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The colloquial—and now obsolete—British- and Irish-English phrase husband’s tea designates very weak tea, excessively diluted tea.

G. F. Northall explained this phrase as follows in Folk-phrases of four counties (Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire). Gathered from unpublished MSS. and oral tradition (London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, 1894) [page 12]:

Come, love! or Husband’s Tea. It is a standard joke that women drink the first brew, and then fill the teapot with water—adding no fresh leaves. Weak tea has received the above names, therefore.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase husband’s tea that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From the Nottingham Review, and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) of Friday 12^th May 1837 [page 3, column 4]:

Temperance Tea Party—The friends of temperance and tee-totalism in this town, will take tea together, next Tuesday afternoon, in a large room in the Albion-foundry, Parliament-street. The society in Nottingham can now boast of, we believe, 2,500 members. But as the room in Nottingham is capable of accommodating a thousand to tea, and the price of the ticket is only ninepence, it will no doubt be fully adequate to the wants of the vast party which will participate in the sober and rational entertainment. A public meeting will afterwards be held, at which some reformed characters will be present and deliver addresses. The time for assembling together is fixed for half-past four; therefore punctuality is indispensable, or even a cup of the far-famed “husband’s tea,” may be difficult to obtain.—[We fear our correspondent must be a bachelor, and altogether ignorant of the nice strong infusions of gunpowder that modern ladies treat their dears with. We can assure him that the proverbial appellation of “come love” has long ceased to be of general application to the beverage now sipped at the Nottingham coteries.]

2-: From To Correspondents, published in the Nottingham Review, and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) of Friday 19^th May 1837 [page 3, column 3]:

A correspondent wishes us to explain the origin of the phrases, “Hᴜꜱʙᴀɴᴅ’ꜱ Tᴇᴀ,” and “Cᴏᴍᴇ Lᴏᴠᴇ,” contained in a paragraph in our last number. “Husband’s tea” denotes a very weak decoction of that well-known herb—“Come love” is derived from the circumstance of the wife of a framework-knitter sitting down and enjoying a comfortable cup of the ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ᴍᴀꜱʜ by herself, and then, having poured two cups out, which are, of course, a good deal weaker, she calls her dear spouse down stairs from his frame, making use of the tender appellation of “Cᴏᴍᴇ Lᴏᴠᴇ.”

3-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Facts and Scraps, published in The Bucks Herald (Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England) of Saturday 28^th September 1844 [page 7, column 1]:

Husband’s Tea.—Two gentlemen, noted for their fondness of exaggeration, were discussing the fare at their different hotels. One observed that at his hotel he had tea so strong that it was necessary to confine it in an iron vessel. “At mine,” said the other, “it is made so weak that it has not strength enough to run out of the teapot!”

4-: From The Liverpool Mercury, and Lancashire General Advertiser (Liverpool, Lancashire, England) of Friday 13^th November 1846 [page 552, column 3]:

Rᴇᴄᴇɪᴘᴛ Fᴏʀ Mᴀᴋɪɴɢ Hᴜꜱʙᴀɴᴅ’ꜱ Tᴇᴀ.—It often happens that the wife wants her tea at four of five o’clock, as she cannot wait until her husband returns from work, at six, and getting her tea, she may forget who is to follow; and drawing too largely upon the leaves, she finds that what her husband is to have looks very pale. She cannot spare another penny, so she has to make “husband’s tea;” that is, she toasts a piece of bread very brown, and slips it into the pot, which serves to make it look strong, whatever it may be in substance.—Liverpool Courier.

5-: From The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Thursday 19^th November 1846 [page 3, column 4]:

“Husband’s Tea.”—The third watering in the teapot, coloured with a sop of well browned toast, makes capital tea for husbands, after a hard day’s labour.