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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

#61

Post by The_Colonel »

orwin wrote: post #60
The_Colonel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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". As a Czech (and a very picky eater who refuses a lot of food offered) I can't really confirm most of what you wrote. Paying for other people's lunch is not really a thing, other than perhaps in the context of…

I think it's more a rural vs cities/town thing.

I grew up in the countryside in the most conservative part of the country (measured by catholic presence). This attachment to food is indeed more present in the rural countryside, but still nothing like the commenter above describes.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#62

Post by me_me_me »

bigger_inside wrote: post #24
vonzepp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accepting anything offered to you on the first offer is a bit rude. Basically, you are a guest of someone and shouldn't be a burden on them. They have to prove to you that you are not a burden, and then once that is clear you don't feel bad being served. Then your tea comes with cake, ham sandwiches and biscuit which is beyond the scope of the initial drink you were offered.

very culturally dependent. In Germany, the first offer is the offer. If you refuse it, there will not be a second one; and making a second, third offer, in turn, would be rude in Germany, as it is pestering and assumes I'm lying with the first answer or I don't know what I want. How dare you assume this? :D The English always think the Germans terribly rude. In turn, Germans find these English (also Irish, I guess) c…

maybe I should move to germany :)

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#63

Post by me_me_me »

The_Colonel wrote: post #61
orwin wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more a rural vs cities/town thing.

I grew up in the countryside in the most conservative part of the country (measured by catholic presence). This attachment to food is indeed more present in the rural countryside, but still nothing like the commenter above describes.

Sharing a meal is a strong bonding ritual.

I read long time ago a study of families who eat together and those who dont.

Families who share meals have higher cohesion and better relations.

Its important to consider where those traditions came from and maybe why they came about.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#64

Post by UtopiaPunk »

trilbyglens wrote: post #16
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_.

Tea drinking commie here. Can confirm, I resteep the leaves.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#65

Post by me_me_me »

cameronh90 wrote: post #46
bartislartfast wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when the TV show Broadchurch came out, and David Tennant's character made tea in the microwave, and there was national uproar in Britain. Later several scientific articles pointed out this is actually a better way to make tea. This event, along with Brexit and Covid, will surely be recognised by historians as the beginning of the downfall of the UK

Microwaving tea makes it foamy and taste "weird". Not sure what constitutes better, objectively, but subjectively it can get in the bin.

is it boiling just water in microwave or water and tea bag?

First sounds ok, second abomination.

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#67

Post by AntiRemote »

boffinAudio wrote: post #55

Given that tea is literally one of the products of imperialism that the denizens of the British isles cannot enjoy without having enslaved entire nations for the purpose, it is no surprise that the Irish were imbued with the class warfare inherent in the production and acquisition of this resource. What's shocking is how poorly the classism is recognized in this discourse. If one is 'poor quality class' because of ho…

[dead]

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#68

Post by bigger_inside »

cameronh90 wrote: post #45
bigger_inside wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

very culturally dependent. In Germany, the first offer is the offer. If you refuse it, there will not be a second one; and making a second, third offer, in turn, would be rude in Germany, as it is pestering and assumes I'm lying with the first answer or I don't know what I want. How dare you assume this? :D The English always think the Germans terribly rude. In turn, Germans find these English (also Irish, I guess) c…

It's not a lie. Often the "how are you" is answered with "not bad", i.e. nothing much to say or don't want to talk about it, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it turns into a conversation about how life is going, or the problems you're having, or what you're looking forward to at the weekend or on your holiday. Or maybe just some idle chat about how hot it's been. Not only is this inevitably more fun than whatever…

though it's not giving room in general; if it actually does depends on whether, in this context, it MAY be used or not, which the question itself doesn't communicate. This makes it a hornet's nest to actually use it. A purely ritual "how are you" met with actual emotional expression might make the situation quite awkward.

Thus, there are deeper contextual frames you need to understand in order to know if that "how are you" actually means "please, open up" or it it only means "I'm just checkmarking politeness in this convo before I tell you to stay 3 hours longer today".

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#69

Post by spicymapotofu »

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…

Also big in Iraq, for many of the same rules. I'm reading "guests of the shiek" and getting better details on these cultural norms, but I'm surprised to see basically the same thing in an Anglo country!

Re: The dangers of tea drinking in nineteenth century Ireland

#70

Post by Obscurity4340 »

0ct4via wrote: post #31
maksimur wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Piggybacking off your assumption of Russia having low tea consumption, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_tea_culture is very much a thing.

God, I love Wikipedia. Such a random thing to receive the Wikipedic treatment
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