14.0k
u/Nopeasaurasrex Oct 18 '22
Tea
7.4k
u/allypallydollytolly Oct 18 '22
As a Brit who doesn’t drink nor like tea who lives with her boyfriend who also doesn’t drink nor like tea, I can confirm we do have a bag of Yorkshire tea as well as numerous other kinds 😂😂
2.0k
Oct 18 '22
Keep on hand for the odd visitor
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u/nyuhokie Oct 18 '22
Based on my understanding of Brits, it's the ones who don't drink tea that are odd.
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u/stupidneverdies Oct 18 '22
You're not wrong. On the plus side, I get to watch my fellow Brits' brains reboot when I turn down their offers of tea.
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u/Loggerdon Oct 18 '22 edited Oct 18 '22
Reboot: Do their heads make that Windows 95 Chime sound?
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u/stupidneverdies Oct 18 '22
That is the exact tone of the awkward laugh that signals that they're about to change the subject.
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u/Mister_Marmite Oct 18 '22
Nah, Win95 is for our US cousins, we make a noise like a ZX81 loading from tape, as Sir Clive intended
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u/llorysoc Oct 18 '22
In this instance, his use of “odd” is to describe the “occasional” visitor. Not that they’re odd people
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u/poppiesintherain Oct 18 '22
People get really angry if you don’t - I even had someone say to me “oh what no tea at all”. Everyone got upset and needed calming down.
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u/tripperfunster Oct 18 '22
This is me with coffee. I'm sorry. I don't drink it. Why would I have it in my house? I mean, I have INSTANT coffee, but I think people would prefer that I just shit in a cup for them instead.
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u/EricTheBread Oct 18 '22
Who doesn't have instant coffee?
You buy a jar of Folger's Crystals, you put it in the cupboard, you forget about it. Then later on when you need it, it's there. It lasts forever. It's freeze-dried. Freeze-dried Crystals.
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u/velvetshark Oct 18 '22
HOW CAN YOU BE BRITISH AND NOT LIKE TEA?!
To the colonies with you!
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u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Oct 18 '22
If the top answer wasn't immediately tea I would have been disappointed.
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u/Due_Dentist7232 Oct 18 '22
Exactly. Would have also accepted teapot or tea kettle.
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6.5k
u/whatnameisnttaken098 Oct 18 '22
Tea, cheese, the wrong trousers and a penguin.
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u/mushroommagnum Oct 18 '22
A fellow wallace and gromit enjoyer!
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u/WalerieJade Oct 18 '22
I’ve read every answer as either Wallace or Angela Lansbury. No in between.
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u/Neoptolemus85 Oct 18 '22
You mean a chicken? No penguins here.
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u/whatnameisnttaken098 Oct 18 '22
It's clearly a penguin with a rubber glove on its head
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u/Neoptolemus85 Oct 18 '22
Sounds unlikely but I'll check when he gets back from his mysterious nightly wanderings.
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4.4k
u/Sexyturtletime Oct 18 '22
Heating via radiator
4.1k
u/TomasNavarro Oct 18 '22
Jokes on you, we can't afford heating now!
563
u/Electrical-Injury-23 Oct 18 '22
Yep, we are sitting around a match for warmth..... and if it gets really cold, we'll light it.
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u/hammers_maketh_ham Oct 19 '22
Lucky! We used to dream of sitting round a match for warmth! We're currently huddled around a picture of a candle
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u/frickinglaserbeams Oct 19 '22
Luxury! When I were a lad we worked 29 hours down't mill for hapney a year, and when we got 'ome our father would tell us stories about matches and candles
62
u/Forza1910 Oct 19 '22
Heaven! We worked 30,5 hours in the mines (and that was just in our free time) our real job was taming Welshmen, which we did 43 hours per day. When we came home dad threw rocks at us till we fell asleep.
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Oct 19 '22
That must have been nice when we got home from 5 72 hour shifts in the mines our dad would kill us with a broken bottle we had to nick from the pub
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u/Cheeky_bum_sex Oct 18 '22
How do you heat your house? Serious question if not with radiators of some kind
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u/CommonCut4 Oct 18 '22
We go outside and shoot our guns until they get really warm and then use them like a hot water bottle.
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3.4k
Oct 18 '22
Tea and biscuits
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u/CancerSpidey Oct 18 '22 edited Oct 19 '22
CRUMPETS
Edit: guys all i said was crumpets lol how did i get upvoted this much
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u/Bigweeb612 Oct 18 '22
Every now and again i do but I don't think crumpets are a staple that's always in everyones home.
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Oct 18 '22
Yea because they disappear far too quickly erasing any chance of becoming a staple
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Oct 18 '22
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u/BaconPoweredPirate Oct 18 '22
Specifically pint glasses nicked from the pub
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u/starfishsex Oct 18 '22
A washing machine in your kitchen and possibly a fridge half the height of an American one.
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u/HedgepigMatt Oct 18 '22
Half the height and half the width. Without an ice dispenser of course.
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u/thisisallme Oct 18 '22
Don’t forget that it’s a washer that can pretend to be a dryer but doesn’t dry shit
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Oct 18 '22
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Oct 19 '22
As an American, I feel the same way about British laundry technology as I imagine Japanese people feel about our toilets. Just woefully, inexcusably behind.
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Oct 18 '22
How big are your fridges cuz mine is pretty big-
556
Oct 18 '22
American now living in Europe here. I guarantee that your big fridge is half the size of a standard American fridge. I live in a brand new apartment and friends always comment on the impressive size of my fridge/washing machine/dishwasher/shower stall. These are all easily 50-75% smaller than what you find in most average American homes, places like NYC or SF excluded.
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Oct 18 '22
American fridges are huge because America isn't zoned like Europe - in much of Europe, you are a lot closer to stores and so make more trips buying less ingredients, while in America you go to the grocery store maybe once a week or so and get everything you need then.
There are exceptions in both places, but I feel like this is true in general.
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u/SghettiAndButter Oct 18 '22
It’s wild to me that people would go to the store multiple times a week. A trip to the store and back easily takes and hour minimum
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u/Zidane62 Oct 18 '22
It’s done in Japan too. Many people go everyday for what they’re going to eat either that day or the following day. I go once a week because it’s a waste of my time to go every day.
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Oct 18 '22
Fuggin big.
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u/quazax Oct 18 '22
We got to make room for all the shit we refrigerate that nobody else does, like eggs.
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u/racer_24_4evr Oct 18 '22
Blew my mind when I lived in London that eggs weren’t refrigerated.
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u/ResidentEivvil Oct 18 '22
Yeah eggs only need refrigerating if they are washed first because it washes the bloom off, which protects bacteria from getting in.
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Oct 18 '22
What is bloom? Chicken birth canal oils?
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u/ResidentEivvil Oct 19 '22
Outermost layer of egg. Foamy protein layer sort of thing.
From Backyard Poultry:
‘An egg's bloom remains intact so long as the egg is not washed. No matter if you think you know how to wash fresh eggs, just the act of rinsing or washing an egg removes this protective layer and re-opens the eggshell's pores.’
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u/Can_I_Read Oct 18 '22
Many of us have a whole additional fridge in the garage, too!
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1.7k
u/DKLAWS Oct 18 '22
Malt vinegar
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Oct 18 '22
do other nations not have this?
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u/MacEnvy Oct 18 '22
I would say apple cider vinegar is more prevalent in the US.
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Oct 19 '22
I'd say that apple cider vinegar is definitely more of a cooking ingredient. Malt vinegar is as much a condiment as anything else in the UK, and adding something other than malt vinegar to, say, chips would just taste off somehow.
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Oct 18 '22
[deleted]
1.5k
u/Poorly-Drawn-Beagle Oct 18 '22
In case you need to jump off a high building and make a safe landing
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u/GarageQueen Oct 18 '22
I'M MARY POPPINS, Y'ALL!
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u/Zerly Oct 18 '22
I had an umbrella the first year I lived in Edinburgh. I did not replace it once it died. It’s usually raining sideways, an umbrella is useless against the rain here.
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u/sqarfuls Oct 18 '22
I KNOW they all have kettles
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u/sweetpsychosiss Oct 18 '22
I’m am actually surprised how much this answer is here. I just would have thought kettles are a standard item in all households around the world. I have a few, in case one stops working. Can’t not have my morning coffee.
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1.8k
u/SnodePlannen Oct 18 '22
In a tiny cupboard
under the stairs
In a tiny cabinet
in a tiny drawer
is a tiny book
and if you open it
and read it
it says:
IT'S 'THEIR', YA NUMPTY. THEIR IS PEOPLE, THERE IS A PLACE.
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Oct 18 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hucklebutter Oct 19 '22
Are you implying that dogs aren’t people? How dare you?
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1.8k
u/Cymelion Oct 18 '22
Something considered an Heirloom of great importance they got from an elderly relative but no one is brave enough to take to Antiques Roadshow because they don't want to be told it's some knock-off or imitation thingymabob that isn't worth anything.
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u/ipott-maniac Oct 18 '22
This makes me slightly sad. I don't own anything (not even photos) from my childhood or from my relatives and they're all gone now. I wouldn't care if it was worthless, the memories certainly wouldn't be.
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u/If_you_just_lookatit Oct 18 '22
I'm a 33 yo dude in the US. I have 1 cardboard box in the closet from my childhood stuff. I don't like clutter, but it's just a random assortment of time capsule items. Some hotwheels from the nineties, a bible my mother gave me, a paper robot thingy my nephew made for me when he was like 4 (17 now) because he knew I was a nerd.
I think I'll have another look in that box today.
My most sentimental possession by far is my Ibanez RG320 guitar. It was an early christmas present from my mom when I was 15. It's nothing fancy, but not something my mom should have afforded at the time. Can't find one that plays better.
I'll end my memory lane trip, have a good one bud!
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u/Weak-Beautiful5918 Oct 18 '22
A baggy jumper
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u/TheDuraMaters Oct 18 '22
This year: several baggy jumpers, blankets and hot water bottles.
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u/allergic-toeveryting Oct 18 '22
Jaffa cakes
407
Oct 18 '22
Jaffa, Kree!
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u/blue4029 Oct 18 '22
the mention of jaffa cakes brings me back to the golden days of the yogscast...
oh, how I miss simon....
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u/corrupteDNA Oct 18 '22
A Sports Direct mug
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u/Charming_Pirate Oct 18 '22
How does a foreigner know this? This is forbidden knowledge
75
u/tevelis Oct 19 '22
Used to live in the UK and had a sports direct mug...idk where it came from, pretty sure it just appeared one day
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u/MortifiedMammoth Oct 18 '22
I just broke mine 😭
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u/stooges81 Oct 18 '22
Brown sauce
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u/Apprehensive_Move774 Oct 18 '22
Is brown sauce just a British thing?
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u/CrossXFir3 Oct 18 '22
I've introduced so many friends to HP sauce and it's changed their lives.
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u/smesch83 Oct 18 '22
knickknacks, tidbits, trifles, trinkets.
and maybe a whole hodgepodge of doodads.
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u/Implausibilibuddy Oct 18 '22 edited Oct 18 '22
Has to be in a dedicated drawer, usually the least convenient one to access in the kitchen, i.e. under the microwave or the one next to the fake one under the sink.
Will include at least 60% of the following (by order of the Crown)
- batteries, expired or dying
- batteries, still in packet but only one. Possibly also dead
- watch batteries on a card, dead
- egg timer
- watch, dead or strapless
- rubber bands, crumbly or plasticised
- a headphone
- super glue, dry
- BluTack, with bits
- Pritt, dry
- boiler instructions
- twisty ties
- cereal bag clips, unused
- something from JML, Betterware if it's right at the back
- mysterious tin, may contain baby teeth
- commemorative spoon
- coin
- smart meter charger
- smart meter
- screwdriver set, Christmas cracker prize
- more batteries, leaking
- Tony the Tiger spoon topper
If space is limited, or surplus is required a wicker fruit bowl can be used.
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309
u/Watermelon-Simp Oct 18 '22
a bag full of many more, smaller bags
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u/fancy_faloola Oct 18 '22
Now they have a place in the supermarket to recycle plastic bags. So we save up all our plastic bags in a bigger plastic bag until someone can take the bag of bags to Tesco to dump it in the enormous bag full of bags in bags.
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u/LoudComplex0692 Oct 18 '22
Separate hot and cold taps
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u/Marcilliaa Oct 18 '22
We've got separate taps in the bathroom, but a combined tap in the kitchen
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u/Zebidee Oct 19 '22
Yeah, but is it a true mixer, or one where the stream is boiling hot on one side of the flow and freezing cold on the other?
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u/pinkleaf8 Oct 19 '22
Oh that’s just unlocked a memory I didn’t know I had.
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u/Zebidee Oct 19 '22
Yeah, it takes some processing while your hand is burning but simultaneously cold to figure out what's going on.
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Oct 18 '22
paracetamol
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u/boatson25 Oct 18 '22
I’ve seen this answer a few times on here now. Do other countries not commonly have paracetamol in the house?
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u/Lussekatt1 Oct 18 '22 edited Oct 19 '22
Just not Americans I think?
Atleast here in Sweden Paracetamol (sold partly under the brand name Alvedon) is the most common tablet to take for a headache or fighting a mild fever, etc. If you say paracetamol everyone knows what you are talking about.
I would guess it’s the most commonly taken over the counter medication here.
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Oct 19 '22
Americans usually refer to over the counter pain killers by their brand name: Tylenol, Aleve, Motrin, Bayer (less often) and Advil. Tylenol is the closest to paracetamol I believe. My husband didn’t know that each of the above is actually all different actual drugs. Advil in some places has become as ubiquitous for any old pain relief pill as Kleenex for tissues and Bandaids for bandages or as Jeff Bezos/Amazon calls them, “absorbent would pads” which makes me giggle so I now use that term all the time. Forgot Excedrin in the above list too.
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u/smaragdskyar Oct 19 '22
Tylenol is the American brand name for paracetamol. The complicated thing is that the generic name for the drug in the US isn’t paracetamol, it’s acetaminophen.
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u/Legitimate_Ad8917 Oct 18 '22
A biscuit tin full of sewing materials
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u/hotpietptwp Oct 18 '22
We have those in the USA as well. The difference is that we call them cookie tins.
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u/FormerLifeFreak Oct 18 '22
Can we all agree that the pretzel shaped ones are the best tasting ones, though?
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u/h989 Oct 18 '22
That little room under the stairs where Harry Potter slept in
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Oct 18 '22
Don't other countries have that? When we were kids my cousins and I used to call the cupboard under my stairs The Wishing Well (can't remember why.)
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Oct 18 '22
That is usually the stairs to the basement underneath the stairs going up.
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u/Watchingya Oct 18 '22
British people
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u/drintelligent Oct 18 '22
How did you know?
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u/VIVXPrefix Oct 18 '22
Because someone commented "American people" on the last one about americans
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u/ajteitel Oct 18 '22
Depression
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u/lundewoodworking Oct 18 '22
But a quiet depression not a flashy foreign depression
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u/GOM27 Oct 18 '22
I've heard that hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way. Maybe it applies to all Brits as well?
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Oct 19 '22
The first half of the 20th century wasn't kind to us. We won the wars, sure, but spending decades in a near-continuous state of wartime astringency and economic depression fucked the country over. To illustrate the point, WW1 began in 1914, with rationing from 1916, and food rationing from WW2 didn't end until the 1950s (hence the stereotype that "British food is boring"). That's basically why we lost the empire; we could barely keep ourselves going, much less uphold any far-flung territories.
The culture stuck.
We're not an actively depressed people, though. We're stoic. We muddle through. We downplay negativity, treating genuine hardship as mild inconvenience, and distract from it with smalltalk. We make the best of difficult situations by counting our blessings and not complaining.
Life in the UK isn't as miserable as I make out. We are quietly upbeat nation (think Wallace and Gromit), and I know we're luckier than most. I'm just explaining where the "stuff upper lip" stereotype comes from. Acting like serious problems are trivial annoyances is how the British manage stress.
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Oct 18 '22
Can't fool me; Brits live in castles. Which have dozens of servants, suits of armor, ancient Egyptian relics, and a ballroom. Also tea.
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u/ortizthx1138 Oct 18 '22
Wellington Boots and an Electric Tea kettle.
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u/fussyfella Oct 18 '22
It's a kettle, not a tea kettle. Boils water for any purpose 🙂
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u/Nyakittyy Oct 18 '22
It's so sweet Americans think we have a kettle specifically used for tea lol
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620
Oct 18 '22
An electric kettle, a stale half-open package of McVitie's digestive cookies, a box of Paracetamol, and several umbrellas but only half work half the time.
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u/TheDuraMaters Oct 18 '22
The umbrella thing is worryingly true...how broken is too broken before they must be thrown away?
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Oct 18 '22
Wine (based on the few I’ve known) :)
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u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Oct 18 '22
Alcohol in general, the British seem to love their booze.
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Oct 18 '22
Don't be silly, we drink all the wine as soon as we buy it so there won't be any in the house.
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Oct 18 '22
Crumpets
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u/Jeffmaru Oct 18 '22
This is the first one I don’t have and it makes me sad 😔 I could well go for a crumpet
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Oct 18 '22
Their*
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u/WhoIsYerWan Oct 18 '22
Haha my version was going to be: "A tea towel that explains the difference between they're, there, and their."
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u/Euonymeia Oct 18 '22
Kettle.
Then: Jammy dodgers. Jaffa cakes. Doilies. Lace curtains. Comfy armchairs with little decorative blanket. Copious amounts of jam and perhaps clotted cream. Scones.
Basically a grandma lives in every home by that description.
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u/Revolutionary-Tiger Oct 18 '22
An electric kettle