You can’t get more British than Benedict Cumberbatch. So, when the man brings up tea, we Americans should listen. Cumberbatch went on a rant about how Americans consider chamomile tea an actual tea. According to the actor, it’s just not.
“Shall I just really vent now?” Cumberbatch asked the host of The Dave Berry Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio, to whom he was talking about his latest film, The Grinch. “I’m sick of chamomile tea being called tea. It’s not tea!”
You see, Cumberbatch gets very riled up about the use of the word “tea” in certain instances. He claims the actual definition of “tea” has been watered down, so to speak, to encompass drinks that aren’t actually tea.
“Tea is a green leaf that comes mainly from the foothills of India and South America — places that have beautiful mountains,” Cumberbatch spilled. “It needs to be a subtropical, alpine climate. It’s a very specific process. Chamomile is not grown in these environments. So, that’s not a tea.”
He then slipped into an American accent to impersonate a waitress asking if sweetener is needed for his chamomile tea. “And I do the American accent for a reason,” Cumberbatch added.
Check out his entire vent sesh at the 8:15-minute mark in the video below:
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCuwsSxm26M"]To be fair, Cumberbatch is correct in that chamomile tea is actually an herbal infusion made from dried chamomile flowers, not leaves, grown in southern and eastern Europe.
However, some chamomile is actually grown in Asia and South America. Sorry, ‘Batch.
We’re glad that Cumberbatch is passionate about his tea. We Americans probably won’t stop calling it chamomile tea, but at least he tried to educate us.
