That comes from a 1946 essay by Orwell named "A nice cup of tea". He published it directly after the second world war when rationing and limited imports were a

That comes from a 1946 essay by Orwell named "A nice cup of tea". He published it directly after the second world war when rationing and limited imports were a recent memory. But as you say it broadly describes how we've drunk tea in the UK up to now. The main difference is probably that teabags are now much more common than tea leaves. Britain has a complex history with tea due to historical reasons. For a nation that claims to love tea, it's surprising that we generally don't care about drinking whole-leaf or single-origin. A British cup of tea is some sort of Baudrillardian simulacrum. Just compare it to wine or coffee, where blends are the cheap stuff which you avoid if you can. I believe the same was once true here, but WW2 - combined with our colonial history - changed everything. The book "Infused: Adventures In Tea" by Henrietta Lovell [0] has a nice section about this. For any "builders tea" drinkers interested in expanding their horizons, I'd recommend giving Yunnan gold leaves a go. You can buy a sample from online retailers like Adagio [1] (although have to pay delivery). Just boil and drink with milk in the normal fashion. The natural sweetness and earthiness of it blew my socks off the first time I tried it. Interestingly, Twinings' "Everyday" tea bags include some leaves sourced from Yunnan [2]. [0] https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196229938560 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196229938560 [1] https://www.adagiotea.co.uk/black/yunnan_gold.html https://www.adagiotea.co.uk/black/yunnan_gold.html [2] https://twinings.co.uk/products/everyday-80-tea-bags https://twinings.co.uk/products/everyday-80-tea-bags