Tea time alarm trend demonstrates ‘quintessential' British sense of humour

Independent

20-03-2025

A viral trend showing people dropping everything to make a cup of tea prompted by a blaring alarm has been described as 'quintessential' British humour, but has left Americans confused.
The trend is designed to prank people in the US about a daily siren, known as the 'tea time alarm', reminding the British public to drink tea as a way to poke fun at the stereotype about Britain's love for the hot beverage.
Social media users have found creative ways to explain the tea alarm, with the convincing videos causing some Americans to believe the trend is real.
The trend has been spurred on by the official TikTok accounts of the UK Government, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (SYFRS), Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) and the RNLI, adding to people's confusion
The UK Government TikTok account shared a video showing a prohibited 'tea alarm button', described as 'a very advanced piece of kit' and joked users can 'find out about the tea alarm' on the gov.uk website, which has been viewed more than 780,000 times.
Firefighters at SYFRS unboxed a tea alarm which they joked wirelessly connects to the 'tea alarm tower amplifying the national alarm giving you those vital extra seconds' to make a cup of tea, while CFRS claimed it is 'exempt from the tea alarm'.
Meanwhile, the RNLI shared a video of a rescue team returning to shore and wrote: 'In 201 years of the RNLI we've never missed a tea alarm'.
Others have shared extreme ways they have taken time of out of their day to drink tea – including a duo who rushed to make the hot beverage before ziplining over the Eden Project in Cornwall.
The video was posted on the Hangloose Adventure TikTok account earning more than 1.3 millions views and more than 222,000 likes on the short-form video app.
It shows Karis Lawer, 25, pouring tea from a thermal flask into ceramic mugs before pushing her colleague, Martin Kelly, 24, down the zipline as he held the drink, after the alarm went off during a test flight.
Mr Kelly, operations manager at Hangloose adventure, a park specialising in outdoor adrenaline activities, joked the tea time alarm is ingrained in the British public's psyche.
'It's normal for every British person to have at least three cups a day, so I think the siren goes off without us noticing half the time,' he told the PA news agency.
Despite being aimed at Americans, Ms Lawer, duty manager at Hangloose Adventure, said the trend appeared to have mostly entertained social media users on the other side of the Atlantic.
'Most of our (TikTok) views have come from the UK, so it's basically just English people laughing at ourselves and how funny we are,' she said.
'It's so quintessential, us just trying to poke fun at Americans really but also finding ourselves really funny.
'Tea is already something we have daily, so to make a video pretending that there's an alarm that goes off in order for us to have tea is such an easy thing to do, it's so effective.'
The trend has sparked TikTok users to create fake accounts called the TVLA or TeaVLA – a pun on the DVLA or Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency – warning Britons to obey the tea time alarm else they face a fine.
'Be careful of the fines. We don't want anyone to incur a tea fine,' Ms Lawer joked.
'It just adds to the humour.'
Mr Kelly added: 'It makes it that more realistic and more believable.'
The duo hope their ziplining video ensures no one misses the tea alarm and advised: 'Don't be afraid to drink tea anywhere.'