[Kinny Riddle]

A bit off topic, but I just have to respond in defense of the way we "Orientals" drink our tea.

Originally Posted by stormturmoil

Actually...it goes back to the origins of tea, and interestingly, the English adoption of it (In case you're wondering, I'm English, that's how I know this)

Basically, Tea had been drunk in the orient for hundreds of years. In the west, Brewing was used , and ale was drunk instead.

In both cases, it was because it wasn't safe to drink the water. Both these methods made it safe ( by either introducing alcohol to kill germs, or by boiling the water) This is why Orientals often have a lower tolerance for alcohol than westerners: Westerners have built up a hereditary resistance over the years.

That's quite an enlightening knowledge.

Then the English discovered tea. However, they had a problem: English porcelain of the time could not take the stress of having boiling water introduced to it directly, and would shatter. As a result, when pouring tea, the English had to put cold water in the cup first to keep the temperature down. soon, someone replaced this cold water with milk, it caught on, and that's how milk in tea evolved.

Again, this is well-researched facts, so I won't argue with you here.

meanwhile, oriental tea drinkers, as well as certain snobs, continued to frown on milk in tea simply because they didn't have to do it, and adopted it as a sign of superiority that survives to this day, (even though most people don't know the origin of it.)

As a result, Most orientals will frown on adding milk to tea because it marks you as being 'not a person' (literal translation of their word for foreigner).

No disrespect intended, however, from this point onwards, you accusing the way we "Orientals" drink tea as "purists" and "snobbish" is just pure bollocks, whether you meant it seriously or as a joke.

Firstly, we DO NOT frown on you "foreign-devils" pouring milk on tea, simply because traditionally the tea is simply served directly from raw leaves while you mesh them up and pack them into your Lipton or PG-Tip teabags. Besides, instant Chinese/Korean/Japanese teabags are just as common, and milked tea is becoming a popular drink here.

Secondly, it is NOT "not a person", it is "foreign devil" in the 19th century, and now in this "political correct" age, it's simply "gaijin" (outsider) in Japanese and "laowai" (good ol' foreigner) in Chinese. Sorry for sounding like a politically correct git, but please do not put words into our mouths.

Even today, tea purists will frown at putting ANYTHING in tea besides hot water.

Lindy, therefore is being typecast as an outsider because of her tea drinking preferences, which don't jibe with the standards that Nanoha, as a Japanese, would consider normal; (Drinking tea 'wrongly' is tantamount to being a crime in most oriental countries)

Lindy is "typecasted" as an outsider because she was using green tea brewed in the oriental way and drinking it the western way, that's just like applying tomato ketchup onto orange juice instead of to fish and chips, it's simply a no brainer. It's got nothing to do with purist and snobbery.

And in case you wonder why I know just as much, I used to spend some time in England as well.