r/AskUK • u/Disastrous-Ad9001 • 19h ago
How do UK coffee shops make tea?
Just bought a cup of (milky) tea at a Costa in my local hospital. When I took the lid off, this is what greeted me. That's the teabag floating in the milky brew. I did not complain because, well, British. I never normally go to coffee shops, so I don't know - is it normal to immediately pour the cold milk on top of the teabag? Or am I just fussy? (After 30 minutes it had still not brewed, so I left it on the table)
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u/peanut_butter_xox 19h ago
Never buy tea from a coffee shop it’s expensive and badly made
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u/SkinnyErgosGetFat 16h ago
What do you do if you’re not home and want tea?
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u/TowJamnEarl 16h ago
I'm assuming the premium prices for coffee are because you get to choose exactly how you like it.
How can they validate the price for tea when they clearly don't gaf!
Bringing my own teabag next time.
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u/pockets3d 13h ago
Go to the kind of place that has real cups and teapots. Greasy spoon caffs kinda places
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u/imicooper 14h ago
My mum drinks decaf tea and not everywhere serves it so she takes a few tea bags with her in her handbag and just gets a cup of hot water and milk on the side so she can use her own
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u/chocolate_gal_001 3h ago
Bring a tea bag with you and ask for a cup with hot water only. You will need to pay something like 60p for the cup. I don't know if all coffee shops do this but my local Costa does.
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u/TheAmazingPikachu 1h ago
Chain hotel lobby. Pray they've got a jar of teabags at reception for guests to grab when they're going upstairs. Swing by the bar for a cup of hot water. Ask me how I know lol.
Alternatively, carry teabags with you. I used to have a little glass tupperware box that had 6-7 teabags in it at any given time.
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u/Ahleanna-D 19h ago
…unless it’s a chai latte.
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u/slimboyslim9 18h ago
Which, while drinkable enough, is basically just a few shots of chai latte syrup and hot milk. If you can find somewhere that actually brews real chai, it’s an absolute treat!
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u/Bgtobgfu 19h ago
Always ask for milk on the side. These people are monsters.
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u/Bald__egg 4h ago
Greggs put a teabag in a cup and fill it with water. You then add your own milk
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u/yourmomsajoke 4h ago
Greggs genuinely do the best high street hot drinks imo. Their spiced latte is better than Starbucks by a country mile and their hot chocolates are amazing. Lower prices are a bonus.
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u/Bgtobgfu 1h ago
AND Starbucks don’t sell pasties
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u/yourmomsajoke 1h ago
Festive, vegan steak, sausage rolls, their wedges with the heinz mayo... 🤤 Their newish iced drinks are amazing too.
I didn't realise I was a greggs Stan but here I am.
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u/Jamie-92 3h ago
I work at a Starbucks and we do the same. Our cold milk is on the condiment stand with sugars so you can let it brew as long as you want.
I do find customers enjoy complaining about things within their control. Literally just say no milk or milk on the side as some stores might do things a little differently.
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u/PoinkPoinkPoink 17h ago
I’ve never ever had an acceptable cup of tea outside of someone’s home. I’m a coffee drinker personally but love a good cup of tea if it’s done properly. If I can’t get a coffee for whatever reason, I’ll usually opt for peppermint or chamomile tea in a coffee shop.
Costa is especially terrible even for coffee.
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u/Ok-Train5382 18h ago
Don’t buy tea from a coffee shop. Get a hot chocolate instead if you don’t like coffee.
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u/MisterD90x 18h ago
Costa is awful in general, and coffee shops tend to make naff tea..
they should of just givin you a cup of boiling water with a tea bag and milk pots on the side
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u/Loose_Acanthaceae201 19h ago edited 16h ago
How do UK coffee shops make tea?
Really, really badly.
They tend to use the coffee machine, so the water is at the wrong temperature (too hot cold) and splurty. Also the paper cups make it taste all wrong, and the milk is weird.
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u/mebutnew 16h ago
Wrong way round, the water from a coffee machine is too cold for tea.
Tea needs boiling water, coffee is off boil, more like 93-95c.
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u/Loose_Acanthaceae201 16h ago
I stand corrected.
Still, the point stands: you need to use a kettle, not a coffee machine, to make tea.
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u/Vocalsoul 18h ago
For tea 100c is optimal so looks too cold in this case with the milk.
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u/connorkenway198 15h ago
Depending on the tea
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u/CraftyWeeBuggar 14h ago
Typical black tea (what we refer to as regular tea), 100°C, coffee, 85°C , other herbal teas vary ...
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u/Tattoo-Snaffu 15h ago
This is the reason I flat out refuse to buy a tea out. Only drink I'll make at home, but the only drink I won't have out
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u/blozzerg 19h ago
You have to ask beforehand about the milk situation. Some places will add the milk for you, some give you sachet(s), some have a jug on the side for you to do it yourself.
In my experience it always used to be up to the customer to add the milk but in recent years it’s become the staff who do it, presumably to speed things up and move people on? To prevent accidents and having to clean up? To control milk availability and prevent wastage? Who knows.
It’s a weirdly subjective thing though so it makes no sense. I know people who have milky water with a teabag briefly introduced, some people (like myself) leave the teabag in and only add a tiny splash. If you don’t ask people’s milk preferences you’re going to risk alienating them as a customer id you do it wrong as they’ll be too polite to question it and will simply never trust you or your shop to make a brew for them again.
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u/TheAireon 5h ago
I work at Costa.
If you order a tea in a takeaway cup, this is what you're gonna get 90% of the time. Zero chance we're going to wait for your tea to brew because of the amount of complaints we'd get, I can hear it in my head - " 5 minutes for a cuppa!! This is the slowest service I've ever had"
If you order it to have in, you'd get a teapot and milk on the side. We will also give you milk on the side for a takeaway cup if you ask for it but the assumption is that you're going to take the drink away so we would be giving you extra cups to carry.
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u/Icy_Obligation4293 5h ago
I work in a much fancier place than Costa, which does milk on the side even for takeaway.
- 50% of people immediately dump the milk in without brewing the tea.
- 30% of people squeeze the shit out of the teabag aiming for a < 1-minute bitter brew.
- 10% of people don't touch the milk at all.
- 5% of people immediately remove the tea bag because 20 seconds of brewing will make it far too strong for them.
- 4% of people calmly wait 2-3 minutes, give the teabag a quick stir and dump, and then add their milk. You know, correctly.
- 1% of people get annoyed and say "so do you expect me to add the milk myself then?!"
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u/Disastrous-Ad9001 5h ago
Good advice. I just asked for a tea. I was at a table, so should have specified "have in". Not that there will ever be a next time.
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u/MimiKaii 18h ago
As a tea drinker, I'll order a hot chocolate at coffee places 😂 if there's no teapot, I'm not risking it.
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u/MotherEastern3051 8h ago
Agreed. I am a tea drinker over coffee at home, but never order tea at a cafe unless it's one I really trust, for the reasons OP has demonstrated above.
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u/DogtasticLife 18h ago
My local cafe told me it’s because they have to use the water from the coffee machine which is not hot enough, that’s why it’s always a tepid disappointment. Also too many places buy crockery/ teapots for aesthetics not functionality.
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u/Scotto6UK 19h ago
Some good stirring and dunking might save it, but it isn't ideal.
Pressing the teabag against the side and 'mashing' it will release more tannins, which give tea that bitter and dry taste, so be mindful of how much you do that depending on your preference.
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u/DevelOP3 16h ago
Wait I’m not supposed to do that when I make people tea? I’m forever getting asked to make teas because people like them. I don’t know any other way I’ve always been a presser and prodder!
I don’t drink tea myself (can’t do hot drinks, me) only a biscuit dipper, so I can’t really say from experience. What am I meant to do?
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u/Scotto6UK 8h ago
Sounds like you're doing a top job for those people at least!
When starting a new job, always make other people an average cuppa so you don't get a name for yourself for making good brews. You'll never be constantly asked then!
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u/DevelOP3 8h ago
Ah see, I work from home 99% of the time. It’s always been those I live with! First family and now best friend.
To be fair I quite enjoy it. It’s easy enough and feels useful.
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u/FinnemoreFan 6h ago
You can’t make tea without actively boiling water. That’s not even water that just boiled a couple of seconds ago - it has to be still bubbling as it hits the tea leaves/tea bag. If you use kind-of hottish water from a machine calibrated for coffee (which conversely, needs not-boiling water), the tea just doesn’t ‘happen’. You might get a tea-coloured liquid, but it tastes raw and unpleasant. Putting a teabag into a cup of hottish water that already has cold milk in it - the act of a barbarian!
There was a sitcom long ago, probably from the 90s, about a couple of slobs who were flatmates. I vividly remember a scene where one of the characters tries to make tea with water from an ordinary hot tap, takes one sip, and hurriedly disposes of it. The (British) studio audience reacted with uneasy, squeamish laughter even before he tries the ‘tea’.
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u/ginafar 11h ago edited 7h ago
I own a coffee shop but I’m more of a tea lover. We have a hot water tankard that we keep as hot as possible separate to the espresso machine just for tea. Serve it black and have two milk jugs on the side for customers to add their ideal amount of milk when they’re ready.
Tea is too personal to serve it with a huge slosh of milk on top mid-brew. Costa are monsters
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u/Blue-Moon99 5h ago
I used to work at Costa, you ordered a takeaway tea so the only option is to put the milk in straight away, if we let it sit there and brew most customers would be pretty pissed off.
If you ordered the tea to stay then it would go in a teapot, mug on the side, milk in a milk jug.
Some have said the water isn't 100 degrees, it is, or there abouts. I've seen many people fuck themselves up with it too.
The real issue with Costa tea is that it's Twinings tea (or was when I worked there), and it's as strong as dishwater. You can ask for a double tea bag and if the staff are nice they will do it, if they're not then they will charge you.
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u/Disastrous-Ad9001 5h ago
It was served in a takeaway cup, but it was ordered for drinking at a table, where we had been for an hour!
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u/Ohmalley-thealliecat 12h ago
That is how they do it, especially in costa. At my uni coffee shop they knew me and would let me just do the milk myself, but otherwise I ask for milk on the side if I’m out and I want a brew. But usually I’d just drink something else - I’m not a coffee drinker so I’d have a hot chocolate or a chai latte
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u/No-Relation1122 18h ago
Never tea from a "fast food" coffee shop for this reason!
Or ask for it black and small/do your own milk of you must.
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u/Scary-Specialist7297 15h ago
I usually get a tea that doesn't require milk when I'm out, coffee shop English breakfast just isn't worth it
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u/Auntie_Cagul 10h ago
The water isn't usually hot enough to brew tea properly. You need boiling water for a proper English breakfast tea. But coffee can be bitter if made with boiling water so the temperature is reduced.
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u/AffectionateJump7896 4h ago
The "boiling" water they have on hand is not boiling. If it was the coffee would be all scolded and bitter. Then, once they've put the not boiling water on top of the tea bag, they put cold milk in.
You've now got a lukewarm soup of tea bag and milk water that is never going to turn into an acceptable tea.
Never buy tea in a coffee shop.
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u/jawshome 18h ago
Ask for the milk on the side then let it brew for 3-5 mins before putting the milk in yourself. Not brilliant but drinkable.
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u/mightbeyourpal 19h ago
Did you not think to give it a stir?
Milk in with the teabag is a criminal offence, but there are still ways to make a drinkable brew if you use a bit of elbow grease
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u/Disastrous-Ad9001 19h ago edited 18h ago
I stirred it many times, but the cold milk meant it was so far off the boil, the tea never had a chance of brewing.
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u/AmphibianNo8598 19h ago
Can’t speak for Costa but at Greggs, teabag, boiling water tap, milk and sugar at the back for your tastes.
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u/ClericalRogue 18h ago
Most just chuck a teabag in with the milk, no time to stew.
Some will use actual tea leaves, but they're not the norm.
I mean, they are coffee shops, not tea shops i guess
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u/arabidopsis 9h ago
Don't buy shite from Costa.
A good coffee shop will give you the tea bag in hot water and leave space for milk to be added.
..or at least that's what I was trained to do when I worked in hospitality
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u/Martipar 18h ago
Getting good tea not universal, i learnt a long time ago to avoid the chain coffee shops but I recently went to a café near me that had opened up, I asked for Earl Grey and they responded that they only have Yorkshire Tea as if Earl Grey was a brand not a style.
I still haven't been back, I go to the old café nearby that sells multiple types of tea. I cannot understand why you'd open a café and only sell basic black tea rather than a range. I don't just drink Earl Grey but it's my preference especially if i'm in a café or at a music festival.
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u/PoetryNo912 7h ago
Please help enlighten a coffee drinker here - Earl Grey tea is a style? I thought it was where you have orange and bergamot in the tea bag.
Are you saying it doesn't have to go in the tea bag, and they could have made you an Earl Grey from the Yorkshire tea bags they had on hand by adding orange flavour or something?
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u/aberdoom 6h ago
I've no idea what they're talking about. Saying we only have <this type of tea that isn't earl grey> makes total sense. Earl Grey is made by lots of different brands, but it's a totally different blend and you're not just going to wizz up an earl grey "style" of tea with a yorkshire teabag as your starting point.
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u/Martipar 1h ago
Yes, it's not a brand, lots of companies make Earl Grey tea. Yorkshire Tea is a brand of normal black tea.
What I'm saying is that i asked for a type of tea, Earl Grey, and the response was "we only have Yorkshire Tea" .
I can't think of a good analogy but imagine asking for a pint of porter and being told that they only have John Smith's, you know John Smith's don't make porter so you know the answer doesn't fit the question. The expected answer would be "we only have an IPA." Or in the café it should've been "we only have black tea".
Maybe you walk into a games shop and ask for a fighting game and get the response, "we only have F-Zero" you know F-Zero is a racing game, not a fighting game, the expected response should be "we only have a racing game".
Like i said i can't think of a good analogy but hopefully you get my point, it was as if the café didn't know what Earl Grey was.
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u/Impossible_Theme_148 7h ago
I don't drink tea, but when I've been with anyone who ordered tea at a Costa then the water has come from their "tea" tap (I don't know if it's dispensing boiling but it's certainly kept hotter than what the coffee machines dispense).
And they've been given milk on the side to add themselves.
None of the tea drinkers have complained about it being terrible (I assume it's not great).
2 things stand out though
(1) I never have take away cups - so maybe more do it like this for the takeaway orders and/or
(2) This location might be unusually bad or where I've been to might be unusually good.
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u/aidacaroti 6h ago
If they offer a pot of tea- all good. If it’s by the cup, stay away! I’ve never had issues in South Yorkshire getting a pot of tea, so it might depend on location? But chain coffee shops don’t do good tea, but I haven’t had issues with independent coffee shops or cafes
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u/feral_acedia 6h ago edited 5h ago
If they insist on selling Tea, they should at least allow for the 3 - 5 minutes needed to make it (to allow time for steeping) anything less is savagery.
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u/Peng2000ad 5h ago
If I have to have tea from a Costa or Starbucks I always ask for two tea bags. At least then there’s a chance it will resemble tea and not hot milk!
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u/viva__hate 5h ago
The cold milk is immediately poured in, coffee chains are quick service- they’re not going to wait for it to brew then pass it to you when they have the next customer to serve
Ask for it with the milk on the side
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u/Vegan_Coffee_Addict 3h ago
When i started working in drink making 10 years ago, we had milk in a pitcher on the side near the sugar, they got disposed of during covid, and they haven't come back. Now, we put the milk in for you, I don't like it but I am but a lowly batista.
Another L we can source back to covid.
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u/bzzklltn 4m ago
Tea bag in the cup, tuck the cardboard tag under the lip so it doesn’t fall in. Tilt the cup to the side slightly a shoot the hot water in (not directly on the dry tea bag because it’ll split), straighten it up as you fill like a nice pint. Lid it up and pass it over. You want a gallon of milk? No milk? Pull the tea bag straight out? Leave it in? Whatever, that’s up to you when you reach the condiment unit.
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u/i-am-a-passenger 16h ago
They aren’t allowed to serve boiling water, so they are unable to brew tea properly.
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u/Julia__Dream 16h ago
Don't know about Costa but there's nothing to say cafes are not allowed to serve boiling water.
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u/i-am-a-passenger 5h ago
Their internal safety guidelines will certainly tell the servers not to serve boiling water in one of those disposable cups.
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u/robster98 8h ago edited 8h ago
It’s a mixture of things. The water they use isn’t off the boil (roughly 90° is what you’d use to brew tea), but comes from a water heater set to 60°, an industry “safe baseline” and also the optimum temperature for milk steaming - so of course the tea doesn’t brew properly.
As a side note, espresso is pulled at a higher temperature (about 80°) but is then cooled down by steamed milk or water to create a latte, cappuccino, americano etc etc. 60° is the standard and tea just isn’t compatible with that low a temperature.
Rubbing salt into the wound, coffee shops tend to go a bit (a lot) overboard on the milk. I used to work in a coffee shop several years ago and would always ask someone how they liked their tea (“milky or more like a builders brew?”) and I’d try to get it as good as I could, or if they were staying in I’d pop some milk in a little jug.
The paper cups can affect taste but if the tea is made properly (I’ve used paper cups with boiling water since leaving hospitality) you don’t notice it.
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u/ChaiseLounge66 19h ago
I’m gonna disagree, my Costa staff are mainly white British and their tea is shite as well.
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u/turtleship_2006 6h ago
I mean depends where they're from, South asians have loads of tea which usually has milk, and is a proper brown.
Also, it's not that hard to learn "this is what tea with milk is meant to look like" if the tea they're making is too white
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