When Do You Add Milk to Tea?

That settled, let’s launch right into a hotly debated issue in tea etiquette: Are you a M.I.F. (milk in first) or are you a M.I.L. (milk in last) tea drinker?

The answer is:

In a formal setting, milk is poured after the tea. You may have heard or read that milk precedes the tea into the cup but this is not the case. You do not put milk in before tea because then you cannot judge the strength of the tea by its color and aroma. A dark Assam might taster better with more milk than a lighter Darjeeling tea.

Where did this old milk-first tale come from? Samuel Twining has theorized that milk first prevented early china from cracking in reaction to boiling water. That theory appears rather shaky today since boiling water is not poured directly into the cup.

By now, it goes without saying that milk should not be added to white, green, or oolong teas.

Moyra Bremner, author of Enquire Within Upon Modern Etiquette and Successful Behaviour, says,

Milk, strictly speaking, goes in after the tea.

According to the English writer Evelyn Waugh,

All nannies and many governesses…put the milk in first.

And, by the way, Queen Elizabeth II adds the milk last.