What hue is your brew?
TEA MAP SHOWS OUR FAVE SHADES
DO you get in a stew if your brew’s too strong? It could be down to where you live.
A tea firm has mapped Britain based on how long we like to leave the bag in our cuppa – and it’s thrown up some surprising findings.
Geordies like Gazza and singer Cheryl enjoy theirs as weak as dishwater, but Londoners such as David Beckham want it so strong you can “stand a teaspoon up in it”.
The average Geordie left the teabag in for just one minute and 58 seconds, almost a minute less than the three minutes connoisseurs recommend.
Drinkers in the English capital, however, were found to leave the bag in for an average of three-and-ahalf minutes. Over in Wales
and Liverpool, the likes of
Shirley Bassey and John Bishop might have a more “average” cuppa – a steep of around 2m 20s.
Across Britain as a whole, 62% of us prefer a “stronger cuppa”.
And we enjoy an astonishing 36billion cups of tea every year, according to the poll by Typhoo Tea.
Out of the 2,000 people questioned, 42% don’t take sugar, while 24% have one spoonful and 16% like two.
Though comedian Bob Mortimer, inset, who grew up in Middlesbrough, once admitted having 17 sugars in his cuppa. The Vic and Bob star, 62, said: “The weirdest thing was that if I had 18 it was too sweet.” Liz Kerr, of Typhoo Tea, said: “We are famous as a nation for our love of tea and our survey results show that we prefer a traditional stronger brew. “Whatever life throws at us, a brew is always there to provide some comfort, whether that’s on your own, with friends, or on the go.”
Yet British tea drinkers only rank fourth globally when it comes to consumption per capita – supping their way through 3.3lb of it every year. Turkey tops the table on 6.96lb, while Ireland is the second-biggest tea-loving nation on 4.83lb per year. Surprisingly China, where tea drinking started, ranks just 20th on 1.25lb.