Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shamrock tea n.

[‘it has only three leaves in it’]

weak tea.

Larne Times 2 June 6/5: ‘Everything all right, sir?’ inquired the land-lady. ‘Yes, thanks; and this shamrock tea is fine!’ ‘Sharock tea! Whatever’s that?’ she asked. ‘Three leaves to the pot’.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 1/1: ‘Shamrock Tea’ [...] ‘The worst part of the grub is the “shamrock tea.”’ [...] ‘What's that?’ [...] ‘Three leaves of tea and the pot filled with hot water’.
[US]Times (Shreveport, LA) 5 Dec. 67/1: Why is tea made by a very stingy housewife called ‘shamrock tea?’.
[Aus]Longreach Reader (Qld) 22 Nov. 21/3: ‘What’s on earth’s shamrock tea?’ ‘You know the kind — made with three leaves’.
[US]Times (Shreveport, LA) 6 Mar. 12/6: Eire’s tea shortage has produced a joker’s shamrock tea, made with three leaves.
Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 23 Sept. 6/7: Eric ordered ‘string white tea [...] And I don’t mean shamrock tea’.
[UK]Toby: A Bristol Tramp Tells His Story in DSUE (1984).
[US]Asbury Park Press (NJ) 17 Mar. 20/2: Shamrock tea wouldn’t be their style now.
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