Tea and ceremony

Sir, Joseph Cutshall-King’s complaint about the decline of the British cuppa (letter, Sept 1) does have some merit, although the problem is not based on tea quality but, I suggest, tea preparation.

My team of experts blind taste hundreds of loose and bag tea samples each month, and our general consensus is that UK tea quality is better than it was 15 years ago. It is in the tea preparation and presentation where consumers are let down, with restaurants and cafés not using freshly drawn boiled water to make the brew.

Of all the tea drunk each day in the UK — 165 million cups — only 14 per cent is drunk out of the home (we don’t trust the café to make a good cuppa). We would not accept cold fish and chips, warm white wine, a curled sandwich or melting ice cream. We should not accept a poor cup of tea either, but send it back and demand a properly prepared cuppa. Now there’s a campaign idea.