Brewhaha as builder’s tea is snubbed

IT’S the steaming beverage that’s kept us all going at home and at work for generations.

But now ‘builders’ brew’ – tea that’s strong, white and sweetened with plenty of sugar – has fallen almost completely out of favour.

These days just one in a hundred people drink their cuppa that way, compared to two-thirds who don’t add sugar at all.

White, no sugar, is the most popular combination, chosen by 57%, with another 10% having it black and unsweetened. About 27% of those surveyed have it white with just one sugar, leaving 6% having other variations, including just one per cent preferring it super-sweet.

While Ireland ranked second in the tea-drinking stakes in 2016 (down from first in 2012) our nearneighbours in Britain ranked fourth. A study of 1,000 people, commissioned by the UK Tea and Infusions Association, also sheds light on the biggest controversy in tea-drinking: milk first or last?

Most people put the milk in last, but more than a fifth (22%) do it first, the survey revealed.

Dr Sharon Hall, head of the trade body, insisted that for tea made from a bag in a mug – as 96% of cuppas are – ‘adding milk last is best’.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Tea, one of the biggest-selling brands in the UK, added: ‘This great debate comes down to a question of heat.

Tea brews best in very hot water, but adding milk cools things down.

‘So if you’re brewing tea directly into a mug, it’s better to add the milk last, after it’s brewed. And if you’re brewing in a teapot, the order doesn’t matter at all.’

Dr Hall added that a tea bag should steep for three to four minutes in the mug for the best taste.

Some food scientists disagree on the ‘milk first or last’ question. Professor Alan Mackie, of Leeds University, who published his findings on the subject this year, said: ‘Making tea the traditional way – steeping a bag in hot water before removing it and adding milk – results in the tannins in the tea turning into solids before they can develop the flavour properly.

‘But if the milk is added at the start of the process, then its proteins can bind to the tannins and other minerals in the water, preventing them from turning solid, which in turn gives you a far superior flavour.’

The study also found that 7% of people put cream in their tea.