So I just started rewatching the show. Many of the gentle jokes about Britishness work, but they drop a huge clanger in episode 1 that, if I recall, continues.
Rebecca offers Ted tea, the joke being his sequence of coffee requests are ignored. The owner of a football team would absolutely have the means to provide someone with a cappucinno. We drink a ton of coffee here.
What’s worse, however, is that they repeatedly show Rebecca drinking black tea out of a glass. Anyone who has spent any time in the UK would know that this practice, while not unheard of (drinking black tea is a bit more common in other parts of Europe) would be extremely unusual.
I like the show a lot, but feel a bit sad that jokes about the British drinking tea, such low-hanging leaves (hur hur), were bungled.
Just thought I’d mention this!
Is drinking tea from a tea glass perhaps viewed as snobby and pompous? Like only someone who considers themselves superior to others due to their wealth would do it?
I loved when Ted asked Roy if people liking tea was just a joke and Roy replied, “I love it.” (Smacks lips, ahhhh.)
Agreed. Also when Sharon says “I hate tea. Tastes like a wet paper bag.”
If she only drinks tea in her office, why would she have coffee in there??
What kind of tea is more common then, if not black tea? Herbal?
i’m not bri-ish (though i know yall don’t like pronouncing consonants!), please elaborate why black tea isn’t the right one and why you don’t drink it out of glass cups? what else have they gotten wrong? i’m super intrigued
Black tea usually has a splash of milk, and served in a china cup (or mug)
If anything else comes up during my rewatch I’ll let you know! A big one that you may have already seen is the association of Richmond and the ostensibly working class sport of football (I know, football is super corporate and bloated with money- it is weird). Richmond doesn’t have a culture like that and would favour rugby.
I also find it strange that Richmond seems to have about 8 people living there, who all know each other and see each other regularly. It is a London borough- they’re not small!
Well, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea doesn’t have a culture like that either, yet Chelsea FC is pretty popular (albeit Stamford Bridge is a gnat’s whisker over the border in Fulham).
As for the tea: there are a few black tea varieties that Rebecca might drink without milk (like Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Lapsang Souchong and Darjeeling; although green tea more so).
There’s no reason- not one that I know anyway! But tea is traditionally served with milk. Sugar is down to choice. Black tea with maybe some lemon or honey would be associated with being a cold remedy.
As I mentioned, black tea is more common on the continent, though I’m no expert!
The glass cup thing is just…odd; again, I can’t tell you why. Tea and mugs are inextricably linked. Even coffee in one of those glass cups would be rare in my view.
Sorry I can’t elaborate more!
see i would be worried that putting tea in a mug/cup would be too much
of a cliche…
btw… what are you favorite teas? mine is … chamomile, mint, bee balm, oregano, agrimony, limetree leaves… and all of these together in one mix are great
I’m pretty boring when it comes to tea- English breakfast tea is standard, perhaps the odd Earl Grey (milk or no milk with EG, folks?).
Herbal teas can be okay. Often, however, I find the smell fruity and delicious- only for the tea to taste like slightly rank water.
Could be Earl Grey tea? Usually drunk black (and tastiest that way), and common enough - feels quite posh which I think would suit Rebecca. But it is still weird that she never specifies and serves Ted the same without a warning!
I’m pretty sure she’s drinking from a clear mug, not a regular glass. I was in the Netherlands this weekend and drank a lot of tea…in restaurants it was always served in a clear mug.
One of the other things about the Tea gag that bugged me, is that even if hot tea isn’t as prevalent in the US, there is a huge ice tea and sweet tea business, espcially in the south.
I could see a bit where Ted makes a joke about needing a cup of sugar for the cup of tea, but not that he doesn’t know enough about hot tea to the point that he takes a sip and spits it out.
Finding out later that his Mom is a huge Tea fan when she comes to visit helps showcase that he knows darn-tooting-well about Tea and its likely varieties.
I have a theory that Ted played up his American-ignorant-of-all-things-British schtick a little bit. Not in a malicious or manipulative way, but just because he thought it was funny, and being funny is part of his toolkit for disarming people. Maybe also because he was actually quite sharp, and he sometimes found it useful to let people think he was a bit dumb.
It’s similar to the way he pretends to not know that George and John are dead, or is pretends to be amazed that his son has teeth and can talk. In those cases we know he’s teasing, but I like to imagine he did it lot, on the quiet. Like I bet he’d learned the offside rule a lot sooner than he let on. And I reckon he’d heard of Zava (Zava was so super famous even people with no interest in football, like Colin’s boyfriend Michael, had heard of him - it seems like you’d have to work pretty hard not to know who he was), but he pretended not to. Ted committed to the bit :)
I took Rebecca’s incongruous tea in a glass as intentional.
A visual joke about the contrast between Richmond, a small community based club with modest facilities, hence the limited old school hot drinks options, and Rebecca’s image as a smooth business professional with an upper class lifestyle, hence the ostentatious presentation in the glass.
A little hammed up and unrealistic, but not necessarily a goof.
Another tea-related thing that irks me… Ted tries the tea Rebecca offers, spits it out, learns he hates it… But in Mom City, his mom says “you know how I like my tea.”
How did Ted NEVER try tea before meeting Rebecca if his mom drinks tea?? His own mother loves tea and he has never tried it before?? Makes no sense to me. I’ve been debating making a post about it, it irks me to no end!
Another tea-related thing that irks me… Ted tries the tea Rebecca offers, spits it out, learns he hates it… But in Mom City, his mom says “you know how I like my tea.”
How did Ted NEVER try tea before meeting Rebecca if his mom drinks tea?? His own mother loves tea and he has never tried it before?? Makes no sense to me. I’ve been debating making a post about it lol
And now you have :)
There are a lot of things that my parents like that I haven’t tried.
? He knows he doesn’t like tea. He says how bad it tastes.
Doesn’t he just hate tea? He already knows he hates it. It’s the sparkling water he spits out because he wasn’t expecting it, right?
Honestly I think the glass cups would be for aesthetic. Her office, home and outfits are simple, streamlined and modern. She may be posh, but Royal Albert tea set would be too fussy for her. Which is also probably why she only has black tea with no milk or sugar. Or, its probably for the simple reason of having milk and sugar adds more unnecessary steps to a scene and visually you can see the liquid. Meanwhile, there is no kettle in her office… It’s also a contrast to the fact Ted has a kettle and teabags at his flat and adds milk to his and Roy’s tea. He also has a traditional American-style coffee machine in his office yet you never see him use it- they are always getting takeaway coffee.
Also, why is sparkling water portrayed as the UK default? ^^ not from the UK but been there plenty, and I always have the feeling that us Germans are the only ones where sparkling would be the default option?
Yup, that is an odd one that I also noticed. It is so weird that on first viewing I didn’t even really get that they were going for a joke!
The idea that sparkling water here is generally preferred, much less the default option provided without a still alternative, is bizarre. Your comment suggests that, again, it is more of a continental thing, but isn’t true for the UK…
Not to spoil, but the tea thing comes back in a big way in later seasons, so giving it so much focus out the gate is planting a seed. I understand the frustration with its implementation not being authentic.