Drinking tea? The thin end of the wedge?

Lordy, lordy, women causing damage to the social order eh??
Think I'll just go and put the kettle on..........

Well this Peasant woman is on to her second cup......

Is there a word worse than Peasant as I have downed 3 cups since 6.30 I must be really low on the social scale of things,lets put that kettle on and have a top up.

I haven't been reckless and uncontrollable for at least half an hour

See the "old biddies" thread for some suggestions "glamma"

I drink about eight cups a day - that most account for my behaviour!

Oh dear, I've just squandered a tea bag, and now I'm going to squander another one!

Well I am clearly in moral decline. I am on Mug2 and its only 9am. Plenty more mugs of tea to get though today.

Only 2 nellie you lightweight you.
Wondering if I drink even more tea (which is a lot) might I then become reckless and uncontrollable. Would probably make DH's day!

I drink one mug of tea in the afternoon... Assam, no tea-bag, in a small white tea-pot... no milk (ech!) and two hermestas... you see I met up with a school friend who had spent his working years as a tea planter, and he enthused me!

In the mornings it's black coffee, Colombian ... between the coffee and the tea I drink about eight cups too... but NO MILK!

Historically the good thing about tea drinking was that like ale, tea was made with boiling water, and thus relatively disease free... and of course it was non-alcoholic. Water was very dangerous stuff unless it had been boiled.

Weak tea (Ceylon). I have one large mug at breakfast, using leaf tea because it's more economical for me. However, for the rest of the day I usually drink red bush tea because it's caffeine-free and I don't take kindly to caffeine.

I like the idea of being a revolting peasant each time I have a cup of tea.

We need a HISTORY section! (plug plug).
Thhis is fascinating and throws light on something I had wondered about ie when did the masses including my ancestors in Ireland start drinking it!

feetlebaum, good points. Also - oh dear, women were getting together to drink it!

Absolutely feetlebaum re its safety.
Was it Orwell who talks about the working man, taking a break, getting a little fire going and brewing up? Terrible impact on productivity no doubt .
Of course in the 19th c slums of London there was terrible alcohol abuse - cheap gin. Puts tea into perspective I'd say.

Must go back to Orwell - 'Wigan Pier' has a lot about tea and tramps, if I remember...

...and about 1930s slums, horrifying, sounds like 100 years before.
I guess if you were a woman in a Victorian slum, the cup of tea may have been your one bright spot.

Alie there are parts of Wigan that Orwell would still find the same! Lots of slum houses left to go to rack and ruin by private owners who bought them up in the 80s and never had money to renovate them (gradually being seized by compulsory purchase). There are women in scarves and clogs in Leigh and Ince, who sit on their doorsteps drinking tea and chatting. Who knows what they must be plotting?

Sounds like the Oldham that I knew in the 70's. Wonder if that's the same now? Some things in the article were true; it is addictive [don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have my cuppa] and does cause social unrest in that it is a social drink/social occasion. The coffee houses of the somethingorother century were a concern due to the revolutionary unrest they created. Were the middle class women who were against the poor drinking tea still allowed to drink it? I have a cuppa first thing [it has to be tea in the morning, and then have to have a coffee..from then on it's tea all day . Does anyone remember the first part of that Bill Bryson book where he says that, no matter what life of the English weather throws at us we're happy if we can sit down and have a cup of tea . No one understands us like Bill does....

Oldham is a bit better off crimson. Still lots of rows of terraced houses, but not slums. In the district I know, this side of Manchester, there has been lots of renovation of run-down houses and the streets are kept looking neat.

Is the ski slope still there? I know there were rows of beautiful terraced houses in Newcastle that were due to be demolished a while back. It's such a shame.

My Dad used to say 'Tea- the cup that cheers but does not inebriate'. I have no idea where he got this homily. Was it perhaps an early advert?

Googled it and found this:

"The cup that cheers but does not inebriate": Slogan promoting tea as an alternative to alcohol, mid-19th century; associated with the temperance movement.

Cowper. The post comes home?

....my granny joined the 'Band of Hope' in the 1890s....temperance really was a big thing, there were even temperance steamboats!