Fancy a cuppa?

One of those strange things which no-one can really explain is that in the US - traditionally coffee drinkers - they have high street tea bars, whereas we - traditionally tea drinkers - have high street coffee shops like Starbucks, Costa and so on.  It's been suggested that it's something to do with the fact that, unlike us, US households don't tend to have electric kettles, though I have to say that the connection escapes me.