British people are horrified by a viral clip of an American making tea - but all is not what it seems

The art of making a decent cup of tea is a cornerstone of British culture - and so Brits famously get miffed when Americans sacrilegiously have a go at making a cuppa without following the cardinal rules.

American TikToker Emily Zugay (@emilyzugay) who said she had never had tea before decided to try for the first time to make a cup of rosy lea herself.

"Today I’m taste-testing tea because I’ve never had any before. I’m trying sleepy time tea, and I got the big one because I’m assuming I’ll like it," she said showing viewers the large box of tea she bought.

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"I’ve got this out of the package, it’s just a square of tea."

"I think it’s pretty self-explanatory," Zugay added as she held up the teabag to the camera and shocked viewers when a pair of scissors entered the mix.

The TikToker then made the catastrophic error of cutting the tea bag open with the scissors and proceed to pour the tea leaves into the mug with hot water.

With all those leaves, that is not gonna be a smooth cuppa.

"Alright so you stir it around, and I’m assuming it’ll dissolve into the tea at some point, just in a couple of minutes," she said while mixing the leaves around in the water to create a paste-like mixture.

"It’s been a few minutes, and nothing has happened; I tried it, obviously, and it’s a total mess. They really need to make something that contains it. Otherwise, it just goes everywhere,” she said.

Since posting her tea test, Zugay's video has received 1.2m views, 100,000 likes and over 10,000 comments from Brits who were frightened from what they had just witnessed.

One person said: "Tell me ur amercian with out telling me ur american."

"As a tea drinker. This made me so uncomfortable," another person wrote: "Like watching a horror movie. Well done."

Someone else added: "As a British man this hurt."

But all what not what it seemed... as Zugay became a viral sensation on TikTok for redesigning the logos of famous companies and her notably funny dry sense of humour when explaining the reasons for her designs and she has also made similar comedic beverage-making TikToks such as her failed attempt at removing pulp of out of orange by blending it.

So it appears she was having a joke about how seriously Brits take tea-making.

Of course, many copped on to Zugay's sense of humour and amusing when along with the joke by giving her bogus advice.

One person wrote: "It's cause you're using a coffee mug, you need a tea cup and it'll work."

"If you don't drink the pulp you won't get any vitamin T," another person said.

Someone else added: "You're supposed to chew on the package then drink hot water."

"Make sure you drill a hole in the cup so it cools faster!!" a fourth person replied.

Honourable mentions for other amusing comments such as "you were supposed to use a fork to stir it. makes it dissolve faster," and "Didn't you read the box, you supposed to pour the contents directly into your mouth then add boiling water into your mouth."

It's not the first time an American has gone viral on TikTok for annoying Brits with their tea antics.

In true criminal behaviour, one woman shared her bizarre method of involves boiling milk and two tea bags in a kettle before serving it up in a latte glass.

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