2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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ISO standard cup of tea
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [South Africa] A cup of tea with milk and one teaspoon of sugar, where
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the milk is poured into the cup before the tea. Variations are ISO 0, with
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no sugar; ISO 2, with two spoons of sugar; and so on. This may derive from
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the NATO standard cup of coffee and tea (milk and two sugars), military
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slang going back to the late 1950s and parodying NATO's relentless
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bureaucratic drive to standardize parts across European and U.S. militaries.
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Like many ISO standards, this one has a faintly alien ring in North America,
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where hackers generally shun the decadent British practice of adulterating
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perfectly good tea with dairy products and prefer instead to add a wedge of
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lemon, if anything. If one were feeling extremely silly, one might
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hypothesize an analogous ANSI standard cup of tea and wind up with a
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political situation distressingly similar to several that arise in much more
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serious technical contexts. (Milk and lemon don't mix very well.) [2000
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update: There is now, in fact, an ISO standard 3103: Method for preparation
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of a liquor of tea for use in sensory tests. , alleged to be equivalent to
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British Standard BS6008: How to make a standard cup of tea.
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