I read a lot of authors from the UK and Ireland. Do you really all eat so many store bought biscuits?
Constantly tea and biscuits even in the middle of murder investigations. Tea I understand.
But biscuits? And always packaged biscuits.
Do people really eat that many store bought cookies/biscuits?
Waving from Dublin, Ireland. I have lived in London and Scotland and I have family in various parts of England.
Yes drinking tea and eating biscuits, together or separate are normal everyday things.
It started back in the early 1800's when importing tea from China to Britain was a big thing for the aristocracy and rich people. Ireland was a colony of Britain, and so the British aristocracy and rich people who lived in Ireland then had to import their tea from England.
Around 1830's two Quaker brothers called Samuel and Charles Bewley decided to import directly to Ireland. They set up a teashop in Dublin and created different blends. This made tea cheaper than having to get it from England and thats how tea drinking in Ireland started. By the end of the 1800's it was becoming more accessible to the middle and lower classes.
By the early 1900's another tea shop, in Cork, run by the Barry family also started importing and blending their own tea.
Around the same time as the Barry family in Cork started started importing and blending their own tea, another family called Lyons set up a tea shop in Dublin.
These 3 family teashops eventually became large companies and today in 2026 are still the main tea brands in Ireland.
My family are Barrys tea drinkers, my mother will drink about 4 cups in a day. Tea drinking is not formal, it would be similar to how Americans drink glasses of iced water multiple times a day. Teapots and tea cups and saucers are only used on very rare formal occasions. Every house will have an electric kettle and a box of tea bags out on their kitchen counter. Single use teabags are the normal for a cup of tea. I was taught how to make a cup of tea when I was about 6 or 7 years old, its one of the first things children are taught how to do.
We say a cup of tea but its usually a mug thats used. And its not a delicate china. Its everyday mugs that Americans would use for coffee.
Making tea is a social norm. Breakfast and lunch but not really with dinner. If someone visits, the standard is to offer a cup of tea. During ad breaks during major TV events , people have a tea break. At work people have tea breaks, like smokers have smoke breaks. If you go to make a cup of tea for yourself, its proper etiquette to offer to make a cup for other tea drinkers, whether you are at home with friends and family or at work. In times of crisis or trauma , the first thing thats offered is a cup of tea. In hospital when you have a procedure , the first food you are given as you recover is tea and toast.
And then with the tea break, you have the biscuits. Some biscuits are dunkable, as in people dip them in the tea, some you just eat with the tea.
As tea became more popular, the accompanying biscuits became more popular.
You forgot one important thing though, the Rich Tea biscuits:
