Informant: My favorite tongue twister… I learned it in England recently, actually. It’s a teacup one. “All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot. I may be off my dot, but I want a cup of coffee from a proper coffee pot. Tin coffee pots and iron coffee pots, they’re no good to me. If I can’t have a cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot, I’ll have a cup of tea. A nice cup of tea.” Where that comes from? I don’t know. But a nice British lady taught it to me!

Background: 
My informant is a 20-year-old college student, majoring in theatre, who recently returned from a study-abroad semester in London, England. She’s been doing theatre for twelve years now in various parts of the country, so she’s heard many versions of theatre legends, tales, superstitions, and other pieces of theatre folklore.

Thoughts:
I’d never heard this tongue twister before! I thought it was really fun because my informant learned it in England, where she recently spent a few months studying abroad. It was cool to hear a tongue twister that was so specific to another culture – none of the American tongue twisters I know talk about coffee or tea, and those are both big parts of British culture. Also the use of the word “proper” over and over again, which is a word that doesn’t pop up in America nearly as often as it does in England.