How to drink tea

There is a wonderful "silly season" article in today's Telegraph: Tea room outlaws biscuit dunking.

The Tea Cosy in Brighton will not tolerate mobile phones or biscuit dunking. They offer detailed advice on how to hold the cup when you drink your tea. And they don't do coffee, as this quote from an article in The Argus makes clear:
Sit back, enjoy yourself, but whatever you do, don’t ask if they serve coffee. “I get sick of people asking if we sell coffee,” says David. “The clue is in the name, t-e-a-r-o-o-m. The day I sell coffee is the day I leave. I tell people who ask, ‘There’s three Starbucks in town, take your pick. Goodbye.’”
Looking at the code of etiquette, I see that it has missed an important part of tea drinking class distinction that disappeared with the ubiquitous mug.

When I used to work on the milk round as a boy, there were a few houses where we would stop for a cup of tea. In those days (I'm talking early 70s), we were usually given tea in a cup and saucer. Working men who were in a hurry needed to cool the tea quickly and this was often done by pouring the tea into the saucer and slurping it up. I learnt this custom from old Bill Bone, a great fellow who was a veteran of World War I. I wonder: would I get away with that in the Tea Cosy on the grounds of traditionalism. Certainly worth a try.

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