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The Devolution Of British Public Attitudes Towards Etiquette Has Slightly ...


The devolution of British Public attitudes towards etiquette has slightly changed the way in which tea is made/ enjoyed today. Nevertheless, the traditional English breakfast consisting of tea, toast, marmalade, eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms and so on has remained as the most popular aspect of English cooking amongst foreigners. Therefore, full English breakfast is offered at hotels, guest houses and of course at Bed and Breakfast accommodation. The custom of having a full English breakfast is kept more at the top and the bottom of the social classes than amongst the middle class (Gray, 2006). Some members of the upper class and aristocracy daily have English breakfasts at their country houses, while some working class people (mostly males) still tend to start their day with a ‘cooked breakfast' of bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans, fried bread, toast and so on.
Often English breakfast is ‘washed down' with large quantities of strong, pale pink, sweet and milky tea. However middle classes drink an even paler, ‘more posh' type of tea such as Twining's English breakfast rather than PG Tips. The upper classes drink very weak, extra pale, unsweetened Earl Gray. Having sugar in your tea is considered by many as an obvious lower-class indicator and even one spoonful is unacceptable (unless the tea drinker was born before 1955). More than one spoonful of sugar indicates the tea drinker is lower-middle class at best, whilst taking more than two spoonfuls of sugar indicates certainly working class. Further, pouring the milk into the cup first is also indicative of being working class as is also very vigorous and noisy stirring. A way to avoid being a working class tea drinker is to drink Lapsang teas without any milk or sugar. However, nowadays, even upper-middles and upper class people admit their preference for the strong ‘builders tea'. How dismissive one is of ‘builder's tea' and how much they try to avoid it is a clear indicator of how class-anxious is the tea-drinker (Fox, 2004).
Tea drinking was and is so much part of British daily life that the expression ‘it is not my cup of tea' is still used to indicate dislike of something. Nevertheless, ‘the first cups and teapots were made in Yixing in China when tea drinking had developed from powdered, whipped tea to infusing whole leaves in hot water' (Ellis, 2002, page 38). Tea drinking accessories related to fashion, class, and status with China being the preferred material for teapots and cups because it keeps the heat of the brew without changing its flavour. Nowadays glass pots are widely used which allow you to see the whole leaf tea uncurl as the tea brews. Pots with a handle and a lid to cover the top when serving are most frequently used because they protect the tea maker from burning their fingers and the lid retains the tea warm for several servings.

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