Americans mind blown at things in Harry Potter they thought were magic but are actually just British

British culture could be described as many things, but magical might be a bit of a stretch.

However, it appears that Americans reckon that could be the perfect word to describe us lot - as they thought that UK snacks, traditions and gimmicks were the product of witchcraft and wizardry after watching the Harry Potter films.

Yep, they really believed that some of the things which our Great British brains thought up were actually just ideas which JK Rowling plucked out of thin air...which I guess, must be somewhat of a compliment?

Yanks weren't exactly under the impression that rich tea biscuits were spellbinding, but some of their presumptions are just as barmy as that to be fair.

A hilarious discussion which unfolded on a Harry Potter Reddit thread revealed that loads of Americans thought that some of the weird and wonderful things in the films were other elements of magic, when they were actually just British.

It all started when one user asked: "Non-British readers, what's something from the books you thought was magical but turned out to be just British?"

And the responses really were quite hilarious - just take a look at these:

Treacle tart

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Treacle tarts might wow your tastebuds, but they're hardly the product of expert sorcery.

However, one American admitted to believing that the popular British dessert - made up of shortcrust pastry and lashings of treacle - were only dished out at Hogwarts.

To be fair, a lot of people are partial to it in the Wizarding World and it is the personal favourite of Harry Potter himself.

Unfortunately though, the golden-coloured treat is made with kitchen utensils rather than a wand from Ollivander's.

One particularly hilarious response in the Reddit thread said of the treacle tart debacle: "I didn‘t know what they were, so I imagined some kind of cake that looked like an octopus or squid."

School houses and prefects

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Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and the Sorting Hat managed to cause mass confusion Stateside, according to social media users.

Brits are well educated on school houses, which were introduced to us way back in primary school and were particularly important on events such as sports day.

Prefects, on the other hand, are people we'd rather forget.

They'd patrol the hallways looking for rule breakers, demand you put your mobile phone away and just be general jobsworths - even though they were still just mere students.

UK schoolchildren and Hogwarts attendees are well-versed in both of these, but the same isn't the case for kids across the pond.

One American admitted that thought that these were both just exclusive to Harry Potter - which makes you wonder what the hell goes on in US schools.

Christmas crackers

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Yanking a Christmas cracker apart over the table your mum has just lavishly decorated is a festive pastime for Brits.

If you're not all sat around with brightly coloured party hats on while playing with whatever daft trinket has fell out of yours, is everything alright at home?

Vibrant hats and prizes might look like pretty good things to fall out of the cardboard tubes, but they're not really magical.

Especially in recent years - the quality has really gone downhill, but that's another story.

However, Americans apparently reckoned that the our beloved Christmas crackers are actually only something which wizards and witches have access to.

One commenter on Reddit said: "I was so confused when two characters were pulling apart the crackers and there was stuff inside of them.

"But I was just like, 'oh this wacky magical world and their novelty-filled giant cheezits!'"

Trains with food trolleys

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You know that famous scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when Harry takes everything off the train food trolley...well, one person on Reddit admitted to thinking that was magic.

To be honest we can't get our head round this one.

To think that the person coming round and asking whether we need refreshments on the 7.16am train from Manchester to London is something extraordinary, is really quite hard to believe.

It is only a bit of train food at the end of the day, but there you have it - Yanks are apparently easily impressed.

Pumpkin juice

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Arguably most bizarrely, Americans didn't believe that pumpkin juice was merely a beloved British beverage.

They really thought that the bright orange drink, which can be seen pretty much everywhere in Harry Potter and is adored by witches and wizards, was a product of some kind of magic, rather than a juicer.

To be fair, if you were grabbing a bottle of the famous film beverage in a UK supermarket, it wouldn't be in the uber-cool bottles that it was in the film. But what can you do, eh, they don't have a Hollywood budget.

On Reddit, one American said: "As a kid I really thought pumpkin juice was a British thing, not a magic thing."

This led to another replying: "Wait, pumpkin juice doesn’t exist?"

So, there you have it folks! These are just some of the things Americans admit they thought were magic in Harry Potter but were actually just British.