Lean Tools: How the English Make Tea [Guest Post]
Guest Post: James Lawther is Head of Operational Excellence for a FTSE 100 company. He blogs on the topic of service improvement, and he gets upset by poor customer service
I am English. If there is one thing the English love (and are particularly good at), it is the art and science of making and drinking tea.
I guess that the vast majority of readers of this column are American, and as such you are thinking two things to yourselves:
- Don’t drink the stuff.
- What on earth has tea got to do with lean?
Well let me explain, contrary to common practice in the USA, the best way to make a cup of tea is not to add mint and buckets full of ice. The process itself is fairly straight forward:
- Take a spoonful of tea.
- Add hot water (boiling hot water).
- Let the tea brew for 2 to 4 minutes depending on your taste.
- Add milk.
- Drink.
It hasn’t always been that easy. Â If you go back as far as, say, 1773, there were a number of things that could go wrong, including dropping a ship load of the stuff into a harbour.
Since then we have made a couple of improvements.
- The tea comes in tea bags; devices that ensure you have exactly the right amount of tea per cup. Â They also negate the need to sieve tea leaves out through your teeth.
- Water is now boiled in electric kettles, these switch themselves off automatically when the desired temperature is reached to prevent over boiling.
- The kettles use electricity, this is far more convenient than having to lay a fire and as it is faster it reduces the likelihood that the English male is late providing the cup of tea to his female partner (usually regarded as a defect).
- The electricity is provided down wires with a flexible plastic coating which prevents electrocution.
- The milk we add to the tea is delivered pasteurised, thus preventing numerous unpleasant diseases.
- We store the milk in a cold cupboard called a fridge which prevents it from going off.
- Finally once we have added the milk to the tea the tea bag has a handy tab attached to it that reminds us to remove the tea bag and stops us from burning our fingers whilst acting as a stirring device.
Tea making, and more to the point, society as a whole, has moved on significantly since the 18th century. Â One of the strongest forces for change is our ability to error proof.
In all endeavours, Poke Yoke is the corner stone of progress.
All that is needed now is a way of ensuring that you Americans drink your tea hot and you will become a truly civilised nation.
Great post, James. I like the tea analogy. I like my hot tea but I probably don’t take it like the English do 🙂
Great post, James. I like the tea analogy. I like my hot tea but I probably don’t take it like the English do 🙂
Great post, James. I like the tea analogy. I like my hot tea but I probably don’t take it like the English do 🙂
Thank you Matt, the trick is to make sure you add the water when it is still boiling from the kettle
Good luck
Thank you Matt, the trick is to make sure you add the water when it is still boiling from the kettle
Good luck
Thank you Matt, the trick is to make sure you add the water when it is still boiling from the kettle
Good luck
Hello Jamie,
I drink tea, though I’m french. Yet, as far as tea is concerned, I think the asian countries have already surpassed us in terms of Lean tea drinking. Japan of course, but China and India as well:
– tea bag is a batch of tea: unless you have the proper container (cup) you’re doomed for the taste (and no, playing with pouring time won’t do it!)
– tea bags necessitate some mechanical work to crush the leaves so they fit into the bag. That’s more work and results in a tea that releases its constituents very quickly – a necessary burden on the customer that needs to be precise on time (2′ is far too much for a tea bag anyway, 30 seconds is usually better), some bags have an unwanted taste, and they’re not “green”
– tea bags contains dust of tea that add to the bitterness, which might mandate more milk with your tea
Ok as for the bitterness, you can fix it by pouring cold mik first and hot water afterwards: colder water will prevent too much bitterness, but then the tea won’t infuse properly (lower temperature and milk is not as efficient as water when it comes to gettting taste out of the leaves).
Compare with asian way of brewing tea:
– loose leaves, usually not broken (not in India where leaves are broken on purpose to make the tea stronger) – better control over your preferences
– cool water first then boiling water to get the proper temperature as mandated by the tea AND the customer’s taste. Today, you can even buy kettles where you can program the desired temperature
– fully sustainable: no paper for a bag, no staple for the label, no string, whole container reusable should you wish it, etc. Plus you can throw the leaves onto your compost should you wish
– with a reusable filter, you don’t get to eat leaves
– no milk, it changes the flavour! 🙂
– no sugar either! It’s healthier and you get to better taste the tea flavour anyway
Now, I once used to get to London using Eurostar. Their tea’s not that bad… for an english tea 😉
Hello Jamie,
I drink tea, though I’m french. Yet, as far as tea is concerned, I think the asian countries have already surpassed us in terms of Lean tea drinking. Japan of course, but China and India as well:
– tea bag is a batch of tea: unless you have the proper container (cup) you’re doomed for the taste (and no, playing with pouring time won’t do it!)
– tea bags necessitate some mechanical work to crush the leaves so they fit into the bag. That’s more work and results in a tea that releases its constituents very quickly – a necessary burden on the customer that needs to be precise on time (2′ is far too much for a tea bag anyway, 30 seconds is usually better), some bags have an unwanted taste, and they’re not “green”
– tea bags contains dust of tea that add to the bitterness, which might mandate more milk with your tea
Ok as for the bitterness, you can fix it by pouring cold mik first and hot water afterwards: colder water will prevent too much bitterness, but then the tea won’t infuse properly (lower temperature and milk is not as efficient as water when it comes to gettting taste out of the leaves).
Compare with asian way of brewing tea:
– loose leaves, usually not broken (not in India where leaves are broken on purpose to make the tea stronger) – better control over your preferences
– cool water first then boiling water to get the proper temperature as mandated by the tea AND the customer’s taste. Today, you can even buy kettles where you can program the desired temperature
– fully sustainable: no paper for a bag, no staple for the label, no string, whole container reusable should you wish it, etc. Plus you can throw the leaves onto your compost should you wish
– with a reusable filter, you don’t get to eat leaves
– no milk, it changes the flavour! 🙂
– no sugar either! It’s healthier and you get to better taste the tea flavour anyway
Now, I once used to get to London using Eurostar. Their tea’s not that bad… for an english tea 😉
Hello Jamie,
I drink tea, though I’m french. Yet, as far as tea is concerned, I think the asian countries have already surpassed us in terms of Lean tea drinking. Japan of course, but China and India as well:
– tea bag is a batch of tea: unless you have the proper container (cup) you’re doomed for the taste (and no, playing with pouring time won’t do it!)
– tea bags necessitate some mechanical work to crush the leaves so they fit into the bag. That’s more work and results in a tea that releases its constituents very quickly – a necessary burden on the customer that needs to be precise on time (2′ is far too much for a tea bag anyway, 30 seconds is usually better), some bags have an unwanted taste, and they’re not “green”
– tea bags contains dust of tea that add to the bitterness, which might mandate more milk with your tea
Ok as for the bitterness, you can fix it by pouring cold mik first and hot water afterwards: colder water will prevent too much bitterness, but then the tea won’t infuse properly (lower temperature and milk is not as efficient as water when it comes to gettting taste out of the leaves).
Compare with asian way of brewing tea:
– loose leaves, usually not broken (not in India where leaves are broken on purpose to make the tea stronger) – better control over your preferences
– cool water first then boiling water to get the proper temperature as mandated by the tea AND the customer’s taste. Today, you can even buy kettles where you can program the desired temperature
– fully sustainable: no paper for a bag, no staple for the label, no string, whole container reusable should you wish it, etc. Plus you can throw the leaves onto your compost should you wish
– with a reusable filter, you don’t get to eat leaves
– no milk, it changes the flavour! 🙂
– no sugar either! It’s healthier and you get to better taste the tea flavour anyway
Now, I once used to get to London using Eurostar. Their tea’s not that bad… for an english tea 😉