"Builders'" tea and "hippy" tea. Photograph: Edmond Terakopian/PA
You can usually tell a fellow green tea aficionado by looking in their desk drawer at work. There, often nestling in a tin or paper bag, will be a pile of uninviting looking leaves which the owner will occasionally dip into when a round of tea is called. Offer them green tea in a bag and they'll turn their nose up.
As a green tea drinker, I wasn't surprised by the news that "builders' tea" - your bog standard English cuppa, with milk and a sugar or two - is reportedly in decline, sidelined by what's often unkindly dubbed "hippy tea" - the green, jasmine, redbush and mint infusions that now abound in Tescos as well as health food shops.
Research from Mintel has found sales of speciality varieties such as green tea have risen by 50%. The reported health benefits of green tea have to be a factor in its success. But even I have to admit green tea's an acquired taste for those of us used to a mug of murky Tetley.
It took me several months to get used to the taste of green and redbush tea, helped along by constant reminders of their alleged health benefits. But now I wouldn't be without it, although I do mix and match between "English" and green. I never went for the full blown ritual but I have invested in a Chinese teapot.
The rise of green tea in the UK may, unfortunately, coincide with a tea industry crisis in China. "All is not well in the world of tea. There is a growing lack of professional tea farmers, with more and more young people unwilling to get involved in the industry," the China Daily reports.
Still, the acid test of my acceptance of green tea is what happens in times of crisis. And in true English tradition - it's builders' every time.
There's one thing all tea drinkers can agree on, though. As the Chinese proverb that says: "Better to be deprived of food for three days, then tea for one."
