navy and Air Force brewed tea on stoves and added a dash of milk, the “British way.”
3
WE THOUGHT SWEET TEA MEANT ICED
Michelle said she was a little overwhelmed by the response. “I started vlogging my journey as an American living in the U.K.,” she said in a Southern drawl. “My followers started asking about my culture, so I showed them. The U.K. acted as though they had never heard of sweet tea,” she said earnestly.
4
QUEEN, CASTLES AND, UM, TRADITION
Michelle, a nurse, says on Youtube: “We had to come here for work reasons, we didn’t really have a choice. England’s not even a place I’d ever researched. I knew there was a Queen, the typical things, but besides that we knew nothing. I’m a high-spirit person, so I thought we can work through this.” She now has some 200,000 followers on Tiktok.
5
WERE WE PUNKED?
Some followers asked: “Why are you doing this?” Political commentator Owen Jones tweeted: “We need to extradite this woman.” Tracey Jones tweeted “You’re just trolling us now.” We asked whether she was pulling our leg. Michelle went quiet.