"A Nice Cup of Tea" is an essay by British writer George Orwell, first published in the Evening Standard newspaper of 12 January 1946. It is a straight-faced discussion about the craft of making a cup of tea, including the line: "Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden."
Orwell's rules cover such matters as the best shape for a teacup, the advisability of using water that is still boiling, and his preference for very strong tea. He also considers what he calls "one of the most controversial points of all" - whether to put milk in the cup first and add the tea, or the other way around. Orwell says tea should be poured first because "one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round." "I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable," he writes.
Famous quotes containing the words cup of tea, nice, cup and/or tea:
“I know it does make people happy, but to me it is just like having a cup of tea.”
—Cynthia Paine (b. 1934)
““Dark times” is what they call it in Norway when the sun remains below the horizon all day long: the temperature falls slowly but surely at such times.—A nice metaphor for all those thinkers for whom the sun of mankind’s future has temporarily disappeared.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)
“When one has tea and wine one will have many friends.”
—Chinese proverb.