Tea........to leave or not to leave?

I’ve just started using tea leaves again and the last lot I bought are quite fine and I am getting bits. I’ll go back to Waitrose for my next lot.
It’s so much cheaper than using bags but I’ve really done it because of the plastic. I’m not 100% perfect as I’m still using lemon and ginger bags.
Anyway my habit of leaving a bit at the bottom has stood me in good stead.

I leave a bit at the bottom, because that’s what we did in my youth, no other reason.

I’m reminded of the tale of the mammy teaching her daughter how to boil ham. She cut a wee bit off the bottom before putting it in the pan.When the daughter asked why she did this, the mammy said she didn’t know, but that was what her own mammy always did, and her boiled ham was magnificent.
As the granny was still alive, they asked her why she always cut a wee bit off the bottom.
“ Because the bit of ham was always too big for my pot”.

Yes I nearly always leave a bit at the bottom of the mug and this is because I have been chatting too long or too busy on my iPad and it’s gone cold and I hate cold coffeer

I also do the same and I know it is a legacy of my childhood with cups of tea and tea leaves at the bottom? my fathers mother used to serve Lapsong tea or Earl Grey and invariably there were leaves at the bottom of the cup ?

I'm with Kim19, I drain the cup completely then forget it's empty and try to get more out. I haven't used leaf tea for decades and don't expect anyone else to either. If I unexpectedly get a mouthful of leaves or grounds I just tactfully dribble it back into the cup!

I'm another one who always leaves half an inch at the bottom. I can't stand the cup not being full to the top either - I always say "I only like the top part"! It's part of the old loose tea effect from my childhood but I couldn't possibly drink to the bottom now! It's good to know I'm not the only one, I always thought I was!

I try not to leave more than a dribble, but there is a point where it is no longer drinkable isn’t there?
Miss that and you’ve had it.
Happens as much at home with my own (very good) coffee too.

When I did home visiting, I would always have a quick look round the house before making a decision whether to accept the proffered cup of coffee or tea. I usually visited in the afternoon and if doubtful would refuse saying regretfully that I had had a drink just before I left home, but others in their immaculate homes would serve tea or coffee in bone china on a dainty tray and proffer a plate of chocolate biscuits. These were always accepted!

My OH does this with all food and drink. His mother told him he should leave a bit "for the gods." You have no idea how intensely irritating this is! - well, you probably do, if you are someone who hates waste. Worse still I tend to eat up his leftovers as I cannot bring myself to bin them - large bum is a consequence!

I think leaving small amounts of food is to compliment your hostess on providing a generous portion. An ‘ample sufficiency’ as my father would have said.

Either that or you’re just stuffed!

Oh I never leave any food!

It's habit for some people to leave something on the plate after eating. I never understood the reason for that. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this habit. The tea leaves I understand, but not from 50 years ago!!!!!

When I was a prefect at junior school one of our jobs was to wash the staff tea cups. We used to pour all the slops into one cup prior to tipping it down the loo. One day the scariest teacher swept in and announced 'ah, that must be my tea' and downed the lot! We didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

Nope. I drink it all.

radicalgran Felt sick at your baked beans.
I found a piece of cooked runner bean at the bottom of my tea. It had me reaching for days and still havent forgotten.
My late gran wasn't too bothered by housework.

I do exactly the same. It drove a friend I stayed with insane. He couldn’t get why I was saying “it’s for the tea leaves”!

^ Once, when visiting a client, I found a few baked beans in the bottom of the cup she gave me.......^

OMG that’s gross radicalnan and reminds me of once getting a mug of tea at an old uncles house. I took a couple of swigs from the mug and pulled giant hairs out of my mouth . I’m gagging thinking about it .

Maybe should have posted on the vomiting thread instead

It's a completely empty cup for me. Often pick it up just to make sure but in the hope there's another mouthful therein. Usually unlucky!

We use loose tea and a strainer. We don't have milk, so I can see the few tiny fragments of leaf in the bottom and I leave a tiny amount to avoid swallowing those. At the risk of sounding like an ambassador for Yorkshire loose tea, could I just say that leaves make better tea, topping the pot up with hot water doesn't give that stewed flavour that bags give, and the biggest single reason to abandon teabags, apart from the expense, is that they contain plastic - I have only just discovered this environmental horror!

I don't do this but understand why you do. I do often make another mug of tea after draining the first, only take a few sips and then let it get cold. Just feel I want a bit more when the mug is empty.

Me too. Use tea bags but still leave a few cm at the bottom. The dregs.

Like Willow500 I don't drink tea, but as soon as my coffee has stopped being hot I don't drink it. I think I only ever drink half a cup, but when I make it I have to have a full cup!!!! Fussy about what I drink from as well, chunky mugs a definite no.

My nana used to drink copious amounts of tea out of a one pint, blue and white striped mug and my grandad had a similar half-pint one. At the bottom of the mug sat several teaspoons of Brooke Bond PG Tips, four teaspoons of sugar and she only ever used sterilised milk. She used to make us cups of the same and I cannot describe what an awful concoction it was! My mother has always hated tea and has never tried it again since being a very young child.
There was a Brooke Bond factory very close to where my nana worked in Manchester and we used to say that her tea habit kept a lot of Mancunians employed.
I love tea - and tend to drink every last drop. Does anyone else ever go to take a sip of tea and experience the disappointment of realising it's been drunk already? I hate that.

Yes Katek, exactly the same, I always leave about a quarter of an inch in the bottom of my tea cup (mug, who drinks tea from cups anymore) and the same with ground coffee, but never with instant. Must be ingrained behaviour because of the tea leaves.

Once, when visiting a client, I found a few baked beans in the bottom of the cup she gave me.......