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English breakfast tea

English breakfast tea

1 1.4
A strong black tea blend often served with milk at breakfast
  • noun
translation icon : té inglés
  • A tray with a teapot and a can of English Breakfast tea.

Examples

  • English breakfast tea.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The blue enameled tin of English breakfast tea had been a present from the German ambassador, who often brought her tokens on the major national holidays.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • What is that, is that English breakfast tea?

  • We have some, uh, English Breakfast tea.

  • Probably our black milk tea, although, which is just like a like, almost like an English breakfast tea with like a choice of milk.

  • So she, the the waiter sees her put cream in her English breakfast tea, which is just.

  • For the most part, my work for William Maxwell consisted of Xeroxing the occasional letter, packing up all rejected manuscripts, answering the phone when his line was busy, and, at around two in the afternoon, serving him a cup of English Breakfast tea and two shortbread biscuits.

    Academic text (1998)
  • I always start my day with a cup of English breakfast tea and toast.

  • At the hotel, we enjoyed a traditional breakfast that included English breakfast tea with milk and sugar.

  • Every morning, my grandmother brews a strong pot of English breakfast tea for the family.

Synonyms

black tea
vsEnglish breakfast tea
5 1.0

A dark, strong tea made from leaves left to change color

is a specific strong morning blend served with milk and sugar in Britain

How Strong

English breakfast tea
1 1.4
black tea
5 1.0
oolong
5 6.6
green tea
23 1.0
white tea
1 3.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

English + breakfast + tea

The compound simply names a type of tea associated with England and breakfast: combining 'English' (pertaining to England) + 'breakfast' (the morning meal) + 'tea' yields a tea drunk at breakfast or in the English style. While finer details about the specific blend or strength are cultural conventions, the basic meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and therefore accessible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The tea English breakfast tea was named for a simple picture: a big, hearty English morning meal and a strong black tea made to match the food. One popular story says the strong mix was made to be drunk with an English 'breakfast', so the name came to mean a strong tea served at breakfast.