On 6/11/2021 at 10:10 PM, heidih said:@liuzhou or anyone- Can you address tea itself. In novels I see "builder's tea" which sounds like you could stand a spoon up in it, and then when high tea is discussed the tea itself is rarely mentioned. And is the term "cuppa" as a restorative cup of tea real?
Builder's tea is simply a strong tea, usually made by steeping leaving the tea leaves (usually tea-bags today) in the pot with boiling water for a long time until the tea becomes 'stewed'. Served with milk and sugar. It usually uses the cheapest tea blends available.
'Cuppa' is just the pronunciation of 'cup of' in connected speech in many British accents, including London. 'A cuppa tea' in full, but almost always shortened to 'cuppa'. The first use in writing was by P.G. Woodhouse in 1925.