Britishisms sneaking into American vernacular

[LizzieMaine]

If coffee were inhaled, like snuff, I'd love it. Drinking the stuff is like sucking on the sleeve of a wet corduroy jacket.

 

[Big Bertie]

If coffee were inhaled, like snuff, I'd love it. Drinking the stuff is like sucking on the sleeve of a wet corduroy jacket.

Snuff - quite hard to come by here, perhaps easier in the States? It's quite special. You're going to the wrong sort of cafe though.

 

[Miss Sis]

There is endless speculation as to whether one puts in milk before or after the tea and WHO puts it in when, but one just does what one likes these days!

Some Upper Class people used to look down on milk in first - only people who were worried about the quality of their china did that, apparently. [huh]

P.S: I'm milk in last, so I can see how much is going in. Sometimes tea brews differently in different teapots/parts of the country due to the hardness of the water etc, etc.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I get the impression, based on conversations with people in the UK, that in recent years coffee has largely superceded tea over there.

 

[Big Bertie]

I get the impression, based on conversations with people in the UK, that in recent years coffee has largely superceded tea over there.

It's possible, quite possible - definitely much more coffee than before is being taken, just going by the number of cafes everywhere.

 

[Big Bertie]

Some Upper Class people used to look down on milk in first - only people who were worried about the quality of their china did that, apparently. [huh]

I make no claim to be upper class, but from my limited observations, they tend to be worried more than most about their china! (Well they do when I'm there.)

 

[bulldog1935]

I pronounce the words harass and harassment as the Brits would.
And come to think of it, I picked that up from Brenda Jackson correcting Walter Matthau in the movie Hopscotch - I agree with her.

 

[Cobden]

It's possible, quite possible - definitely much more coffee than before is being taken, just going by the number of cafes everywhere.

I don't think it's quite got to that stage. What has changed is that when people go out, they go to a coffee shop rather than a tea room. At home, tea still seems to be more popular

 

[bulldog1935]

all this snuff talk - the death of Ponsonby in Waterloo
(if you haven't seen the 1970 movie, it's great - 200,000 soviet soldiers play the armies

Sir William Ponsonby: My Father poor fellow, was killed by the French. Never should have happened
Lord Uxbridge: Really?
Sir William Ponsonby: Yes, his horse got caught in a bog and the brute just gave up. Seven damn lancers had him like a tiger in a pit. Bad luck, eh, Uxbridge?
Lord Uxbridge: Damn bad luck!
Sir William Ponsonby: Before we go, Uxbridge.
[proffering snuff powder]
Lord Uxbridge: [snorts] Ha
[sneezes]
Lord Uxbridge: savage stuff, Ponsonby!
Sir William Ponsonby: You don't see its like any more. My father left us a hundredweight, down to the last ounce. An old Jew in Alexandria had the blend.
Lord Uxbridge: Blend?

Ponsonby would die exactly as his father, in retreat, his horse caught in a bog, caught up by Napoleon's Polish lancers

 

[Smithy]

There is endless speculation as to whether one puts in milk before or after the tea and WHO puts it in when, but one just does what one likes these days!

Some Upper Class people used to look down on milk in first - only people who were worried about the quality of their china did that, apparently. [huh]

P.S: I'm milk in last, so I can see how much is going in. Sometimes tea brews differently in different teapots/parts of the country due to the hardness of the water etc, etc.

That's exactly as I understand it, and like you I'm a milk last fellow.

I honestly think one of the reasons tea has never taken off in a big way in the States is the end product. I've stopped ordering tea there after the last time. It's usually that Liptons rubbish, which makes a hideous tasting and widdly brew, and they don't use boiling, boiling water (somebody told me this is a safety thing?!) and they put cream not milk in it. If that was my only experience of tea I wouldn't drink the stuff either!

Cobden - "I don't think it's quite got to that stage. What has changed is that when people go out, they go to a coffee shop rather than a tea room. At home, tea still seems to be more popular "

That is exactly the situation in Australia and New Zealand as well. Many people will have a cup of fancy coffee when at a cafe but the cuppa rules the roost at home.

 

[scottyrocks]

My daughter turned me on to brewed loose leaf tea recently. She got me a few cannisters of various teas, a pot with strainer, and some matching cups. She also informed me of the evils of tea bags. Drinking tea is a whole new pleasure now.

 

[Smithy]

My daughter turned me on to brewed loose leaf tea recently. She got me a few cannisters of various teas, a pot with strainer, and some matching cups. She also informed me of the evils of tea bags. Drinking tea is a whole new pleasure now.

Loose leaf is streets ahead of bags. My grandmother was very old school and wouldn't have bags in the house. I have a jar of tea bags for quick brews but the vast majority of tea I drink and have done for years is good, old loose leaf brewed in the pot. Of course the tea itself is vitally important, if you use appalling tea it doesn't matter how you brew it, you'll still end up with an appalling tea.

 

[dhermann1]

"Streets ahead" is a phrase I would predict has a chance of breaking through to this side of the pond soon. ("Side of the pond" is another good one that's pretty common here now.)
What I've found interesting has been how the word AWESOME has just become ubiquitous in this country over the last several years, while BRILLIANT has taken up the same position in Britain, with no cross over at all.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I will pass on some advice on the proper order question for anyone who wants to commit what may be the most extreme act of heresy.

If you use splenda (sucralose) put the milk and sugar in the cup first because if you mix hot milk with sucralose the milk curdles. That is worse than American tea.

Another thing to remember for anyone who visits America is that the American Tetley Tea is not the same thing over here.

 

[scottyrocks]

Loose leaf is streets ahead of bags. My grandmother was very old school and wouldn't have bags in the house. I have a jar of tea bags for quick brews but the vast majority of tea I drink and have done for years is good, old loose leaf brewed in the pot. Of course the tea itself is vitally important, if you use appalling tea it doesn't matter how you brew it, you'll still end up with an appalling tea.

Yes, I have an oolong, a black, a green, a white. One of the latter two is a chai - I forget which. I'm enjoying the full-bodied variety, and the good stuff I get from them that is ground out of tea-bag tea.

 

[Smithy]

Yes, I have an oolong, a black, a green, a white. One of the latter two is a chai - I forget which. I'm enjoying the full-bodied variety, and the good stuff I get from them that is ground out of tea-bag tea.

Completely off topic but I flatted with an Indian chap back in the late 90s who used to whisk up real Indian chai every morning. He'd brew it up in a saucepan with all the spices, the smell was quite amazing and would waft through the whole place. It tasted very, very good but was mighty sweet - generally how the Indians enjoy their chai.

 

[MikeBravo]

I honestly think one of the reasons tea has never taken off in a big way in the States is the end product. I've stopped ordering tea there after the last time. It's usually that Liptons rubbish, which makes a hideous tasting and widdly brew, and they don't use boiling, boiling water (somebody told me this is a safety thing?!) and they put cream not milk in it. If that was my only experience of tea I wouldn't drink the stuff either!

I had always assumed it had something to do with the Boston Tea Party. Tea took on a negative meaning and people drank coffee as another form of rebellion

Mind you, that is just conjecture on my part

 

[LizzieMaine]

Tea in the States has also been heavily gendered -- the image of the drink is a weak beverage delicately sipped by ladies and sissies, not a hearty stimulant for workingmen like coffee. The American tea industry actually ran an elaborate advertising campaign in the late thirties trying to break down this stereotype, but it didn't work. Tea is still, overtly or subconsciously, seen as a feminine drink.

 

[vitanola]

But it was such a comfort!

My tea is cold, now. I'll drink it standing up and leave the house.

 

[dhermann1]

Getting back to the subject of language . . . ahhh herrrmmm . . . "flatting" is a word I definitely don't see getting into general usage in this country for a long time.