h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So how do you make the perfect cup of tea???

Not sure of all the details, but they're all writ large in BS-6008:1980 / ISO-3103:1980, available for a wallet wilting £20 a copy. If you can't stretch that far, here's an excerpt (taken from New Scientist, 9th October 1999):

'Fill the pot containing the tea with freshly boiling water to within 4 to 6 millimeters of the brim ... Allow the tea to brew for 6 minutes, and then, holding the lid in place so that the infused leaf is held back, pour the liquid through the serrations into the bowl...'

The saddest thing is that, presumably, the tax-payer paid for this!

So they didn't actually seem to say anything that everyone doesn't already know then? Oh, a pity...

Why? Were you expecting a revolutionary tea-orientated statement? Something along the lines of 'Tea is best made in highly porous teapots.' or 'Motorway services teapots and laundry facilities were proposed at the same time, the former to support the latter. Only the former got the go-ahead, though.' Then again, if it was a statement no-one knew about, you wouldn't be expecting it On the other hand, could you be Southampton's Ultra Tea Guru? Being students I suppose the both of us are halfway there!

I thought being students we were supposed to be gurus on the Student Union's cheap bitter!