0:00 - How to Say, “Not my cup of tea…”
1:20 - Meaning of “Not my cup of tea…”
2:07 - Origin of “Not my cup of tea…”
4:18 - Examples of “Not my cup of tea…”
4:49 - Conclusion
“Not my cup of tea…”
You’ve probably overheard someone giving their opinion on something using the idiom, “It’s not my cup of tea… I would prefer something else.”
You might invite your aunt to play video games with you and she says, “You go ahead, I’ll watch. Video games are not my cup of tea.”
Perhaps you’re listening to the latest song from your favourite pop singer and you ask your uncle what he thinks of it, “Hmmm… it’s an interesting tune, but not my cup of tea.”
It’s not uncommon for a very polite, usually older, person to say that they dislike or do not enjoy something with the idiom, “not my cup of tea.”
The idiom, “not my cup of tea,” is a very polite way to tell someone that you don’t like or enjoy something.
You can also use “not my cup of tea,” to mean that something is difficult for you or you don’t understand it well.
Thus, senior citizens can often be heard saying that technology is, “not their cup of tea”, because they find it complicated and hard to learn.
But why is a cup of tea considered to be something that everyone likes? Does everyone really like tea?
The answer is that yes, everyone likes tea! There are so many varieties of tea in the world - from traditional tea made with Camellia sinensis to tea made with dried fruit - that there is something for everyone.
Perhaps some people do not enjoy a certain type of tea, but there is definitely a tea out there that they do enjoy.
The cup of tea that the idiom is referring to, however, is traditional British tea.
Tea from China became hugely popular in Britain starting in the 1660s and has dominated British culture ever since.
In fact, tea was a contributing factor to Great Britain’s rise as a world power and to the transformation of the world via the industrial revolution.
We often think of India as one of the places where tea originated, but tea was actually brought to India, from China, by the British!
Since tea was so popular in Great Britain, the idiom, “my cup of tea”, easily came to mean something that was liked or loved.
According to Bloomsbury International, it was only in the 1920s that “not” was added to the idiom to indicate something that was not liked or not loved.
Maybe you’re traveling with your friends and they stop to try deep fried insects, but you aren’t brave enough, “Sorry guys, insects are not my cup of tea!”
Perhaps you’re showing your grandparents how to take an autonomous taxi, “No driver? Not our cup of tea, please call us a regular taxi!”
So, the next time you want to tell someone that you dislike something or really don’t understand it, let them know that it is “not your cup of tea”.
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