After some borderline-psychotic posting on our Facebook wall regarding the thorny issue of how one makes a perfect cup of tea, we thought it would be a good idea to compile an office-wide list of how IWOOT does tea.
On a personal note, compiling this list has made me realise that I am the only person in the office who makes tea in the way I do. Am I a visionary or just plain deluded?
So here we go – here are all the varying methods in which us Wooters make our brew:
Cass, HR: I have fruit tea, so I don’t count. But it’s hot water, teabag and then just leave it in.
James, Creative: tea bag, sugar, hot water, stew, milk.
Dan, Creative: tea bag, milk, hot water, thrash with spoon, remove bag. No sugar. Ever.
Kate, Marketing: tea bag – water – sugar. Milk is horrible and should be banned.
Dino, Creative: Bag, hot water, wait for tea to brew, take tea bag out, sugar, then milk whilst stirring.
Tim-Yee, Commercial: Bag, water, brew, milk, squeeze teabag.
Chris, Customer Services: Kettle boils. While that’s happening, tea bag goes in cup. Pour water into cup (the floor is frowned upon). Stir and squeeze bag with tea spoon. Remove bag. Add sugar/honey. Add milk. Stir. Begin biscuit dipping.
Sasha, Customer Services: 2 sugars, then the bag, then the water, then the milk. I think it tastes better like this & you get a good builder strength! Mmmmm… If you put the milk in 1st, it just doesn’t work out right. Even if you only put in a bit of milk, it still tastes like nan tea!
Wanessa, Finance: Bag, sugar, hot water and milk last.
Tim, Creative Director: Tea bag and sugar (v imp that sugar goes in before water). Boiling water – not boiled two mins ago, but boiling. Leave in cup/mug for min three-four minutes (Earl Grey), or one minute (Builders). Ensure no spoon in cup whilst stewing. Remove and squeeze out bag. Add touch of milk and stir. Leave to get cold on desk and get nasty shock when you remember to drink it.
Chelsey, Customer Services: First grab a mug. Add a tea bag and 3 sugars. Add some hot water. Add a bit of milk (I like mine milky so a lil’ bit more than the norm). Stir with a teaspoon and then leave the tea bag in (I like a stronger taster and plus I’m too lazy to fuss about getting it out). Enjoy it with a Kit Kat.
Damn you – now off to raid the tuck shop and make a cuppa!!
Maria, IT: Tea bag, sugar, water, milk. Having said that I always used to put the milk in 1st! But I’ve been told that the liquid has to be boiling to get a proper brew.
Ben, Commercial: Two teabags in to accommodate my oversized mug, hot water on the top, stir a bit then let it stand for a few minutes, squeeze and remove teabags to release all tea goodness, milk, sugar, stir. If it’s not made in that order I’m quite simply not drinking it.
Jose, IT: 1 – tea bag. 2 – water. 3 – milk. 4 – sugar.
Sagar, IT: Tea. Hot water. Brew. Milk. The milk cools the water too soon and thereby slows down the entire brewing process if you add it before brewing is complete.
Richard, MD: First select teapot… breakfast or afternoon. Boil water and put a couple of inches of boiling water in the pot to warm it. Drain teapot. Add one spoon of tea per person and “one spoonful for the potâ€. Pour in boiling water and stir round briskly for a couple of seconds. Let stand for 3-5 minutes. If breakfast tea, pour through strainer to ¾ fill cup. Add milk/sugar to taste. North of Watford, milk goes in before the tea for some reason I don’t understand.
With herbal or Earl Grey, pour tea through strainer and add lemon/sugar as required.
Alternatively, add one or two tea bags to mug; pour in boiling water, stir and drain tea bags and remove them. Add milk/sugar to taste.
—
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this distraction from real work is how very seriously everyone seems to take their tea. But whose way is the right way? The consensus seems to be that the tea bag pretty much always should go in first, followed by hot water. But I disagree.
I love ‘Nan tea’, and apparently haphazardly foul up my cuppa by putting the milk in on top of the bag and then the hot water. The taste, though! The malty, thick, even goodness of a cup of tea that doesn’t have the same look as an open pot of floor varnish! Because this is MY blog post, I’m holding my position and am totally advocating the milk-then-hot-water strategy. As a result, I could well be unemployed by this evening.
Do tell us your thoughts/methods, and we’ll see if there’s anyone out there that shares my tea-making ineptitude genius.
