Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[mongers]

Yeah, unfortunately a disturbing proportion of the British population hate beer 

it's all the tea you guys drink, kills the taste buds. See English cooking.

They don't really drink tea, given all the milk they pour on it.  A bit like Spaniards don't really drink coffee.

This is a bit of a mus-characterisation.

There's really two type of tea in Britain, all sorts of flavoursome, refreshing blends often drunk without tea/sugar and then 'builders tea' made with milk and sugar, designed to keep you going whilst on the 'job'.

Today I had both types and for both purposes. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

The blend I buy for everyday tea is literally called "Builders' Tea".

I can never work out if it is best with 8 or 10 sugars though 

[Admiral Yi]

Would it be fair then to say you drink a literal tea? 

[celedhring]

The "coffee drowned in milk" thing is Spain is only because it's used as part of the breakfast, which always has a milk-based drink over here. Elsewhere during the day most drink "cortado" with just a small amount of milk. It is true though that black coffee is very rarely consumed.

Café con leche with croissant is the national Spanish breakfast.

Also for whatever reason - and this might be just my personal experience but it checks out pretty consistently - people in the south put much more milk in their coffee than us in the north.

[The Larch]

The "coffee drowned in milk" thing is Spain is only because it's used as part of the breakfast, which always has a milk-based drink over here. Elsewhere during the day most drink "cortado" with just a small amount of milk. It is true though that black coffee is very rarely consumed.

Café con leche with croissant is the national Spanish breakfast.

Also for whatever reason - and this might be just my personal experience but it checks out pretty consistently - people in the south put much more milk in their coffee than us in the north.

I guess that the amount of milk used is also because most coffee in Spain is "torrefacto".

[celedhring]

I guess that the amount of milk used is also because most coffee in Spain is "torrefacto".

Is still that the case? I know I barely buy/drink that nowadays. Most decent-ish places seem to carry regular roasted coffee around here, granted your everyday cheap bar will probably still serve torrefacto.

[Gups]

Always find it weird that its so hard to get fresh milk in Spain (only long life crap is on sale). For a country rightly proud of its food, it's a very strange anomaly.

As for tea, most people have only a tiny amount. Maybe 1 part milk to 25 parts tea.

[The Larch]

I guess that the amount of milk used is also because most coffee in Spain is "torrefacto".

Is still that the case? I know I barely buy/drink that nowadays. Most decent-ish places seem to carry regular roasted coffee around here, granted your everyday cheap bar will probably still serve torrefacto.

AFAIK it's still widely used variety in bars, with torrefacted beans mixed with regular ones. That's why most bar coffee is crap and needs to be softened with milk. Self respecting places will use decent coffee, but most still used torrefacto to some degree.

[celedhring]

Always find it weird that its so hard to get fresh milk in Spain (only long life crap is on sale). For a country rightly proud of its food, it's a very strange anomaly.

As for tea, most people have only a tiny amount. Maybe 1 part milk to 25 parts tea.

UHT milk is cheaper than fresh milk, the Spanish consumer has historically been very price-sensitive regarding "everyday" foodstuffs (as in, he will splurge on that Ibérico he eats once in a while, but penny pinch on stuff he consumes every day).

That said, fresh milk seems to be making a bit of a comeback.

[The Larch]

Always find it weird that its so hard to get fresh milk in Spain (only long life crap is on sale). For a country rightly proud of its food, it's a very strange anomaly.

It's the same with many other products, not just milk. For all the pride we might have in our food, most of what's available is, as anywhere in the west, I guess, highly industrial and processed. Fine products are available, yes, but you have to pay extra for them and some times search a bit for them as they might not be available at your local supermarket.

A good thing about my region, Galicia, is that most of us are still relatively close to the countryside even if living in cities, so access to fresh & natural products is easier than in bigger places like Madrid or Barcelona. For instance it's been ages since I've bought regular supermarket eggs as my family is given fresh ones regularly.

[Richard Hakluyt]

How much is fresh milk in Spain anyway? It is only 50p a litre here, hard to worry about that even for the poor.

[The Larch]

Always find it weird that its so hard to get fresh milk in Spain (only long life crap is on sale). For a country rightly proud of its food, it's a very strange anomaly.

As for tea, most people have only a tiny amount. Maybe 1 part milk to 25 parts tea.

UHT milk is cheaper than fresh milk, the Spanish consumer has historically been very price-sensitive regarding "everyday" foodstuffs (as in, he will splurge on that Ibérico he eats once in a while, but penny pinch on stuff he consumes every day).

That said, fresh milk seems to be making a bit of a comeback.

Yeah, regular everyday supermarket shopping is as depressing here as anywhere else. 

Milk, on top of that, is what many supermarkets use as a "hook" product, offering the lower possible prices to attract customers. That's why dairy farmers are screwed over so frequently and why they protest so much.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Our local upmarket supermarket chain has made a deal with local farmers to pay them a "fair price" :

http://www.farmingmonthly.co.uk/livestock/dairy/8597-booths-pledges-pay-farmers-supermarket-milk/

It helps that there are dairy farms locally and that these farms are in the uplands and quite picturesque.

[Gups]

Looks like Teresa May is about to announce an election.

[Duque de Bragança]

The blend I buy for everyday tea is literally called "Builders' Tea".

I can never work out if it is best with 8 or 10 sugars though 

Congrats, even worse!