I found the headline,‘Facebook friendships are not everybody’s cup of tea,’ in 'Ask Amy' of the Lifestyle section of today’s Washington Post (August 9). Without special needs for taking bother of consulting dictionaries, I can easily guess ‘not everybody’s cup of tea’ means ‘not everybody’s liking or taste, or not applicable to everyone. But this is the first time for me to come across this phrase.
Can the object of ‘Cup of tea’ be applied to anything, like sports, hobbies, literature, languages, celebrities, science, politics, and credos? Can I replace 'tea' with other items e.g. coffee, cake or even liking? Is ‘Somebody’s cup of tea” a well-used English or American English idiom?
The headline is followed by the following sentence:
“I have been invited to be a “friend” on Facebook by two people whom I have known for years, but time and distance have limited our contact to an occasional greeting card or e-mail. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I do not want this kind of superficial relationship, especially when I see that these Facebook “friends” are sharing personal information with hundreds of people.”