Tea in the NEW workplace

As I have mentioned before, I moved work groups in October. At as I've spent considerable time dwelling on the anglo-tea love situation, I feel obliged to report what goes on in this new territory.

The people in these new parts LOVE tea. They all seem to drink it by the gallon. But this is not the interesting part! What I find intriguing is that whenever someone gets up to get themselves some tea, they walk around asking if anybody else wants some. This sometimes results in someone having to make 10 cups of tea, about half of them in identical company mugs.

To make things extra tricky, everyone has their own unique way they like their tea. Okay, there are really only two different varieties offered: one sugar or no sugar. The milk, of course, comes standard and I haven't come across anyone asking for it to be withheld. The only really complicated orders come when someone asks for coffee and they have the choice of instant or the stuff from the coffee machine. How someone takes their tea is rarely asked when the mug collection process is going on, so basically everyone around me has a mental inventory of how everyone likes their tea. The system does break down once a day or so, and someone gets given a 'cuppa' with sugar when they prefer it without, resulting in the person giving the tea making faces and the person who made it apologizing profusely.

Much like with buying rounds in the pub, if you accept tea from others you do have to volunteer to make tea for others. This applies to everyone regardless of their seniority level - the director sometimes walks by asking you if you want a hot drink. Personally, I chose not to involve myself in the whole situation as I don't know how these people make tea (how much milk do you even put in? how long do you leave the tea bag in?). Plus I could never manage to keep tabs on who likes sugar and who doesn't, nor do I trust myself with the task of carrying more than one hot beverage at a time. Carrying my cup of coffee at home every morning requires all of my concentration as it is, without random people wandering all about and coming out of nowhere around the corner. That being said: I have not seen anyone spill yet.

The tea drinking is not just a first thing in the morning thing, or an all morning thing: it's an all day thing. People make rounds of tea at 5 pm. While the number of cups people have varies considerably, I imagine some people have at least 5 cups a day. I don't know how they get any sleep!