Lesson 12 - Making the perfect cup of tea. I'm not joking, it's an essential student lesson

Recently, thanks to making friends with some proper tea-lovers, I've found that there's nothing better than a good cuppa to bond with. All you need is a kettle, mug, teabag, milk, water and a buddy or two. And biscuits. 

Obviously, everyone likes their tea a bit different. Know your audience. Ask your tea-drinking buddy how they like theirs and adjust your tea-making accordingly. Be considerate - you'd want them to do the same for you wouldn't you? Of course you would!

Unless you're a real tea enthusiast/really prepared, you'll be making your tea in the mug, not in a teapot. That's far too high class for an impoverished student. Also, who wants to be messing about with a whole POT of tea?!

Shove a teabag in the bottom of each mug. Boil the kettle and get some milk out of the fridge while finding a spoon and some sugar if required. When your kettle has boiled, pour water onto the teabag, leaving a good centimetre at the top of the mug (so you have room for milk). Depending on what teabags you use, leave the tea to brew for a bit. I use Quickbrew, so the tea is ready to go in a few seconds. 

Spoon your teabag out of the mug and pour in as much or as little milk as you like. Milly, George and I (that's us on the right, they're the aforementioned tea-loving friends) all like our tea on the milky side, but my housemates Lucy and James prefer theirs a bit stronger. If you have sugar/a sweetner, now's the time to put it in and give your tea a cheeky little stir. According to my Dad, you should stir tea 7 times anti-clockwise and then once clockwise. I don't really give a hoot about how you stir it to be honest.

Everyone knows that a good cup of tea is made better by the dipping of biscuits. Milk Chocolate Digestives come highly recommended. However, if you want to keep it cheap and simple, there's nothing like a good Rich Tea. For goodness sake don't leave that biscuit immersed in tea for too long - no one likes soggy biscuit floating about in their beverage. 


Dip, sip and have a good old chinwag. You've earned it.