How much milk should you have in tea?
I’m forever making tea wrong for my colleague Matt, and he is forever making it wrong for me. This led me to wonder how much milk makes the perfect cup of tea.
Lovefood writer Matt and I sit next to each other and, like office workers up and down the country, that means we take turns to do the tea run. But rarely do we make a brew acceptable to each other’s palate, despite daily discussions about it. Should tea be taken with one drop of milk (like Matt’s white cup on the right), or three (like my red cup on the left)?
Milk last
At least we agree on one fundamental fact: you should always put the milk in last, after the tea has been poured. Indeed, to do anything else would have been considered ‘cheap’ in the old days. Pouring scalding hot water into the cup first, without the barrier of cold milk, was a test of how sturdy your china was.
There’s a whole bunch of rules about tea etiquette (many of which are discussed in Emily Post’s 1945 book Etiquette), including the idea that one should use a gentle back-and-forth motion to stir tea (not circular), that it’s impolite to look over a cup of tea when drinking it (look into it instead), and that you should never, ever dunk anything into tea. The latter rule, we think, threatens one of life’s greatest pleasures.
One drop or three?
Most people take tea with milk, but the question is: how much? I used to take it builder’s style (more like Matt’s white cup in the main image above), but in the past couple of years have opted for a drop more milk. It gives tea a more rounded finish and, strangely, the taste of my tea compliments cake more than Matt's does.
Matt, on the other hand, has the tiniest drop of milk in his tea. “It’s mainly because I don’t like milk,” says Matt. “But a very little milk does help to take the bitter edge off tea.”
I don’t like milk either, and would rather have too little in my cup than too much but Matt’s style of brew is pushing it. Besides, milk can disguise the taste of a cheap tea bag, as can sugar.
Milk to the max
My dad loves milk in his tea so much, that he’ll even add a touch to a cup of herbal tea. Yes, he takes milk in a peppermint tea.
But having a healthy dose of milk in a cup of tea does make sense for another reason – your teeth. My sister, who’s training to be a dentist, told me that “tea is the most common cause of teeth staining, alongside coffee and red wine. But if you really have to drink tea, I’d suggest putting in as much milk as you can bear – that way it won’t stain your teeth so much”.
Colgate agrees, and goes further to suggest that tea “might be even more likely to stain your teeth than coffee due to its high tannin content”. It suggests drinking water after a cup of tea to help reduce the amount of tannin left in your mouth.
One further point – tea actually contains fluoride. So in that respect, at least, perhaps it’s good for your oral hygiene?
How do you take your tea?
We want to know how you take your tea. What would taste better – my cup or Matt’s cup? Vote in our poll below and then share your exact preferences in the Comments box.
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