(CNN) – You will remember the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American revolutionaries trolled the British by throwing tea chests into Boston Harbor.
A new dispute over the correct way to prepare a “cup” has become a similar international incident, with ambassadors from the United Kingdom and the United States chipping in.
It all started in early May when a North American TikTok user named Michelle from North Carolina elicited howls of anger on social media platforms with her controversial guide to making “hot tea.”
It involved a microwave and a godless mix of milk, lemonade powder, cinnamon, the Tang soda, industrial amounts of sugar, and an innocent tea bag, which surely deserved better things in life.
It was too much for British users, who pride themselves on their home-made national drink, with its leaves imported mainly from Kenya, India, and Malawi. The twin themes in the furious outpouring of comments were “war crime” and “diabetes.”
The fifth TikTok columnist has already racked up over five million likes for her efforts, but has also incited just anger in a nation near boiling point, and with plenty of free time.
Then Dame Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the United States in Washington, called the army.
Yes, it is true, in a video published on Monday, he got children from the British Army, Navy and Air Force to demonstrate how to prepare tea in a patriotic and pukka way. There was even a nod to how to drive tea at high altitude.
Pierce had the military behind her, but when Woody Johnson, the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom got involved on Wednesday, he pretended to be the dirty Harry and left alone.
His strategy was smart. It was after Britain’s weakness: coffee. With the famous UK weak on continental-style caffeine, how could it go wrong?
The problem for this Clint Eastwood cappuccino is that it makes what appears to be an absolutely terrible cup of coffee.
Commit the capital sin of using instant coffee, raising the hairs of any connoisseur faster than hot water dissolves a lyophilized granule.
As people around the world have been ramping up their gourmet shenanigans during the shutdown, with their sourdough starters and cold AeroPress beers, there may be only one message for Johnson. Do it better.
Raffaele Trombetta, Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom since 2018, and Armando Varricchio, Italian ambassador to the USA. USA For the past four years, they have yet to receive video responses.
There have also been no comments on TikTok tea from Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, nor from Josephat Karanja and Gaitri I. Kumar, respectively, the high commissioners of Kenya and India in the UK.
Is the time for silence over?
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