The “old, confusing tradition” is on its way to the history books, should the newspapers be believed.
What was the source of all this anxiety? A survey commissioned by the Rosy Lee tea company (“The Londoners’ Tea—warming the cockles of ya heart!”), and conducted by the market research agency ICM Unlimited, which found that Britons under the age of 25 in some cases had more trouble correctly defining slang phrases than their over-45 counterparts. Forty percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 didn’t know that “Rosy Lee” was Cockney slang for “tea,” but more than 90 percent of respondents older than 45 got it right
Pictured above is a section of the rhyming slang tube map, available for £17.99 as a print. Here’s a list of 100 CRS phrases to baffle your friends with.