Do you take tea or do you drink tea? Do you eat soup or do you drink soup? 

I'm Teacher Mike, and I'm an English teacher from the United States.
In this video I explain how to use "drink" and "take" when talking about tea and "eat" and "drink" when talking about soup.
“You don’t drink tea. You take tea.” and “You don’t eat soup. You drink soup.”
Many of my followers have told me that this is what they learned in school.
And the first time someone said this, I was shocked and confused because it’s NOT TRUE.
If someone gives you a cup of tea and you put the tea into your mouth and swallow it, that is not “taking tea” that is “drinking tea”.
If someone gives you a bowl of soup and you use a spoon to put the soup into your mouth, that is not “drinking”. That is “eating”.
So I actually did a lot of research and talked to a lot of British and American English teachers just to make sure that I’m not crazy.
Okay. Here is my conclusion.
1. I’m not crazy.
2. You can “take tea” but it’s not the same as drinking tea.
Like I said earlier, if someone gives you a cup of tea and you put the tea into your mouth and swallow it, that is not “taking tea” that is “drinking tea”.
You could also say “having tea”. That’s also correct.
So why are some teachers telling their students that “drink tea” is wrong, and that they should say “take tea” instead.
Well, firstly, they are just wrong. You drink liquids. There is no problem with saying “drink tea”.
Secondly, they are probably confused.
“Take tea” is something that some people say in English, but again, it doesn’t mean “drink tea”.
To “take tea” means to take a break in the afternoon to have a small meal or snack with tea”.
Maybe you have heard about “high tea” or “afternoon tea” in the UK. That’s usually what people are talking about when they say “take tea”.
It’s taking a break, sitting down in your parlor, your garden, a hotel, or a restaurant and eating cucumber sandwiches, scones, biscuits, etc. It’s not just drinking a cup of tea in your office.
And I could be a tiny bit wrong about some of these details because I’m not British.
I just want you to understand is that “take tea” means “take a break to have tea”, and when you talk about actually putting the tea into your mouth, we use “drink tea” or “have tea”.
But I’ve heard a native English speaker say “I’ll take tea”.
You probably have, that’s because we use “take” when we are selecting something.
“I’ll take tea,” just means “I would like tea.”
But What about “How do you take your tea?”
That just means “Do you want cream or sugar? If so, how much?”
3. You can drink soup, but usually, you eat soup.
Most soups have meat, vegetables, beans, or noodles in them. Do you drink chicken? Do you drink potatoes? No. You don’t. You eat them.
So if your soup has any pieces of meat, vegetables, noodles, beans, etc. you eat it. You don’t drink it.
Sometimes you have soup that is just liquid. There are no pieces of anything in it.
If it is a thick liquid, blended vegetables or a very creamy soup and you put it in your mouth with a spoon, I would still call that eating, not drinking.
However, if you have a cup of broth, just a clear liquid with no meat or vegetables in it, if you drink it directly from the bowl or cup without using a spoon, then you could say “drink soup.”