National Tea Day takes place on April 21 every year as a celebration of the hot beverage, beloved by those all over UK. Most people know that British people love tea, but did you know we have a whole day dedicated to it?
Television adverts are filled with teabag commercials, universities have societies dedicated to tea drinking, and Britain drinks around 100 million cups daily, which is almost 36 billion per year, according to tea.co.uk.
Tea is a huge part of British culture, and can be perfectly summed up by Gemma Collins on Celebrity Big Brother, telling a confused Tiffany Pollard (who is from the US) about the importance of the act of making tea:
‘Babe, tea and coffee is everything, it means a lot to people. It’s a heartly gesture. “Can I make you a tea?” is like saying “Can I give you a grand.”‘
Anthropologist Kate Fox affirms the importance of tea-making in British culture in her book ‘Watching the English’ when she writes: ‘Tea-making is the perfect displacement activity: whenever the English feel awkward or uncomfortable in a social situation (that is, almost all the time), they make tea.’
British people have taken to Twitter to share their favourite memes and gifs for National Tea Day, and here are some of our favourites.
To begin, I dare you to name a more British picture.
Even Corrie had to get involved with National Tea Day – combining two iconic parts of British culture.
As tea is so important, it is understood that there are several ongoing debates about the proper way to make tea, to drink tea, and what to put in your tea. Any self-respecting Brit knows that tea should stay OUT of the microwave.
This person clearly didn’t get the memo.
What could be better to having a brew and a chat?
Uh oh, Twitter has decided to spark yet another debate about tea-making.