International Tea Day: Tea expert explains how to make the perfect cuppa

98% of people polled in the annual tea census revealed they drink tea every single day.

Transcript

00:00 One of the great findings is we are drinking more tea than ever. So 98% of those polled

00:07 told us that they are drinking a cup of tea absolutely every day.

00:11 Tea is the most popular drink consumed in the UK today by far. The nearly 5,000 year

00:17 old beverage has its roots in China and the Far East and played a vital role in the economic

00:22 and social development of Britain. Nowadays, as part of International Tea Day,

00:27 rubber connoisseurs crunch the all-important numbers to put together the tea census.

00:31 Hello, my name is Sharon Hall and I'm the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Tea

00:35 and Infusions Association at tea.co.uk. Milk is always the controversial one and whether

00:42 we put it in first or last. But actually a quarter of us now say they drink tea, black

00:48 tea, without any milk at all. But those that do put milk in, only 8% of us put it in first

00:54 and the rest put it in last or after the sugar.

00:57 There seems to be a bit of a growing trend of people choosing tea over alcohol, especially

01:02 among younger people. What factors do you think are contributing to that shift and how

01:07 has that been reflected in the data?

01:10 There's a real growing trend of what we call sober curious. So living life with either

01:15 no alcohol or less alcohol. And I think that younger generation, very health conscious,

01:21 and they want to look at how they live, how they exercise, how they sleep. And diet is

01:26 a key part of that whole lifestyle.

01:29 What tips can you offer on making the perfect cup?

01:33 In terms of making a great cup of tea, my number one tip is smart boil. Every time you

01:38 re-boil that water, the oxygen comes out. And the oxygen is really important to get

01:43 all the best flavour out of your tea leaves. So we say smart boil, measure out just what

01:48 you need. So if you're making one mug of tea, just measure one mug of water and boil that.

01:53 And actually, if we all did that, we'd save the equivalent of 1.5 million car journeys.