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A US scientist has brewed up a storm by offering Britain advice on making tea (apnews.com)

submitted 9 months ago by cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11138800

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.

...

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.”

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[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

you don't boil it that hard...

[–] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Now, you say that, but the concentration of heat in a microwave is completely random. You can have parts of the water at 60° while other bits are being superheated to a couple of hundred degrees

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

also, that's why they have spinning plates

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

you use your eyes, superheating only happened with distilled water. just don't use distilled

[–] PatMustard@feddit.uk 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How hard do you boil it? Does your microwave have an in-built thermometer which stops the heating at the right temperature like a kettle?

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

you uhh... you look at it.

[–] PatMustard@feddit.uk 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You stare through the radiation-shielding mesh for the entire time hoping to see the bubbles and stop it before it froths everywhere? No wonder I keep seeing all these warnings about superheated water!

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

you can only super heat distilled water. that's not a thing with regular drinking water lol

[–] PatMustard@feddit.uk 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's the main thing that people seem to talk about regarding microwaving water. But regardless of that, do you sit and watch the water through the microwave window?

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

no, you get used to how long it takes pretty quickly and can ignore it for the first 30 seconds safely no matter what. after like 5 attempts you just know how long to do it and there's no actual danger so...

[–] PatMustard@feddit.uk 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Fair enough, still seems like a lot more effort than just using a kettle!

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

i don't drink much tea or have much counter space. i have a microwave anyway, i see no reason to own a kettle.