Which uni drinks the most tea?

Stopping to have a brew is undeniably a common occurrence in the university lifestyle. Why? As students, we love nothing more than to put on those geek chic glasses and give the impression we’re the perfect student; a “social butterfly” on a one track road to a first class degree. Unfortunately, as a species, we students are no more than professional procrastinators. Ten minutes after “I’m chaining myself to the desk until this essay is done”, you’re dying for an excuse to leave and find yourself muttering something along the lines of “I’ll just grab a cuppa”.

Being a sensational socialite, however, is easier to live up to. Pop downstairs for a tea with your flatmate and you can find out their latest love life disaster in the time it takes for your kettle (that cheap one with a questionable stain from the charity shop) to boil. This scenario is even more tempting when you’ve refused to waste money on central heating: anything hot sounds like heaven.

Central heating in a cup

Studentbeans.com have recently published a survey delving into the tea habits of students at different British universities, looking at the average number of teas consumed each day. You may be surprised to hear that that Sheffield, situated in the very county renowned for its Yorkshire brew, found itself way down in 60th position, with a meager average of 1.53 cups a day.

Topping the table with a sturdy 2.95 average is Teeside (no, I’m not joking). The seemingly unsociable, non-procrastinating, tea-loathing university is good old Plymouth, coming in at a lowly 0.38 cups a day.

Tea for three

So why has Sheffield abandoned the teapot? As a University, we evidently love nothing more than to knuckle down with our work. I’m pretty sure this survey renders Sheffield well on the way to becoming the next Oxford or Cambridge who, unsurprisingly, ranked 64th and 82nd respectively.

As for being socialites of the year, we don’t need a time-wasting tea as an excuse when we have the number one Student Union in the country – heck, one that even tops the table when it’s closed. Perhaps we’re bigger fans of the Coffee Revolution.