It has come as a bit of a surprise that some people are only just now finding out that we have a 3pm Tea Alarm here in the UK, I assumed everyone knew that we had mid-afternoon tea here, there was even a song about it a few years ago actually called 'Everything Stops For Tea'.
What seems to have come as a surprise to non-Brits is that there is a nationwide alarm which sounds a bit like an air-raid siren to alert us that it is 3pm and so time to stop for tea and there is also a small fine which could be applied if you don't stop although this is hardly ever enforced now and you can gain an exemption if your job is critical, for example who would want a surgeon to stop operating just for a cuppa?
Such is the confusion recently that The UK Government’s official TikTok has posted a string of videos on the alarm, even showing the button which ministers press to trigger the alarm and Tik Tok is now full of videos of people showing them stopping and brewing a tea when the 3pm alarm sounds.
The UK drinks around 100 million cups of tea each day which is about 36 billion cups per year and the original idea was that it was English Tea used to boost the economy so the likes of Yorkshire Tea, Tetley and Twinings but really the important thing, and to avoid that fine, is that you stop, drink tea and mostly chat about the weather.
