Never use boiling water to make a cup of tea, says expert

Mirror (U.K.) ^ | 27 SEP 2020 | Paige Holland

[nickcarraway]

Martin Isark, a professional food and drink taster has revealed the most common mistake we're all making when it comes to making a classic brew - and it's so easily fixed

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. If there's one thing Brits are passionate about, it's a cup of tea.

Although the amount of milk and sugar varies from person to person, we all tend to follow the same method, one which is explained by Yorkshire Tea, with boiling the water and prepping your mug with a tea bag being the first steps.

When the water is hot enough, pour it into your mug and wait patiently for it to brew - four to five minutes.

Gently squidge the tea bag against the side of the mug and add as much milk and sugar as you please.

But according to Martin Isark, a professional food and drink taster, we've all be doing it wrong - including the tea connoisseurs.

Martin says that you should never use boiling water to make a traditional brew because it will make it taste 'no better than cabbage water.'

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Gordon Ramsay slammed after furious diner's sticky toffee pudding comes with 'gravy' Instead, he says you should let the water cool down to 80 degrees.

He explained to Daily Mail that boiling water was originally used when it was necessary to make sue that the water was safe to drink.

[o-n-money]

“A true friend will squeeze your teabag.”

I miss her.

[wideminded]

but now i drink cold unsweetened tea , i let it sit in the fridge for hours to steep and get a nice flavor

I was just wondering about this exact thing tonight. Do you use teabags? How much water per bag? How long do you have to wait?

[DannyTN]

So this is saying that cabbage water is as good as tea.

Doubtful, but cabbage is cheaper than tea.

[Blue Highway]

This thread deserves this instruction from Ginger Baker on how to make a proper cup of tea. He wrote a song about it back in the early 90s. Check it out.

Masters of Reality - T.U.S.A

Here are the lyrics:

Now this is serious!

One thing in this country that really bothers me
Is the inability of Yanks to make a good cup of tea
Instructions are printed on the teabag
But they either can't read
Or they think it's a gag

I mean, pour boiling water over the tea
How simple and clear can instructions be?

They bring you a cup with a lemon slice
And an unopened tea bag beside it (how nice)
And a pot of water and it may be hot
But boiling it isn't so tea you have not

Why can't we
Get our tea
We need tea
To set us free

It's boiling water that brings out tea's flavor
With a dash of milk you've a real brew to savor
They drink luke warm brown water that looks like gnats pee
And it's got nothing to do with a good cup of tea

Pour boiling water over the tea
How simple and clear can instructions be?

Pour boiling water over the tea
Pour boiling water over the tea

[Scram1]

Upton

Finest Blend Russian Caravan—Nothing else of all the samples I’ve tried has that flavor.

[justme4now]

They DO have Cold Brew tea bags in the supermarkets now!

Kroger has their brand which I really like and Lipton has theirs which I don’t really care for.
(weaker)

[definitelynotaliberal]

She's right! It doesn't have to be a Brown Betty, but it does need to be warmed. 😄

[Eagles6]

What poofter puts milk in tea?

The Brits?

Well, there you go.

No wonder they lost the empire!

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Twinings, one of the larges tea producers in the world (and, one would think, has invested a lot of time and effort ensuring that people enjoy their teas and buy more of it), recommend boiling water for their tea, adding it as soon as it starts to boil. Typhoo has similar instructions, as does Tetley. I'm sure Martin Isark is a nice person but I'll go with the combined experience of the people who make it. I'm not a tea derinker but my wife drinks several cups of English breakfast Tea per day and we buy our tea bags in bulk, 400 to 1100 at a time.

How to brew the perfect cup of tea

[9YearLurker]

But American restaurants have been slammed for years for carrying a lukewarm cup of water to your table with a little tea bag resting on the saucer.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[faithhopecharity]

Use vodka instead!?

[Mr Radical]

Orange Pekoe for breakfast
and Prince of Wales Gunpowder Blend for afternoon tea.

[SES1066]

I find myself strangely shaken by this posting but am stirred to ask if anyone has questioned Commander Bond on this subject?

[texas booster]

From the Twinnings site:

While milk and sugar is a matter of personal taste, we find that some of our blends are enhanced with a little added sweetness or creaminess. When adding milk, pour it into the cup before adding your tea. This allows the milk to cool the tea, rather than letting the tea heat the milk.

Something that I never knew.

[Fido969]

Bam a lam

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Because we watch a lot of British television (my wife is British) we learn a lot of oddball things about tea, like how researchers found that tea tastes best in a red cup, how people automatically presume that tea in a styrofoam cup is worse than tea in a regular cup but if you add a weight to the bottom of the styrofoam cup they can't tell the difference, how every classic type of tea comes from the same leaves (it just matters how they roast and blend them) and how it took over 20 years of testing for scientists to verify that tea leaves from India were no different than tea leaves from China (obviously pre-DNA days)

If you want to learn about the history of tea and how it became so popular you can find both episodes of Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea on Youtube.

[CIB-173RDABN]

I have a Keurig coffee maker (K cups) and it has a hot water feature. I press the button and I get “perfect” hot water for my tea bag. No idea what the temperature is but it makes a good cup of tea (to my taste) and it is quick.

[Madam Theophilus]

True story: Husband and I worked in Nepal during the 80’s and the mission community was mixed with Brits and Americans. The Brits always complained when the Americans made tea - that it tasted horrid. SO... the Americans challenged them to a blind taste test. Tea was made by Americans and Brits and tasters drank blindfolded without knowledge of who made the tea. The Brits picked out every Brit cup! After that I learned to make proper tea. :-)

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ouch.