Cream Tea

A "Cream tea", sandwiches with white bread and the crusts hot tea with milk, cucumber cut off, scone with jam, butter and clotted cream...all served with great ceremonious elegance (mainly for tourists these days) around 4 in the afternoon. It is said to have originated as the upper class hold over between lunch and the later evening meal.

The Captain and classmates attended a Cream Tea as part of the British Life and Culture course. The history of tea continues to surface in different courses' content -- historical empires, commodities and business, and culture. It's even focal for theater in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Fun cultural facts provided by our coordinator include:

• 80% of office workers now claim they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way;
• The British drink approximately 165 million cups of tea per DAY (compared to only about 70 million cups of coffee), or about 60.2 billion cups per year...40% of the nation's fluid intake!
• People in the Republic of Ireland drink even more tea per capita than Britain!
• China produces about 935,000 tons of tea annually;
• 96% of British tea is consumed from tea BAGS (not loose tea); and
  
• 98% of tea here is consumed with milk.