Drinking tea

Question

Do native speakers of English assosciate the verb drink with tea and coffee in common usage? Have, take, drink- which of these verbs are most likely to be assosciated with drinks like coffee and tea. "Tea should be made and drunk strong." How will the native user look on this sentence?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Do native speakers of English assosciate the verb drink with tea and coffee in common usage? Have, take, ... like coffee and tea. "Tea should be made and drunk strong." How will the native user look on this sentence?[/nq]
In a restaurant (NYC area) you may be asked after dinner "Would you like some coffee?"
I might reply, "No, I take tea."
or if I answered, "yes."
Next question, "Do you take regular or decaf?"
BTW that use of "regular" to describe undecaffienated coffee is only valid in that context. If I were asked how I take my coffee I might say, "Regular" which means (in NYC) a moderate amount of milk in the coffee. The choices would be black, regular or light. You can order a "regular coffee" - coffee with milk; or a "regular decaf" - decaf with milk. I understand that in other parts of the USA a "regular coffee" means black coffee (no milk).
DRINK
"I'm taking a survey of peoples' habits. Do you drink coffee or tea?" "I drink tea."
Brian Wickham

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Do native speakers of English assosciate the verb drink ... strong." How will the native user look on this sentence?[/nq]
[nq:1]In a restaurant (NYC area) you may be asked after dinner "Would you like some coffee?" I might reply, "No, I take tea."[/nq]
Isn't this a trifle affected? Are you saying this with the intention that the server remember** that you "take tea", so that next time you dine there they won't bother to ask? (If not, why say it?)
(**This "remember" is making me uneasy, but "remembers" doesn't seem quite right either.)
Adrian

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Do native speakers of English assosciate the verb drink with tea and coffee in common usage? Have, take, ... like coffee and tea. "Tea should be made and drunk strong." How will the native user look on this sentence?[/nq]
It looks weird to me because tea is usually drunk at the same strength that it's made. Although lemon or milk might be added after brewing and before drinking, there no significant process of dilution or concentration taking place.
So I wonder why both are mentioned.
Also, the word "drunk" can serve as an adjective meaning "intoxicated", and although it's clear that that's not what's meant here, the possibility caused a momentary stumble in my reading. To avoid that stumble I would make sure there was an object clearly associated with the verb "drunk".

Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I might reply, "No, I take tea."[/nq]
[nq:1]Isn't this a trifle affected? Are you saying this with the intention that the server remember** that you "take tea", so that next time you dinethere they won't bother to ask? (If not, why say it?)[/nq]
This is a remarkably short sentence in
which to detect "affectation." We may
need to remind ourselves that sometimes
a cigar is just a cigar.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphillipson(at)trytel.com

Usenet · Answer

"Tally ho!" is even shorter, and it ain't no cigar.

Adrian

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]that[/nq]
[nq:2]This is a remarkably short sentence in which to detect "affectation." We may need to remind ourselves that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.[/nq]
[nq:1]"Tally ho!" is even shorter, and it ain't no cigar.[/nq]
"Tally ho!" is affectation? Not in my circle. Maybe it was 20 or 25 years ago (or whenever), but now it's just the way we talk.

Jon Miller

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It looks weird to me because tea is usually drunk at the same strength that it's made. Although lemon or milk might be added after brewing and before drinking, there no significant process of dilution or concentration taking place.[/nq]
No one told the folks who made my silver tea service that. It has both a tea pot and a hot water pot. When pouring tea, the pourer asks, "Weak or strong" and, if the answer is weak, dilutes the strong tea with hot water.
I understand that it's non-U in the UK to reply "Just as it come".
[nq:1]So I wonder why both are mentioned.[/nq]
Because they go together. Both are required at an afternoon tea.

Mary

Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It looks weird to me because tea is usually drunk ... there no significant process of dilution or concentration taking place.[/nq]
[nq:1]No one told the folks who made my silver tea service that. It has both a tea pot and a hot water pot. When pouring tea, the pourer asks, "Weak or strong" and, if the answer is weak, dilutes the strong tea with hot water.[/nq]
I wasn't aware of that - thanks. Is this another example, I wonder, of those inventive Americans employing the tea service in new ways - like the innovative use of the tea strainer we heard about here some months ago?
In Britain you'll often find a pot of water provided with the teapot in commercial establishments, but it's used differently - to top up the pot for second cups. In Britain (and Ireland AFAIK), the strength of tea in the cup is usually regulated by timing - by pouring early for weak tea or late for strong tea, with intermediate strengths available of course, and the absolute times varying according to the type and quantity of tea in the water.
I'm not saying the water jug is never used to dilute tea in the cup after it's been left too long before pouring, but that's not its primary purpose. And it's more likely to be the drinker than the group pourer ("mother") that does the topping-up.
[nq:1]I understand that it's non-U in the UK to reply "Just as it come".[/nq]
Actually the expression is "just as it comes". I wasn't aware that it was considered non-U, but such things often go over my head (whoosh!).

Knowing what you now know about English tea-pouring habits you'll see that the expression means something rather different here. To you it presumably means "no extra water, thanks". Here it means "pour mine at whatever time is convenient bearing in mind the requirements of other people".
[nq:2]So I wonder why both are mentioned.[/nq]
[nq:1]Because they go together. Both are required at an afternoon tea.[/nq]
Well, obviously they're both required, but that's not good enough reason to mention both. Tea can't be drunk strong if it wasn't made strong, so it's unnecessary to mention that it should be made strong. "Tea should be drunk strong" is quite adequate.

Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

Usenet · Answer

Now that we got a lot of information about how to drink tea, I have a question about how to prepare it.
It just happens that I'm reading a book by a British author where I met the expression "cooking tea", or "he cooked my tea" etc. I was puzzled by this expression, because IMO "cooking" involves some culinary knowledge, besides boiling the water.

Usenet · Answer

Arcadian Rises wibbled
[nq:1]Now that we got a lot of information about how to drink tea, I have a question about how to ... my tea" etc. I was puzzled by this expression, because IMO "cooking" involves some culinary knowledge, besides boiling the water.[/nq]
Tea is a meal too. But you might have guessed that from the 'cooking'. Strictly speaking there's Afternoon Tea which might not require any cooking at all, being sandwiches and cakes. Then there's High Tea which could require boiled eggs and such stuff. Then there's just plain Tea which is Dinner to other people, and could be anything from steak and chips to Cordon Bleu-standard cuisine - if you are from the background that has Tea as an early evening snack or main evening meal then it doesn't really matter what the food is, it's still Tea.

Cups of tea with this are optional.
Jac

Drinking tea

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