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milk in my tea? no way.

If you want to really correct, you need to steep it in a teapot, pour the milk in you cup and then add the tea. Thanks to Alton Brown for that tip!

There's enough traditional left in my family that we still conform to the idea that tea "requires a shower and not a bath". Tea needs room to bloom and time to steep and this is not well achieved in a mug. So it gets made in a teapot and then poured into a drinking vessel.

I'm firmly in the "milk after steeping but before pouring" camp.

Oh my goodness this is a lifelong debate between my mother and me. She pours the milk in right after putting in the teabag. It drives me crazy! I think she does it to bother me, especially when she tells me that someday I'll do the same thing to MY kids. UGH.

milk????? Never!!!!!

I don't normally add milk to tea, but if I did it would be after. That's how I was taught when I worked at Tim Horton's, and that's how my mom does it.

never

I completely agree with skreinking. To do this properly you MUST steep in a pot, not in the cup.

Also, the word was when I lived in England that the tradition was to pour the milk first because if you were using very fine china it could crack the cup if you poured the super hot liquid directly into the cup without milk to temper it.

Generally this doesn't matter much when you're using a mug.

milk: never
won't the cold milk affect how well the tea steeps in the boiling water? So it must matter on how strong you like your tea.

OK, those mugs are funny. I was thinking you could use them for the proper amount of milk/cream in coffee.

I think Americans are the only people I've ever met with an aversion to milk in tea. It sort of makes sense as most people here seem to think of tea as "herbal tea" (although that's actually not tea.... but, I digress.
I'm with everybody else who said, steep in teapot, pour milk in cup, and then pour tea into cup.

"I think Americans are the only people I've ever met with an aversion to milk in tea."

what about Asians?

Anyway, I would never put milk in my tea.

if you're adding milk, you need to warm it, or your tea will get cold and terible- warm it, not heat it to scalding point

I add milk to certain kinds of tea - oolong/green, no; English Breakfast/Earl Grey, yes, please!

And it depends on how long I have as to when I add it. If I need to drink it right away/on the run I'll add the milk after its only started to brew to cool it to a more drinkable temp and leave the bag in so that it continues to steep slowly. If I have the time I brew in a pot and add milk to each cup I pour.

I've seen those mugs at several places around SF, none that have websites that I can think of, but all for less than $20. Try Wishbone in the Inner Sunset.

as much as I would love to always be able to do it properly every time and steep the loose tea in a teapot I can't always (although I think my students would be really amused if I started doing it that way). but, since I can't, I put the milk (and sugar) and the t-bag (great invention) filled with loose tea in the mug and then pour the water over it.

my tea pet peeve is when I go someplace and instead of putting the water over the tea they give you the tea bag to dunk into the water.

I have no idea. I can think of some reasons why water-steeping would be better or why water and milk would be better but I can't say which one is more likely or whether the difference would be too subtle to distinguish.

It seems like it would be easy to just do a taste test. Make a few cups with equal amounts of cream and sugar, steep some with the milk and add others without the milk, and see if anyone can tell the difference.

It'd be interesting if the Kitchn did a taste test with tea steeping using all the preferred permutations and see if their bloggers could tell the difference between:

steeped in a pot of hot water
teabag in hot water (water added to bag)
teabag in hot water (bag added to water)
milk added before
milk added after

I'm guessing that in a true blind taste test, only "milk added before" (since the temperature drop would affect the brewing).

That's be a great post if someone there is up to doing the test.

Personally, I find no or little difference between adding water to bag, bag to water, or brewing in a pot (if we're talking teabags and not leaves). I always add milk after because I want the tea good and strong. However, I think that if the milk is really hot, you can do it any time.

I vote for lemon in my tea, no milk or sugar.

Never milk.

It depends on the flavor of tea, so if I add a dairy product it's always half and half.

How I do it: Steep in teapot, add half and half to cup (if desired), add tea to cup, add sweetener (if desired).

The perfect cuppa tea.

I think some teas taste better with milk. If it's brewed from a teapot, I will add milk to the cup first. If I'm using a teabag, milk goes in after it has steeped. Otherwise, it will cool the water and affect the brewing process.

I completely agree with lcg. One of my old work colleagues called me a "miffer" (Milk In First) because of my chosen technique.

For really delicate china, you have to pour a bit of milk into the bottom of the cup before you add the hot tea so it won't accidentally crack the cup. I like a tiny bit in some teas.

I always put the milk in last for two reasons. I take sugar, and the hot tea will dissolve the sugar more easily if there isn't already milk in the cup. Also, it is easier to get the amount of milk right when you add it afterwards, since you can tell from the colour as you pour.

Oh, and if you care about appearances, I guess that would be an other reason to add the milk last. When you pour the milk used to be a social indicator in Britain. The lower classes would pour the milk in first, while the upper classes would have it poured last.

Either is fine for me. I even like to steep a tea bag in pure hot milk, no water. I was told they do this in Morocco (and maybe other parts of Africa), but I'm not sure if it's true.

Also, research shows that dairy products make the antioxidants in tea unable to do there job, so if you're trying to get the antioxidant benefit you should use soy or rice milk.

OMG! Where are the mugs in the photo from?! Please?
(And as about milk, I used to put it last but then I read in the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy that you put it first so that it doesn't get scalded ;)

Uh, I put my milk and my sugar in my mug before pouring the hot water in. Reason? Because then my sugar dissolves and my milk gets heated up and I don't have to waste a clean spoon stirring everything. To each his own.

The proper ettiquette for milk addition to tea came from the material that the tea set was made of. Mrs Beeton's ettiquette guides for hosting the perfect Afternoon Tea council the hostess to pour the milk into the cup before the tea-which should always be brewed in a teapot. The necessity of this practice is because the bone china or fine porcelain of the teacup might crack with the stress of the hot tea being poured in. The milk in the bottom protected the botton of the cup from contracting too quickly with the heat. Sugar lumps would be added afterwards with the tea being stirred clockwise with a silver spoon since any other metal would mark the porcelain cup on the inside...

If I'm making one cup for myself, I let the tea steep, then remove the tea bag and add the milk.

But the proper way, according to my English family, is of course to brew a pot of tea. Milk gets added to the cup/mug first, followed by the tea after it has been sufficiently steeped in the tea pot.

And if you really want to be special -- the milk should be slightly warmed prior to use.

@ squiggle:
"

what about Asians?"


Have you had Hong Kong milk tea or Thai iced tea (served with condensed milk)? Not all tea in Asian countries is served with milk, and not all Asian countries serve tea with milk, but many do. And, none of my Asian friends have ever commented on the milk in my tea as "weird". Anyway, maybe I should have phrased it as, 'All the people I've ever met with a strong aversion to milk in tea have been American.'

No milk for me thanks! And lemon for "regular" tea, and just clear for herbal teas!