The Sip of the Iceberg – new research reveals that the UK drinks nearly 160 million cups of tea per day*

We love a brew here at MyVoucherCodes so to mark National Tea Day on April the 21st we quizzed** tea drinkers on their preferences when it comes to a cuppa and has discovered the extent of the UK’s tea obsession. The findings reveal we sip on nearly 160 million cuppas each day, and that the best dunker is the Digestive.

More than a quarter of Brits said they drink at least two cups a day.

More than a quarter of Brits said they drink at least two cups a day, with 22% admitting they have more than five cups a day. But an astonishing 2% - which equates to 938,000 people - drink more than ten cups a day! 

The survey also quizzed respondents on their tea-making etiquette and found that, to make the perfect brew, 73% say that the milk has to go in last. Also, almost half (49%) don’t take sugar or sweetener in their tea.

How long should you brew tea for?

Well, it's down to the individual but the average brew time is two minutes and 24 seconds, which would imply we like a fairly strong taste. and many claimed the worst faux pas you can commit is reusing a tea bag (58%), along with boiling the water in a microwave (55%) and reheating cold tea (52%). 

Tea faux pas

Research revealed a few faux pas when making tea...

58% reusing the tea bag was a big no no whilst 55% said boiling the water in the microwave was out of the question. And just over have the people surveyed were against reheating a brew. 

Brits also believe that a cuppa without a biscuit is like Ant without Dec so of course we had to unwrap what the UK's favourite dunker was. 

UK’s top ten most dunk-tastic biscuits:

Biscuit bias

When it comes to regional preferences for biscuit dunking, it seems that the Scots are partial to a Digestive and those from the East Midlands love a gingernut most. We delved into the data to find out what biscuit is most popular in the different regions of the UK:

How to pick up your favourite dunkers for less

There are many ways tea and biscuit lovers can bag a bargain, including looking out for offers on supermarket websites for your favourite tea brand (Yorkshire Tea came out top in our survey, at 32%) as well as not going for brand names for your biscuits.

Often supermarket brand biscuits are made in the same factory as the main brand manufacturers of biscuits and so, although the recipe might vary ever so slightly, they are made in the same way in the same place. So don’t assume that the brand names are better than the budget brands, especially as the prices can be startlingly different. 

For example, in Tesco, a 250g packet of McVities Gingernut biscuits are priced at £1.50, while Tesco’s own brand at 300g is 65 pence and its budget brand, again a 300g pack, is even less at 59 pence – so you are essentially paying nearly two-thirds more for fewer biscuits.

We’ve also got lots of deals on MyVoucherCodes for money off or vouchers from high street supermarkets such as Sainsbury, Morrisons, Asda and Iceland, as well as from online grocery shops such as Ocado. So, you can make savings on your favourite biccies and brew, simply by doing a bit of voucher searching online and popping the code in at checkout. What could be easier?