An American scientist has sparked a trans-Atlantic tempest in a teapot by offering Britain advice on its favorite hot beverage.
Bryn Mawr College chemistry professor Michelle Francl says one of the keys to a perfect cup of tea is a pinch of salt. The tip is included in Francl’s book “Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea,” published Wednesday by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Not since the Boston Tea Party has mixing tea with salt water roiled the Anglo-American relationship so much.
The salt suggestion drew howls of outrage from tea-lovers in Britain, where popular stereotype sees Americans as coffee-swilling boors who make tea, if at all, in the microwave.
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The U.S. Embassy in London intervened in the brewing storm with a social media post reassuring “the good people of the U.K. that the unthinkable notion of adding salt to Britain’s national drink is not official United States policy.”
What’s wrong with the microwave? Heat is heat (except the 1995 movie which has little to do with heat or thermodynamics at all).
Nothing. My two cents is just the microwave to heat up you water and add your tea of choice to steep afterwards.
It overheats it.
The water in a microwave when boiled forms small pockets of gaseous water whose temperature is more than 100 deg C, so it basically cooks the guts out of the tea.
You boil the water in the microwave. Then pour it. Not with the leaves or the pouch in.
You could easily over steep it if you microwave it with the bag in it, but if you’re just boiling water it shouldn’t make a difference, other than being inefficient vs a kettle.
I don’t think I would steep it in the microwave, but I could see myself boiling or reheating tea in it.
Don’t knock it til you try it. Cold water and bag goes in a mug in microwave. 1-2 mins later tea comes out. No forgetting about hot water or letting things cool and forgetting about it. I dont care if it’s correct. It tastes good to me.
Isn’t microwaving the bag bad? Wouldn’t it add microplastics and such?
I had no idea but a quick search shows most teabags have plastics.
Not sure if there’s a difference between microwaving a bag in water or letting a bag sit in hot water