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The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

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Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#11

Post by 5e92cb50239222b »

cubefox wrote: post #9
bartislartfast wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tea drinking in Ireland is a big part of the culture, and we have a lot of unwritten rules around it. I'm sure other irish HN'ers will jump in here and add to the list, but off the top of my head - if you don't offer someone tea when they come to visit, you are rude. if they refuse, and you accept their first offer without insisting, that's also rude. you have to persist a bit. this was parodied in the TV show "Fathe…

And I thought it was only the English who have such a close relationship to tea!

> only the English who have such a close relationship to tea

... excluding Japan, China, Russia, all of Central Asia (where I am from), and probably many other countries. So typical for HN.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#12

Post by I_complete_me »

bartislartfast wrote: post #3
mock-possum wrote: post #2

It’s pretty bonkers how far out of their way humans will go to make things more difficult. Like it can’t just be drinking tea, it has to have vast sweeping sociological implications. Human beings are so very very extra.

Tea drinking in Ireland is a big part of the culture, and we have a lot of unwritten rules around it. I'm sure other irish HN'ers will jump in here and add to the list, but off the top of my head - if you don't offer someone tea when they come to visit, you are rude. if they refuse, and you accept their first offer without insisting, that's also rude. you have to persist a bit. this was parodied in the TV show "Fathe…

Two points:

It's important to note whether the milk goes in the tea first or the tea first and then the milk. When the host is serving the tea, if the milk goes in first, then the host is admitting that they have inferior (non-china) cups, since china cups are more robust and can withstand the sudden heat shock. However, I have never had tea from a china cup so I can't possibly say.

When making hay in the summer time, the tea served to the workers should have equal parts tea, water, sugar and milk. Well, that's how it tasted to me back in the day!

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#13

Post by trilbyglens »

Octabrain wrote: post #7
ilyt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of shit is why I hate dealing with people, same thing happens here in Poland but with food. I just started saying "nope, I'm too fat for that"

Why "hate"? I personally find fascinating that kind of implicit cultural rules.

Because once you see the pattern it can become an oppressive social requirement. I'm american but have been living in Czechia for about 15 years, and I've seen friendships blown up due to shit like "we visited and he didn't even offer us lunch", or "she didn't even offer to pay for lunch".

It's fun when you are a visitor and you can view it from a distance, but when it's the local unaware social OS, it's got a far different effect.

The food thing, specifically (probably a slavic thing) I find really fucking tedious. There is no "I'm not hungry but thank you" or "sorry I don't eat meat". Refusing food on a visit is basically equivalent to taking out a gun and shooting the family dog. You're likely to never be invited over again, and people will think you are a complete asshole. Because of this social overhead, visiting friends and family is a huge ordeal as everyone is expected to roll out the carpet and play host. No one wants to burden others, and no one wants to be burdened, so visits are fairly uncommon unless it's a bigger occasion like a birthday or holiday. There's absolutely no "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd pop in and see what you're up to".

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#14

Post by trilbyglens »

ilyt wrote: post #6
bartislartfast wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tea drinking in Ireland is a big part of the culture, and we have a lot of unwritten rules around it. I'm sure other irish HN'ers will jump in here and add to the list, but off the top of my head - if you don't offer someone tea when they come to visit, you are rude. if they refuse, and you accept their first offer without insisting, that's also rude. you have to persist a bit. this was parodied in the TV show "Fathe…

That kind of shit is why I hate dealing with people, same thing happens here in Poland but with food. I just started saying "nope, I'm too fat for that"

man, I totally feel the same. The number of times I've been forced to eat 2-3x what I normally would, at times when I'm not even hungry are too numerous to count. American living in Prague...

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#15

Post by n4r9 »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #11
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I thought it was only the English who have such a close relationship to tea!

> only the English who have such a close relationship to tea ... excluding Japan, China, Russia, all of Central Asia (where I am from), and probably many other countries. So typical for HN.

I'm currently reading "Infused - Adventures in Tea" by Henrietta Lovell. She makes the good point that British people say "normal tea" to refer to English breakfast (blended black) tea, but for the majority of tea drinkers in the world "normal" is green tea.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#16

Post by trilbyglens »

mordae wrote: post #8

Truth be told, boiling tea leaves continuously does extract all the tanins and could lead to gastric distress for some. Better to make the tea the usual way and then keep it warm. You can use the leaves multiple times, though.

Reheating tea though has been shown to correlate with the utter upheaval of the social order though. Using the leaves again is even worse, and is correlated with _communism_.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#17

Post by maksimur »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #11
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I thought it was only the English who have such a close relationship to tea!

> only the English who have such a close relationship to tea ... excluding Japan, China, Russia, all of Central Asia (where I am from), and probably many other countries. So typical for HN.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consu..., Turkey is the top tea-consuming country per capita, with Ireland second and UK third. Interestingly, Russia isn't too far off either. I would've assumed Russia to be among the countries with the lowest per capita tea consumption, but these numbers challenge that assumption. I wonder what (cultural?) factors affect those numbers.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#18

Post by pja »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #11
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I thought it was only the English who have such a close relationship to tea!

> only the English who have such a close relationship to tea ... excluding Japan, China, Russia, all of Central Asia (where I am from), and probably many other countries. So typical for HN.

In terms of per capita consumption China and Japan are nowhere near the biggest tea drinking cultures in the world: There's a wide gulf between them & the top three which includes the UK & Ireland. But they in turn trail in the wake of the biggest tea drinkers of them all: the Turks.

If we're going to talk about cultures which have a close relationship with tea then the Turks beat out everyone else by a wide margin.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#19

Post by n4r9 »

I_complete_me wrote: post #12
bartislartfast wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tea drinking in Ireland is a big part of the culture, and we have a lot of unwritten rules around it. I'm sure other irish HN'ers will jump in here and add to the list, but off the top of my head - if you don't offer someone tea when they come to visit, you are rude. if they refuse, and you accept their first offer without insisting, that's also rude. you have to persist a bit. this was parodied in the TV show "Fathe…

Two points: It's important to note whether the milk goes in the tea first or the tea first and then the milk. When the host is serving the tea, if the milk goes in first, then the host is admitting that they have inferior (non-china) cups, since china cups are more robust and can withstand the sudden heat shock. However, I have never had tea from a china cup so I can't possibly say. When making hay in the summer time…

This is one of those things where everyone has heard a slightly different tale. I've read in other places the exact opposite: some people put milk in first in china cups because they think china is delicate and prone to cracking. Some people prefer milk afterwards so they can get the tea to the right colour. Others say that putting it in first may prevent denaturing the milk proteins.

More research is needed.

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