[TheOtherHobbes]

I've always preferred the taste of milk-first, and it never crossed my mind that the difference wasn't noticeable.

I didn't realise it was a class marker until someone described it as "a bit MBT" (milk before tea.)

Apparently where they were from this subtle social shading really mattered.

[nicbou]

Apparently milk before tea is lower class because poor people would want to avoid cracking low quality porcelain with hot tea. Fascinating!

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Was that a genuine concern? Boiling water has a fixed maximum temperature. Not sure that room temp->90C is all that different from room temp to 100C for ceramic.

[analog31]

Cracking teacups was a concern.

I visited a fascinating museum with a ceramics collection, and it included an exhibit with a history of ceramics. Earlier ceramics had this problem. Apparently, bone china -- with some bone mixed in -- created a tougher material that was less prone to cracking under the rapid temperature shock. As ceramics improved over the decades, it became a non-issue.

I suspect that letting the heat spread out over a larger area at the bottom of the cup might have alleviated cracking. That's a speculation of course.

I wonder if this is why the Russians drank tea from glasses. My mom has some lovely Russian tea glasses with silver holders.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Granted, I have only ever had access to modern materials, but that feels like a basic a QC check during manufacturing. Pour boiling water straight into the cup. Designs that fail need to be reworked to be thinner/thicker/baked differently.

[analog31]

Essentially, the materials hadn't been invented, or were not widely known. The people who were manufacturing hard china kept their recipes a secret. Adding bone dust to the ceramic made it tough enough to withstand the temperature swing.

Also, mass manufacturing was in its infancy.

[kijin]

It's more about time than the final temperature.

When you pour hot tea into an empty cup, the innermost layer of the cup goes from room temp to ~80C within a fraction of a second.

When you pour hot tea into a cup that already contains a fair amount of milk, it goes from $milkTemp to ~60C gradually over a few seconds as the tea mixes with the milk, giving enough time for the cup to expand evenly.

[aidenn0]

With a very thick glass, you definitely can crack it with boiling water. I didn't know if earthenware is similarly susceptible, but anything that is both brittle, and has a high enough rate of thermal expansion would be.

[dumbo-octopus]

And low enough rate of thermal conductivity.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Sure, thermal expansion can crack ceramic. More my question is, did this really happen? The operating parameters for a ceramic cup are well known. A cup that is ok for 90C tea vs 100C tea seems like terrible design which would run you out of business if your competitor could make cups that were not known for breaking if you did not let the water cool long enough.

[dumbo-octopus]

It’s not about 100C vs 90C, it’s about the sudden change from 25C to 95C, versus a gradual change from 25C up to ~70C.

[gerdesj]

The milk first and milk second thing has been around for as long as I can recall (I'm 53). Mis and mif! Never a class marker but just a preference.

My mum was half Manc and half Devonian (to one gen) and my dad is half Irish and half North Hants to one gen. I can easily claim all UK nationalities within two generations and German within four. Cornwall, 14th gen via mum, Padstow. I've got the lot!

In reality, you end up with a tea pot going cold with stewed tea in it and you wack some milk and tea in a cup.

Get a grip and drink tea and stop pontificating about the stuff. Its just tea. Yummy!

[smcin]

It's not so important these days since most ceramics don't shatter much.

But is said to still be a class marker.

[pclmulqdq]

I drink a fair amount of tea, and I never understood why people put milk in their tea. Can you explain what you like about the sensation of milk in tea?

I am genuinely curious because this seems to be a near-universal thing in Britain, and I just... don't get it.

[MengerSponge]

Milk makes tea far less astringent.

It also binds with some other compounds making them less active too, but the astringency is an easy point to understand.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/mb1tku/tempering_astri...

[globular-toast]

Milk before tea cannot still be a class marker, though. To do milk before tea necessitates the use of a teapot but I would say using a teapot makes one seem more posh than poor.

However, I do wonder whether some people are confused and think milk first means the teabag goes into the milk. This would explain why some people seem inexplicably horrified by it.

[nmeofthestate]

This is all from pre tea bags, when everyone used teapots, I'd assume.