Britain responds after Expo 2025 afternoon tea brews outrage

Tokyo: A $35 afternoon tea set served at the British pavilion at the Osaka Expo has left Japanese social media aghast at its perfunctory paper cups, s...

Tokyo: A $35 afternoon tea set served at the British pavilion at the Osaka Expo has left Japanese social media aghast at its perfunctory paper cups, sending Britain's embassy into damage-control mode.

"We have improved our service after some feedback saying we have failed to live up to expectations", a British Embassy official in Tokyo said in a video posted on X Thursday.

"Afternoon tea is an important part of our tradition that symbolises British culture," she said in Japanese.

Earlier this week, a post deploring the overall quality of the pavilion's tea set -- including "a tea bag stuck in a paper cup" -- went viral on X.

Many Japanese users reacted with shock, expressing their perhaps misplaced faith in a quintessential British afternoon tea set.