Not her cup of tea?

Reader question:

Please explain “cup of tea” in the following passage:

Mr Porter added: “My girlfriend loves the tattoos although she doesn’t have any herself as they are not her cup of tea. My mother hates the fact I have them but it’s my life – that’s the way she looks at it.”

My comments:

Mr Porter has tattoos all over the body (I assume) and his girl friend loves them. Yet she doesn’t have them herself because she doesn’t like them on her own skin. It’s a matter of taste, choice and preference. Porter’s mother hates them – she, on the other hand, would not want them herself at all, not for all the tea of China.

In short, tattoos are not to the taste of Porter’s mother and girlfriend.

It’s just “not their cup of tea”.

This colloquial expression, not somebody’s tea, is a way of saying that one doesn’t like a particular thing.

I don’t know the origin of it but presumably (again I assume) this could easily have come from the practice of tea drinking. In tea ceremonies for example, people take drinking seriously. But there are many teas around to choose from. For example, green tea, which is unfermented and full of vitamins, is the favorites of folks from around the Yangtze – there people eat fresh fish and vegetables and therefore have milder tastes for everything. Further down the southeast, on the other hand, people drink oolong tea, which is half-fermented and gives a stronger fruitlike fragrance. In other places people prefer black tea which is fully fermented and gives ripen, sometimes bitter but not unpleasant, aromas. Taking things to the extreme, people in Yunnan quaff Pu’er which, a totally fermented tea put aside in store for years before it is allowed the light of day again, tastes like rotten wood - to beginners at any rate.

Beijingers, on the other hand, drink none of these – at least it used to be the case. To quench thirst the locals drink jasmine tea, which is not of tip-top quality to again say the least. Tea vendors everywhere are known to have gathered all the crops they couldn’t sell and mixed them up with the fragrant jasmine flowers - and shipped them all to the capital.

At any rate, with innumerous varieties and brands to choose from, a tea drinker invariably may pick up a cup, take a sip, put it down and say: “This is good, but really not to my taste.”

In other words, it is literally “not his cup of tea.” For Beijingers, you may be forgiven for remarking that it is “not their mug of tea” as local folks much prefer pulling their sweet jasmines from big glasses instead of tiny tea cups.

Anyways, that’s “not somebody’s tea cup”, meaning it’s not their thing.

Here are recent media examples:

1. Rihanna may not be averse to shedding her clothes for the camera, but flaunting her body for Playboy is just not her cup of tea. The Barbadian R&B singer said in a recent interview that she has received several offers to pose for the men’s magazine, but rejected them all.

“I got a few offers to do Playboy actually. They want to pay [me] to be naked on the cover,” she said on “The Angie Martinez Show.” The “Umbrella” singer said she would not have a problem posing nude as long as the photos are done in a “classy way.” “If I’m gonna take my clothes off, it has to be in a classy way and my will, not a check. I wouldn’t take any money to do that,” she said.

Rihanna is currently busy promoting her latest album, “Loud,” which is the singer’s first record under R&B mogul Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Management. The 22-year-old performed at the American Music Awards on Sunday, singing “Love the Way You Lie (Part II),” the follow up to “Love the Way You Lie,” her Billboard-topping collaboration with Eminem earlier this year.

- Rihanna Reveals Playboy Offers, ShowbizNewsBlog.com, November 22, 2010.

2. John Terry today admitted his return as England captain has upset many people but insisted the players have not been divided by the decision and he remains on good terms with former skipper Rio Ferdinand.

Terry was reappointed captain on Saturday, 13 months after Fabio Capello unceremoniously stripped the 30-year-old of the armband following an alleged affair with ex-girlfriend of then international team-mate Wayne Bridge.

Ferdinand has suffered a series of injuries to prompt Capello into a re-think but Terry remains a controversial selection, particularly after his outburst during last summer’s World Cup in which he appeared to question the manager’s approach.

The Chelsea defender, who will lead the team in Saturday’s Euro 2017 qualifier against Wales, said: “I am not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, as I have read and seen. But it is a decision the manager has taken. I had to respect that decision when he took it away from me and get on with my football which I have done. I think he has looked at that and realized that I have gone back to that.

“I just wanted to win at the World Cup - there was no disrespect to Steven Gerrard, Rio or Frank Lampard who were the next captains, or the manager. I have respect for the players around me and always have had that and that will always remain.…

Terry revealed he spoke to Ferdinand after Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday and claimed there is no bad blood between the pair.

“Rio called me, which on a personal note was a very nice touch and just goes to show what a great man Rio is,” said Terry.

“He texted me on the morning of the game to wish me well for the game and to tell me he would call me afterwards.

“We had about a 10-minute conversation and he wished me well. It was very much similar to when I phoned him when I lost the armband. He cares about England. Naturally he is disappointed but at the same time the manager has made the decision so the England team moves forward.”

- I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, admits John Terry, ThisIsLondon.co.uk, March 22, 2011.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.