British Puzzles

This afternoon, while enjoying my delicious pomegranate tea, I thought of this thing my friend Ashley told me when I ordered a cup of tea last semester. The barista handed me the tea pot and cup and I went over to the fixin's bar, poured milk (probably half and half) in the cup, got some packets of equal and a spoon before I returned to our table.

Ashley: "Oooo, you knew the correct way to pour tea, milk first."

I had no idea what she was talking about. I had never heard that before...I just did that because by the time I walked to the "fixin's bar" the tea wasn't ready & I didn't want to have to walk back over there to pour milk in my tea.

Me: "Oh, I'm just lazy."

So, this afternoon (for pure procrastination reasons) I decided to google "the correct way to make tea." Do you put the tea/water in first or the milk in first? Who knew? This is an age-old question.

After some sleuthing (just call me Magnum P.I., which I watched for the first time today (more procrastination...)), I realized there are many answers to this. In fact, it's one of the points an essay by George Orwell that was published in 1946.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Some answers have to do with social status and history (milk was cheap, tea was expensive), some have to do with chemistry & ensuring proper mixture, my favorite: try both & do whatever tastes better.

After I solved that...whew!...I was itchin' for another case (case? more stuff to help me procrastinate? it's all the same...)

So I perused the NYTimes Headlines and I found out another famous British puzzle. this one is more recent.

Who says reading judicial opinions isn't fun?

Puzzle Embedded in 'Da Vinci Code' Ruling

Seriously, this looks a little too time-consuming for even the best procrastinators. I mean, I am busy with finals, but why don't you have a go.