Today – Tea Etiquette Tips

 

About Dreams Come True

Dreams Come True is a national children’s charity serving the whole of the UK, bringing joy to terminally and seriously ill children.Dream Tea is being held across the country on June 21^st 2013. The event will raise funds to support Dreams Come True and help achieve the dreams of children across the UK. If you would like to host a tea party to raise funds for this fabulous charity simply pop over to Dreams Come True and they will send you a host pack.

Etiquette expert Liz Brewer – best known from ITV’s ‘Ladette to Lady’ – is helping launch Dream Tea and has provided her guide to tea drinking manners….

Tea Etiquette Tips

Pour perfectly

• Tea connoisseurs maintain that tea drunk from bone china cups tastes better and that nothing compares to the elegance and delicacy of a china teacup and saucer.
• A teacup and saucer is served with a teaspoon on the saucer.
• The tea is poured in first. There is an old tale about the milk being poured in first to prevent poor quality china from cracking. However, by the time the tea is poured it is no longer boiling so this is very unlikely.
• Sugar is offered after the tea is poured. Again you would not dream of putting the sugar in first!
• The Victorians injected a rule about never directing the spout towards guests. However they also had a rule about covering table and piano legs so you can probably pass on that one.

 

Drink delightfully

• The saucer stays on the table, unless you are standing.
• The teacup is held between the finger and thumb and replaced on the saucer between sips.
• Never point the little finger (the pinky) in the air nope ignore these mythical Tea Etiquette Tips
  

 

Tea Etiquette Tips – Eat exquisitely

• Sandwiches are eaten with the fingers.
• Cakes are generally eaten with a small fork, unless it can be eaten without dropping crumbs
• Scones are generally broken, spread with cream and jam using a small knife and eaten with the fingers
• When taking jam, cream or butter use the knives supplied by the dish to put your choice on the plate. Never use your own utensils to dip in.

 

Don’t!

• Dunk!
• Leave a spoon in the teacup.
• Clang the teaspoon against the cup when stirring.
• Wipe your nose with the napkin.
• Fold your napkin when you have finished – leave it crumpled instead.
• Talk with your mouthful.

 

So there you go …. all the Tea Etiquette Tips you need to know for a posh cuppa!

 

 If you have enjoyed this post on Tea Etiquette Tips you might also enjoy my post on what is high tea?