The Ultimate British Tea Break: How does the nation make their tea?

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  Posted by: electime      17th August 2022

Speaking to tradespeople and the general population, Toolstation have uncovered all the details on how the UK likes their brews, with some interesting results.

  • Yorkshire Tea is Britain’s favourite tea brand; Typhoo is the least popular
  • 92 per cent of Brits agree that the teabag goes in first, however 1.3 per cent put the milk in first
  • Majority of Brits (57 per cent) take no sugar in their tea
  • When asked how many times you stir a cup of tea, one tradesperson answered, “3 clockwise, 3 anti-clockwise and then 3 clockwise, pushing the tea bag to the bottom of the cup between each 3 stirs.”
  • The most popular number of cups of tea a day to drink is four, with 20.2 per cent of votes choosing this amount

The results proved we all have our own unique preferences when it comes to making a brew, a cause for some healthy debate. Toolstation’s research asked both tradespeople and the general population all the important questions around cups of tea to get an idea of how varied the UK’s tastes in brews can be.

How the UK like their tea:

  • The most common brewing time amongst Brits is 1-2 minutes, with 24 per cent opting for this
  • Three stirs of a brew is the popular option, with 22 per cent of Brits voting for this as the ideal number of stirs
  • Semi-skimmed milk is the UK’s favourite, with 63.7 per cent of votes going for this type of milk
  • 65 per cent of Brits agree that too much milk ruins a cup of tea
  • The chocolate digestive reigns as the most popular biscuit to accompany a brew, with 13 out of the 17 cities surveyed choosing this as their favourite

We asked each of our survey takers to give us a step-by-step guide of how they make their brew, with the results collated we can reveal the most popular way a cup of tea should be made:

  1. Teabag goes in– 92 per cent voted this as the first step. Some controversial opinions saw the milk being added in first (1.3 per cent), as well as squeezing the teabag against the mug before any water was added (1 per cent).
  2. Boiling water in– 74 per cent had this as their second step in the process, however 8 per cent of the vote added milk in at this step and 10 per cent added sugar or sweetener at this stage.
  3. Allow the teabag to brew– 59 per cent allowed their tea to sit and brew at this point, but there were many different opinions. 16 per cent of the nation add their boiling water as the third step, 8 per cent of the votes went to squeezing the teabag against the mug and 1.8 per cent add the teabag in at this point.
  4. Squeeze the teabag against the mug– 48 per cent of the UK think this is the time to squeeze the bag, getting as much out of their teabag as possible. At this point, opinions were divided, with 13 per cent removing the teabag, 13 per cent adding milk and 3 per centonly just adding boiling water.
  5. Remove the teabag- 46 per cent are wrapping things up now, taking out their teabag. However, 4 per cent are adding sugar at this stage, 20 per cent are squeezing their teabag and 2 per cent are still brewing their tea.
  6. Add milk– Now the bag is out, 38 per cent of Brits add milk to their brew, however 25 per cent of the UK are done at this stage, finishing a step or two earlier.

The full study carried out by Toolstation goes into the nation’s favourite shades of tea, the nation’s favourite biscuits as well as breaking down the brewing times of specific tradespeople.

To see the full study, head over to: https://www.toolstation.com/content/great-british-teabreak

Methodology and Sources:

We surveyed 478 tradespeople and 1,005 general population, asking them everything you can ask about a cup of tea to get the data shown in the study.