That's very interesting.  I buy Twinings tea, and I had always assumed the 
offerings here were the same (or a subset) as offerings in the UK.  After 
reading your remarks, I looked at both my own stash, and their website.
 
The offerings in the American line in teabags are all based on 2 g/bag.  In the 
past they have had a mixture of offerings 20 count x 2 g, and 25 count x 2 g.  
They appear to be standardizing in the US on the 20 count, (40g).  They also 
sell 50 count and 100 count, all 2 g/bag.
 
Loose tea is offered here in 100 g, 200 g, and 500 g tins. (The 100 g replaced 
a 4 oz tin a decade or so ago.)
 
This is not to dispute what you say.  In fact, they have a "direct from 
England" line on their websites.  In that line, teabags are either 50 count 125 
g, or 80 count 250 g, and loose tea only in 500 g tins (I have never bought any 
of those, I think the line is new.)

--- On Mon, 3/30/09, Ken Cooper <k_cooper1...@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Ken Cooper <k_cooper1...@yahoo.com>
Subject: [USMA:44236] RE: Tea
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Date: Monday, March 30, 2009, 5:00 PM







Jerry
 
In the UK, tea is not usually sold by liquid measure.
 
However, in supermarkets & specialist tea shops it is sold by weight (just add 
boiling water!)
 
Tea is another product that is currently subject to prescribed quantities. 
Current pack sizes include 125g, 250g, 500g, 750g & 1kg
 
Tea in teabags must not include the weight of the teabag as part of the product 
weight - only the net weight of the tea inside.
 
>From this, we can calculate that a standard Tetleys teabag (the most popular 
>UK teabag) contains 3.125g of tea.
 
This is another area in which the soon to be abolished prescribed quantity 
regime previously protected UK consumers. One wonders whether the abolition of 
prescribed quantities might result in Tetley changing from a pack of 40 teabags 
weighing 125g to a similar looking pack of 40 teabags weighing 100g?
 
Obviously, such a change would not be noticed by those that pretend not to see 
the metric weights on such packages.
 
 
--- On Mon, 30/3/09, Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> 
wrote:


From: Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com>
Subject: [USMA:44217] RE: Downsizing beer glasses
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Date: Monday, 30 March, 2009, 2:59 AM






Do you also like the fact that tea and other non-alcoholic drinks sold in the 
UK are rounded liters?   


Jerry 




From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 2:01:29 PM
Subject: [USMA:44203] RE: Downsizing beer glasses

I like your thinking!!! ;-)   ;-)  ;-)   (gsoh)



From: trus...@grandecom.net
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44185] RE: Downsizing beer glasses
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:39:49 -0500


I guess I'm ignorant of Jerry's and Stephen's facts because I am a teetotaler.
 
But now that I know all this, all I can say is, geesh! I'd love to work in a 
British hospital pharmacy. If you folks are so rigorous about measuring suds, I 
would think your pharmacists and pharmacy technicians would the best on the 
planet.
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stephen Humphreys 
To: U.S. Metric Association 
Sent: 29 March, 2009 08:19
Subject: [USMA:44182] RE: Downsizing beer glasses

UK pubs have large drip trays and it's part of the ordering of a pint to see it 
filled to overflowing.  Yes - they actually do fill then overfill. 


And yes you are actually correct (cause for celebration) that only some pubs 
have oversized pint glasses that have marks.


It's been said on this very listserv that anything more than a 5% head would be 
technically illegal.  You're special 'pint' would - of course -fall foul.


Having said ALL that - this "war" you've mentioned a few times today - it isn't 
happening in the pubs. Apart from the mix of imperial and metric I've never 
heard of a fight breaking out regarding being served a pretend metric size in a 
pint glass - it really really does not happen - seriously.  And as I said - if 
you believe you have been short served you can ask for a top up - they're not 
going to turn you away citing some measurement war where they are on the 
opposite side - or something equally daft.


I'm a cider drinker - cider does not form a head - so I always get my full 
measure ;-)  


One of the drinks I had last night was bottled (not draught) cider.  As it 
happens it was not one of the more famous pint glasses.  Yes - I had a 350ml 
bottle of Aspall cider.  Strangely enough I did not refuse to drink it due to 
it being in a metric bottle.  I chose metric.  (Well, in reality I chose a 
cider I wanted and knew I liked which happened to be in metric bottles).






Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:56:32 -0700
From: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail..com
Subject: Re: [USMA:44168] RE: Downsizing beer glasses
To: barkatf...@hotmail.com; usma@colostate.edu



I would tend to believe Pat's explanation.  I'm sure everyone else does too. 


All you have said is that beer CAN be sold in oversized glasses.   This does 
not mean it is.  You also say that one CAN ask for a top up.  Again that 
doesn't mean people do.


Somehow overfilling a glass so it over runs the brim doesn't sound right.  It 
makes for mess and makes the glass slippery, making it easier to drop and cause 
a hazard.  Also, product is wasted and that can add up to liters of lost beer 
that goes down the drain.   Who pays for that?


You just don't want to accept that  when you ask for a pint, you are only 
getting  500 mL of liquid, not a milliliter more.


Maybe now you would like to discuss how wine and spirits are sold in rounded 
metric sizes in UK pubs.  Of course a pro-choice person such as yourself would 
never order such items for fear of having to utter the word milliliter.


Jerry




From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 8:39:55 PM
Subject: [USMA:44168] RE: Downsizing beer glasses

Pints in the UK can be served in oversized glasses (showing pint markings) or 
with 'brim' amounts.  You can go back to ask for it to be topped up if you 
think that the pint is not a legal pint. 


In reality the bar server tends to pour beer into a glass so it overruns the 
side - giving you the full pint.  I've never seen a pint as small as 500ml.  
Ever.


'Heady' drinks are poured in a specific way  - eg Guinness.  There's a 'knack'. 
 Esp in the case of guinness the white head forms part of the 'experience'.  
Sometimes a shamrock is 'drawn' into the head.  In some areas of Northern 
Ireland this is seen as 'politically incorrect' ;-) .


Drinks like cider and lager tend to be headless and don't have the same issue.  
I would suspect cider and lager are the most asked pint style drinks.


Some pubs are now doing 'third' pint drinks now.  My favourite one is.



From: pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44162] Downsizing beer glasses
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:16:44 +1100



On 2009/03/29, at 2:45 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote:

I'm sure Pat can tell us that the pint is still spoken in pubs in Australia, 
but no one would use it to mean a specific amount and thus the term has become 
generic.





Dear Jerry,


Sadly, it is true that the word, pint, is still used in Australian hotels. And 
it is still used, as it is in the UK, to hide a long period of downsizing by 
the beer companies in collusion with government consumer affairs officials.


Let me explain what I mean.


Years ago when a pint was served in an Australia or UK hotel or pub, the beer 
was served in a 22 ounce container to allow for a pint of beer and for a 
suitable 'head' of froth. Likewise a half pint of beer was served in an 11 
ounce container to allow for the 10 ounce half pint and the appropriate head.


Some time ago, in the order of 50 years I suspect, lobbyists from the beer 
companies were able to convince legislators (or was it regulation writers) that 
a pint of beer could be served in a pint container that held a pint of water 
when filled to the brim of the glass.. The law makers suitably rolled over like 
little puppies to get their tummies tickled and, in both Australia and the UK, 
if you asked for 'a pint of beer' in the last 50 years you would have received 
very close to 500 millilitres of beer with about 70 millilitres of 'head'. I 
leave to others to calculate this roughly 10 % gain in profits by the beer 
companies deceit over this period of time.


The next part of the campaign, as I observe it in the 21st century, is to 
downsize the beer glass from a pint (568 mL) to a rounded 500 mL glass. 
Naturally to do this the beer companies will need to reduce the size of the 
'beer pint' even further. The Guinness company has already begun this process 
with their 440 mL can designed with enough beer to fit into a glass that holds 
500 mL of air to the brim of the glass before you pour in the 440 mL of beer 
and the 60 mL of froth. I have noticed that this campaign has, so far, been 
tried in Australia and in Singapore.


To answer Jerry's question a little more directly, it seems to me that the use 
of the word 'pint', and its continued encouragement and support by beer 
companies, is to maintain the illusion that drinkers are getting more beer that 
they actually receive.


As a side issue, the word 'pint' is a relative to the word 'paint' from the 
time that Roman soldiers demanded that a paint mark be used on the side of 
(opaque ?) beer containers so that drinkers could check that the level of 
liquid beer was 'up to the paint'. Paint was gradually changed over the last 
2000 years to the word, 'pint'. But you will note that the rapaciousness of 
beer makers and sellers is not a new thing!


Cheers,
 
Pat Naughtin


PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008


Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped 
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric 
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each 
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides 
services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for 
commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and 
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, 
NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. 
See http://www.metricationmatters.com/for more metrication information, contact 
Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication 
matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to 
subscribe.



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