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Icons of England: Tea
We human beings pride ourselves on being unique- everyone wants to be different, to stand out from the crowd. However, what single thing unites over 70% of the population into normality? The fact that yesterday they all drank a cup of tea, meaning 165 million cups were consumed (98% of those were with milk, in case you were wondering).
The dictionary notes that an icon is something that represents something else. Tea drinking obviously represents a vast proportion of the British public’s behaviour, would it be going too far to therefore class tea as a British Icon?
Tea seems to make us Brits tick. Perhaps this due to our unashamed desire to save money; tea costs just 3p per cup on average, compare this to its closest rival, coffee, which costs the drinker a lavish 6.5p and a winner in the battle of the hot drinks is obvious. Other benefits are also evident: tea leaves contain antioxidants, and with the average cup containing just 2 calories, the cup of tea remains an attractive option in this health conscious age, with the University of Birmingham even claiming that tea speeds up the body’s metabolic rate. However, this country loved tea before scientists told us we should. Why?
Coffee’s popularity is changeable, at one time the Grande, black Americano is what the fashionistas of the coffee-house world are sipping, the next it’s a Skinny Cinnamon Latte- decaffeinated, naturally. But tea is constant; you know where you stand with tea, which is perhaps why it outsells coffee 2:1. Granted, we may dabble in the herbal variety in a bid to be healthy, with there now being an estimated 1,500 of these on the market to choose from but classic breakfast tea is still unrivalled in popularity.
Since the 18th Century when the British East India Company, to whom all us tea-lovers are indebted, sailed the first import over, the British have never allowed tea go out of fashion. It was once enjoyed only by civilised, Victorian company, with a vast amount of paraphernalia being necessary. Now, a cup of tea is the choice of the masses. The National Grid employ staff to spot times that have become known in the business as a British ‘TV pick-up’, a time when a large amount of the population heave themselves up from the sofa during half-time in the World Cup, or the end of an episode of Coronation Street, in order to make a cup of tea.
The humble beverage is clearly a symbol of the country we live in. So yes, perhaps we could go so far as to call it an icon.
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