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Do you add any flavor of British breakfast tea? I need to know how it is prepared; either with or without additional flavor.

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The British tea? Don't know what that's all about. Anyway...

English Breakfast Tea is a mixture of Assam, Ceylon and Kenya teas that is often served with a dash of milk and sugar to taste. The UK Tea Council discusses their view of the appropriate way to serve each variety at the supplied link. I would think that a great majority of British people take their tea with milk (I don't find the type of tea used palatable without, as it is somewhat bitter and high in tannins, and I don't think many other people do either). When I say a dash, what I mean is somewhere in the region of 10% of the volume of the cup, rather than the half and half or thereabouts used in beverages like chai.

Most British people (in my experience at least) use teabags which are simply added to the cup and hot water poured on top. However adding several spoonfuls of loose tea to a teapot is not uncommon, as was probably done for millennia wherever tea was drunk, prior to the invention of the teabag.

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  • I opened the link of UK Tea Council and discovered that all the three kinds, ASSAM, CEYLON and KENYA are prepared with black tea, not green or red.
    – Hanaa
    Dec 24, 2014 at 11:56
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    @Hanaa yes, in all cases regarding UK and possibly other european countries, if any recipe or process mentions simply "tea" without any specific details, then it's assumed that it will be black tea and not anything else.
    – Peteris
    Dec 24, 2014 at 12:16
  • Allright that means the black tea is dominant .^_^
    – Hanaa
    Dec 24, 2014 at 12:23
  • That's right @Hanaa. In the UK "tea" without any further qualification would almost always be understood as referring to black tea. Other teas are drunk, but black tea is more traditional. Milk is almost universally used in black tea, sugar use varies. Dec 24, 2014 at 14:44
  • I've never thought about it, but of course there's a UK Tea Council.
    – logophobe
    Dec 24, 2014 at 21:23
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What I thought of when I read this question was what my mother and grandmother taught me about preparing tea, and the key thing was that the milk has to go into the cup before the hot tea so that you do not scald it!

Here is a kind of over-the-top Instructables describing how to prepare tea correctly! Step 5 describes getting the tea into the cup.

Let the tea in the tea pot stand for a few minutes for the tea to brew. The tea cosy will keep the tea warm for a long time. Take your tea cup and saucer (prererably of the finest English bone china) pour a little milk into the cup (milk in first, please!) and then fill with the clear, hot, amber liquid of life! Add sugar to taste and there you are!

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    @Hanaa The person who wrote the Instructable is referring to the color of the tea.
    – Brian Watt
    Dec 24, 2014 at 14:45
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    I'd just like to add that you'll find the advice "milk in first" actually varies region to region. In the Midlands for example, it's generally far more common for the milk to be added last. This is especially important if you brew in the mug (i.e. without a tea pot); milk, tea bag, then water, results in a distinctively different taste than tea bag, water, left to brew, remove the tea bag, then add milk. Some people prefer the taste, others don't, calling it "teabaggey"! In short - try both variants and see what you think! Dec 24, 2014 at 14:54
  • This is the first time i see this color . what known color is amber color near to?
    – Hanaa
    Dec 24, 2014 at 14:55
  • Brown with a slight orange tint. Dec 24, 2014 at 14:57

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