Not My Cup of Tea
Normally, I love our cafeteria food. It is really good. To paraphrase my mother, “Food tastes better when someone else makes it.” However, today’s menu was not my cup of tea. The mushrooms with chives were nice and the rice with lotus was ok, but I didn’t care for the rest of the meal. The tofu soup was bland, the kimchi was predictable, and the spicy fish would not be my first choice at ta restaurant. I decided to just go home and eat a sandwich.
It is not my cup of tea means that it is not your style. You are not interested in it. It is a polite way to say that you don't like something. The phrase does not need to talk about food or drinks. You can use this phrase to describe anything that you are not a fan of.
Example: Sorry, I don’t watch sports. It’s not my cup of tea.
Example: That yellow shirt not my cup of tea.
Not my cup of tea dates to the 1930s. The similar phrase, my cup of tea, was around before that and first appears in print in 1908. My cup of tea describes something that you like. Both phrases reference the second most popular beverage in the world, tea. Water is the most popular beverage. My cup of tea is like saying you enjoy the flavor. The opposite is not my cup of tea and means that you don’t like it. It appears to have originated in British English. Tea is not as popular in North America.
When I was a teenager, my family had tea in the afternoon when we got home from work. Because I grew up on a dairy farm, we put a lot of milk and sugar in our tea. A lot of people call me crazy for ruining tea with so much milk.
See Also: A cup of joe, Tim Hortons
What kind of tea do you like?
How do you like your tea?
Do you have milk, cream, sugar, or sweetener?
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Reference:
https://knowyourphrase.com/not-my-cup-of-tea
https://www.britenglishschool.com/en/idiom-of-the-week-not-my-cup-of-tea/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/my-cup-of-tea.html
https://teahow.com/100-facts-about-tea/