Posted on 05/02/2022 12:28:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Nothing beats a good cup of tea.
Whether it’s morning, noon or night, a cuppa makes everything better.
As most British people understand, the making of a cup of tea is an art form.
It is seriously difficult to get right.
And now, one expert has shared the scientifically correct way to make a brew.
However, his method may divide opinion.
Dr Andrew Stapley, of Loughborough University, is a chemical engineer who has undertaken important research to find the perfect cup of tea.
In news that may disgust the nation, Dr Stapley says you should make your tea with the milk poured in first.
Dr Stapley found that if you pour milk into a hot tea, the milk will heat unevenly which will cause the proteins in your milk to alter their natural quality.
This is the main cause of floaty bits that sometimes appear at the top of your cup.
This also causes the milk to lose its flavour in the tea-making process.
The research also revealed that pouring milk into the cup before the hot water can help to prevent hard water, as the proteins in the milk can lower the mineral content of your water and bring back the flavour to an otherwise mediocre brew.
While the science may say differently, we think we will stick to the method we know and love.
Hot water poured in first and a splash of milk afterward, thank you very much.
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I thought Eddie figured this out years ago (slightly obscure Hitchhikers reference).
Yes, George Orwell meets “The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine”, an unlikely combination. Very post-post-modern.
An extra bag in the tea pot also helps. Tetley tea, round bags, has always been our go to product. Nice to have in the afternoon/after dinner with cookies.
“Dr Stapley found that if you pour milk into a hot tea, the milk will heat unevenly which will cause the proteins in your milk to alter their natural quality.
This is the main cause of floaty bits that sometimes appear at the top of your cup.”
No, the main cause of those floaty bits is that the milk is starting to go off.
I learned that if you do drink milk in tea it goes in first. So his finding is not new.
Over in Blighty there is a whole debate over whether you put the milk or tea in first.
One that has not torn open.
Wait a minute, it is up to me. Who am I talking to here?
Well, I seldom drink tea, and I would never put milk in it anyway, so it’s not all that relevant to me. My wife does drink tea every morning, and puts the milk in after the teabag comes out. The only times that there are floaty bits are when the milk is a day or two past its best and starting to turn.
Many years ago when I was visiting England, I’d have to make a specific request for tea without milk. As I recall, the cafes like Jolyon’s would add tea from an urn to milk in cups as their standard preparation method.
Five minutes at power five in my microwave does the trick just fine. I tell my wife that’s how the Queen does it when nobodies around.
Hubby is British. He buys Tetley British Blend at Kroger or Publix.
He always says, “You don’t take the kettle to the pot...but the pot to the kettle.” And always head the pot beforehand with hot tap water. IOW....the tea has to be as hot as possible.
“He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Drink button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject’s taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject’s metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject’s brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariable delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. The Nutri-Matic was designed and manufactured by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation whose complaint department now covers all the major landmasses of the first three planets in the Sirius Tau Star system.”
-Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy
Fortnum and Mason Royal Blend or Queen Anne.
I fill a large electric tea kettle with water and on the highest tea settings, I boil it until it atomically stops and begins counting down the brew time. I drop six or seven black tea bags in the kettle and fish them out within 15 or 20 minutes. Then I put twenty packets of splenda and twenty packets of stevia in the pot and pour half of it into my 34 oz. clear glass mug.
I want my tea to stand up and salute me before the first sip and then kick me in the groin right after.
Just to put this in the right context, in 69 years, I never forced myself to drink coffee. It looks and tastes like burned toast as far as I'm concerned.
I don't even drink Tea, but I know that.
Yes. I know how Brits look on Americans as uncivilized Philistines when we use teabags.
The first rule of “a nice cuppa” is start with loose leaf tea. The mulched crap they put in teabags isn’t worth drinking (except iced, and with lots of sugar).
Let’s get to the important question.
When does the bourbon go in?
(Obviously it’s spiced rum for after dinner. I’m not a heathen!)
Exactly. And I recall that at least green prevents calcium absorption in milk.
I’ve read green should be brewed 160-180 F for 10 minutes to maximize extraction of EGCG and antibiotics. THAT’S scientific, not this worthless article.
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