The Perfect British Cup of Tea

Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to At Home with the Royal Butler and of course Shumba the Royal Dachshund. It should be the Royal Dachshund but Shumba is the one that seems to want to be in front of the camera all the time so there's a bit of competition and even wants a dressing room now can you imagine. Now ladies and gentlemen I've noticed from your likes and your comments you've enjoyed the episodes on afternoon tea and I've shown you how to lay up the perfect afternoon tea and how to create the perfect tea station as it's used in some of the grandest and royalist homes in the land and looking at the comments you're now asking me things like how do you serve the tea at the table can you put the teapot on the table and how do you serve it to your other guests and that's what I'm going to show you today with the assistance of course of the Royal Dachshunds. Okay let's begin with the demonstration. Notepads and pencils to the ready. The first thing you're going to do is pre-warm your teapot with a little drop of hot water and then you're going to swirl that round and then you can pour that water out into your sink and then what you're going to do is get your loose tea from your tea caddy and what I tend to do is put a spoon in a teaspoon in for each person so say you're going to have a guest so I probably put two teaspoons in and one for and then I will pour the water the boiling water into the teapot. So once the butler has brought the teapot into the room or the staff who that might be that does it possibly even your partner they could be a staff of sports uh or even your your dachshunds or your dogs if you can train them to bring the teapot and that'd be quite a good thing if you could but anyway whoever brings it in they will then place it on the table and then the host or the hostess traditionally the hostess but today it can be a host or hostess will play mother which is a very old term and that means that you're going to pour the tea for yourself and the other guests firstly for the other guests and then for yourselves and that's what I'm now going to demonstrate. When it comes to pouring tea get the tea strainer place it on the cup get the teapot and pour the tea into the cup make sure that you don't overfill the cup otherwise you may need to offer your guests straws and then remove the tea strainer put it back into its little holder as I mentioned before you get your slot bowl if you've got more guests then use a larger slot bowl if it's only for one or two people this is fine and then you can add some lemon if you wish the lemon has always been offered with aero grey which is what I'm drinking because it helps bring out the flavour of the bigamont in the aero grey or of course you could add some milk if you wish and I'm sure you know that it was very much a to put the milk in after because the aristocracy would be able to afford the fine bone china which could sustain the heat and then the coolant of the milk could be added after where the downstairs staff would have the clay mugs that were as possible potentially they could crack so they'd have to put the milk in first so it was very much a status thing for you to put the milk in after so remember the next time you're adding your milk think like an aristocrat and put the milk in after the tea you'll impress your friends and then you're going to stir the tea and remember you're never trying to create a storm in a tea cup because if you go around in circular motions that's what you're going to do so a very gentle back and forward motion is more than enough and of course if you wish to offer it you've also got some sugar and make sure it's always sugar cubes there is my perfect cup of tea and to enjoy this I'm going to pinch the handle I'm not going to put my finger through the handle these are very old cups and if I do that I may find I need to visit my local hospital to have my finger removed from the handle so I'm going to just pinch the cup and then I'm going to bring it up to me and I'm going to sip we never slap delicious and one other little tip is to remember I'm going to get rid of this myth we never stick our pinkies up we always keep the pinkies down when you're drinking your tea if you put your pinky up it looks like you're trying to test the wind direction which as lovely as that might be you do not need to do that when you're indoors and I should also mention the hot water pot is there in case you need to add some more hot water to the teapot or even to the cup if it's slightly strong and if you're having a slice of lemon you can add the hot water just to the lemon so somebody could have a hot water with lemon and there we go I hope that's given you a few ideas on the correct way to offer your tea to your guests. Shimba have you? Shimba did you enjoy today's lesson? Yes he always enjoys lessons he's one of my best pupils aren't you? Yes he's one of my brightest and one of my best. I hope you've enjoyed today's at home with the Royal Butler from myself and from Shimba we hope you stay safe we will see you on Friday for our next in conversation with the Royal Butler I always keep asking but please keep the lights coming in, the comments, the ideas, the suggestions, loving the chat and the conversations it's great fun to join in and see what you're all discussing and as I said I love your ideas keep those coming in as well but until then thank you for watching and stay safe. Chin chin. Shimba this is really good.