Britain Confronts Fears of a (Gasp!) Tea Shortage - eviltoast
Shipping issues in the Red Sea have led to delays in tea deliveries, but British retailers assured consumers that any shortages would be a “blip.”

Shipping issues in the Red Sea have led to delays in tea deliveries, but British retailers assured consumers that any shortages would be a “blip.”

For a country of morning-and-night tea drinkers, even the suggestion of a shortage of the household staple can elicit a nervous gulp.

So there might have been more than a few people spooked when signs in some Sainsbury’s grocery stores this week warned customers that supply issues had affected the “nationwide” availability of black tea, as Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea caused shipping delays.

Yorkshire Tea and Tetley Tea, two of the most popular tea companies in Britain, said in statements that they were monitoring the situation to ensure they could maintain supplies of black tea, but that orders were being fulfilled.

Non-paywall link

    • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
      142·
      9 months ago

      It’s a bit more complicated than that, the skydaddy group is attacking ships because another skydaddy group is massacring people because another skydaddy group killed another bunch of people because another skydaddy group took their land because…

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        9 months ago

        Weren’t the skydaddy daddy group attacking ships prior to the other skydaddy groups murdering each other over a hunk of fucking desert?

        • SinningStromgald@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          You will have to be more specific on what year this skydaddy fighting happened but probably, certainly, yes.

          Deserts and that one place everyone’s skydaddy did something awesome so they all say they should own it and absolutely can not share it, like reasonable adults should be able to, are favorite things to fight over in the name of skydaddy.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
    121·
    9 months ago

    I love that the (GASP) is actually in the New York Times headline.

    • jantin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Is it really that good or is it just a meme?

      If so is it good compared to other cheap brands or as good as the stuff I can buy in dedicated tea shops?

      • Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        9·
        9 months ago

        American here. My wife bought a box of Yorkshire Tea Gold. I must have done something wrong because that shit was strong enough to strip paint.

        Buy it for the meme. Keep it because when you stir in sugar it spits the spoon back at you and laughs.

        • rhsJack@lemmy.worldEnglish
          52·
          9 months ago

          Seriously? I’ve always been afraid of the English. They colonized America before, you know. Luckily we fought them back. Now they are infiltrating our media: Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth, that weird donkey that stands on two legs and kicks the snot out of fools.

          • emmanuel_car@kbin.social
            11·
            9 months ago

            You… you know Margot Robbie and Liam Hemsworth are both Australian, right? Like, the Hemsworths are famously Australian

          • Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
            21·
            9 months ago

            The real reason the fear the English is their tea.

            I’m sure I made a mistake while I was making it but the fact that I might have done it right and that’s what they actually drink is … unsettling.

      • Nighed@sffa.communityEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        Is the best of the standard supermarket brands. You could normally get something better at a tea shop, but even in the UK they are not exactly common.

  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
    72·
    9 months ago

    I wonder what headline would the NY Times use if america would have a (Gasp!) Mcdonalds shortage…

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    For a country of morning-and-night tea drinkers, even the suggestion of a shortage of the household staple can elicit a nervous gulp.

    So there might have been more than a few people spooked when signs in some Sainsbury’s grocery stores this week warned customers that supply issues had affected the “nationwide” availability of black tea, as Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea caused shipping delays.

    The largest share of tea imports to Britain from outside the European Union comes from sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Asia and Oceania, according to Statista, a market research provider.

    The attacks have left long-haul shipping companies with a difficult choice: Either reroute around Africa, adding two to three weeks to the journey, or continue through the Suez Canal, which handles about 12 percent of global trade, via the Red Sea and deal with the risk of coming under attack, as well as added insurance premiums.

    Expensive to buy at the time, it became a trendy drink among the wealthy in Britain, eventually spreading more widely to coffeehouses in the nation and then to supermarket shelves.

    Even how the drink should be prepared caused a trans-Atlantic bristle recently, after an American chemistry professor suggested adding a pinch of salt when brewing a cup.

    The original article contains 642 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!