A NICE CUP OF TEA - BY GEORGE ORWELL

A Nice Cup of Tea" is an essay by English author George Orwell, first published in the London Evening Standard on 12
January 1946.[1] It is a discussion of the craft of making a cup of tea, including the line: "Here are my own eleven rules, every
one of which I regard as golden."[2][3]
Orwell wrote that "tea is one of the mainstays of civilisation in this country and causes violent disputes over how it should
be made", and his rules cover such matters as the best shape for a teacup, the advisability of using water that is still boiling,
and his preference for very strong tea. [2] He also considers what he calls "one of the most controversial points of all" –
whether to put tea in the cup first and add the milk after, or the other way around, acknowledging, "indeed in every family
in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject". [3] Orwell says tea should be poured first because "one
can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round".
[4]
 "I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable", he writes
George Orwell's "Nice Cup of Tea"

The first impressions gained from reading George Orwell’s essay “A Nice Cup of Tea” included Orwell's explanation on the
correct ways of enjoying drinking tea. The narrator guides the reader through instructions on how to drink and enjoy tea,
but also talks about many of the faults the people are doing when drinking their tea. The title of the essay refers to the
essay’s content as well as the idiom which means that something suits someone nicely such as how Orwell describes tea in
general. The central meaning within this essay is the methods of creating the "perfect cup of tea". The central meaning is
evident within the essay. However, the central meaning can be also presented as a universal meaning that readers can all
relate to when reading this particular essay written by George Orwell, which is that people who focus on quality and detail
will receive greater results over quantity. Within Orwell’s essay “A Nice Cup of Tea” there are a variety of literary features
that help enhance the understanding of the central meaning which are: purpose, tone and mood, structure and syntax,
voice and narrative point-of-view, diction, and imagery. 
The purpose, tone and mood of this essay justifies the central meaning within the essay. The overall purpose of the essay is
to raise awareness of the beauty of tea, due to the advances of civilizations around the world. The purpose compliments
the central idea of creating the perfect cup of tea, due to the fact that if the central meaning of the text was evident, then
there would be no purpose to read the essay. The tone Orwell uses within his writing of this essay is a sense of sincerity,
seriousness and himself being informative. His tone of sincerity and seriousness within the text is to be able to express his
points to the reader with no ambiguities. As well, the tone causes his words to be more descriptive, which leads to the third
point to his tone within the essay. Orwell's tone is informative for the reader because he wants the reader to be more
interested in tea after he/she reads it and then it eventually leads back to the main purpose of the essay. The mood of the
essay shows a sense of being informed, being more appreciative towards the topic of tea and being more aware after
reading the essay. As well, the mood also refers back to the purpose.
The structure and syntax used in Orwell’s essay helps the reader understand the central meaning. Within “A Nice Cup of
Tea”, each paragraph portrays a certain idea within Orwell’s argument. The first paragraph consists of a hook, the following
paragraph explains how important tea is, and then another paragraph expresses (or states) his argument. The following
paragraphs explain the “eleven...points” about making a perfect cup of tea as well as the comments about the current
similarities and examples of how people mistreat their tea. Orwell eventually ends with a conclusion that suggests that
other uses of tea which gives the reader more information based on the topic. Overall, the structure and paragraphing
flows nicely, which helps the reader follow and understand the central meaning of the essay. The effective use of syntax
enables the smooth flow of ideas to come across to the reader about the use of capitalization and conjunctions. Within the
essay, the capitalization of “WITHOUT SUGAR” (Orwell, 2) gives emphasis towards the reader. The impact that
capitalization can cause is massive, because the reader can see that the phrase is larger than the rest of the words which
shows that drinking tea without sugar is important. As well, the conjunctions that help start the list of creating the perfect
cup of tea such as “firstly”, “secondly”, “thirdly”, “fourthly”, “fifthly” etc. help emphasize the transitions between Orwell’s
ideas.
The voice and narrative point-of-view of the essay help the reader gain a better understanding of the central idea. The
voice of the essay is probably the author himself, George Orwell and the narrative point-of-view is written in first person.
The voice and narrative point-of-view shares a similar role in engaging the reader (emotionally) because the essay is
personal and opinion based. The situation within this essay seems that Orwell is trying to talk to the reader, due to that fact
he refers to the reader in second person as if Orwell was talking to the reader.
Diction within the essay was used to help portray the method of making the perfect cup of tea. Orwell uses connotation-
based words to help describe the incorrect ways of tea practicing such as “tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army
tea, made in a cauldron tastes of grease and whitewash”. The connotations of tasteless, grease and whitewash all convey a
sense of the tea turning out distasteful and unpleasant which affects the reader to avoid using those containers to pour tea
from. Orwell also uses the diction within the essay “A Nice Cup of Tea” to be precise, such as drinking tea using a
“cylindrical type of cup”.  
The imagery used by Orwell in the essay includes images painted from descriptive instructions, such as “six heaped
teaspoons”. As well, the description of not using strainers or other items to “imprison the tea” causes the reader to picture
tea leaves trapped within a cell-like prison. This specific image was interesting, due to the fact that the image shows one
section of the eleven points of creating the perfect cup of tea. As well imagery is used when Orwell states that “tea is
meant to be bitter” and then he compares it to beer which also is “meant to be bitter”. Another example of comparison is
when he expresses his disliking towards adding sugar to tea by saying that it is“equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt”.