The Ultimate British Tea Break
Posted by: electime 10th June 2022
Chocolate digestives are the UK’s most popular biscuit to accompany a brew, but what else do we like?
Speaking to tradespeople and the general population, Toolstation have uncovered all the details on how the UK likes their brews, with some interesting results.
- Over 20 per cent of Brits prefer Yorkshire tea, making it the nation’s favourite brand.
- Only 3 per cent of respondents said that they didn’t drink tea every day, the most common amount is two cups a day.
- 43 per cent of Brits don’t take sugar in their tea.
- Almost 70 per cent of Brits use some form of dairy milk in their tea- with oat, soy, almond and coconut milk accounting for just 11 per cent of respondents.
- When asked how many times do you stir a cup of tea, one tradesperson answered, “three clockwise, three anti-clockwise and then three clockwise, pushing the tea bag to the bottom of the cup between each three stirs.”
The Most Popular Shades of Tea:
3B takes first place as the most popular shade of tea for both tradespeople (26 per cent) and the general population (19 per cent).
66 per cent of tradespeople and 53 per cent of the general population have set their preferences within the 3 range, making it by far the most popular range for shades of tea, with the second most popular range for tradespeople being 2 with 16 per cent of our respondents choosing a colour from this range, and the general population seem to prefer a milkier tea with their second most popular range being 4 with 24 per cent.
Brewing Times:
| Tradesperson | Brewing time |
| Bathroom/kitchen fitter | 31 seconds- 45 seconds |
| Builder | 10 – 30 seconds |
| Carpenter/joiner/woodworker | 1-2 minutes |
| Electrician | 1-2 minutes |
| Engineer | 3-4 minutes |
| Handyman | 1-2 minutes |
| Multi-trade | 1-2 minutes |
| Painter & decorator | 10 – 30 seconds |
| Plumber or Plumbing & Heating Engineer | 1-2 minutes |
Engineers seem to like their tea the strongest, with an average brewing time of 3-4 minutes.
Painters/decorators and builders like a quick brew, only allowing 10-30 seconds for brewing time, with bathroom/kitchen fitters not far behind with a brew time of 30-45 seconds. The most popular brew time amongst tradespeople was 1-2 minutes, being chosen by carpenters, electricians, handymen, multi-trade workers and plumbers.
How do tradespeople’s brew times compare to that of the general population?
| Brewing Time | Percentage |
| Less than 10 seconds | 6.28 |
| 10-30 seconds | 24.28 |
| 31-45 seconds | 18.24 |
| 46-59 seconds | 12.80 |
| 1-2 minutes | 22.46 |
| 3-4 minutes | 12.68 |
| 5+ minutes | 0.85 |
| I don’t remove the tea bag | 2.42 |
The most popular choice amongst the general population is 10-30 seconds, with 24.28 per cent of respondents choosing this as their preferred brew time, closely followed by our tradespeople’s favoured option of 1-2 minutes with 22.46 per cent of the vote.
There are also a small percentage, 2.42 per cent to be exact, of the general population who leave the tea bag in when they drink their brew.
The Nation’s Favourite Tea Choice:
Chocolate digestives are by far the most popular biscuit to accompany a brew in the UK, with 13 of the 17 cities having chocolate digestives as their go to.
3B also takes first place for favourite shade of tea across the UK, with 10 cities choosing this option.
Cardiff, Birmingham, and Southampton prefer theirs a little milkier, with these cities opting for 4A.
Cardiff also set themselves apart as the only city not to opt for some form of digestive as their favourite, the Welsh capital prefers a shortbread with their brew.
Tradespeople’s Choice of Biscuit:
| Trade | Preferred Biscuit |
| Bathroom/kitchen fitter | Chocolate Digestive |
| Builder | Hobnob |
| Carpenter/woodworker | Gingernut/Hobnob |
| Electrician | Hobnob |
| Engineer | Chocolate Digestive |
| Handyman | Digestives (both plain and choc)/Gingernut |
| Multi-Trade | Hobnob |
| Painter/decorator | Chocolate Digestive |
| Plumber | Rich tea/Biscoff |
Unlike the results for the general population, chocolate digestives do not take a landslide victory here, they are tied for top spot with hobnobs with four spots each on the table.
We also see gingernuts make a few appearances here, with handymen and carpenters choosing them.
And plumbers have the most unique choices of all, being the only group of people to opt for rich tea and biscoff as their preferred biscuit.
To see the full study, head over to: https://www.toolstation.com/content/great-british-teabreak
