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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 [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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[–] [email protected] -5 points 9 months ago (5 children)

The microwave is literally faster if you're just making one cup of tea. Why should I sit around for a whole kettle to boil if I can just microwave one cup for two minutes? Plus it's already in the container you're going to drink it out of. Absolutely silly.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You don't fill the whole kettle, do you?

Just full it to minimum for a single cup.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

12 seconds from my water filter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I have an electric kettle of ~1.6L capacity. I fill it with the minimum 0.5L and it boils in less than a minute.

If you're using a stove kettle, I understand why Microwaves can be faster, but outright saying so is a bit of an exaggeration.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Two minutes. It takes less than that to boil water in a kettle.

What kettle are you using?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

They're probably using a stovetop kettle with too much water instead of an electric kettle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You don't fill a whole kettle, you just put in the water you need.
British kettles legitimately boil faster than ones stateside because of our higher mains electricity voltage. A quick boil kettle in the UK is far quicker than a standard domestic microwave.

Edit: I just timed my kettle (I was craving a cuppa anyway); one cup of water, 53 seconds. I bet your microwave can't top that (mine certainly can't).

[–] Noel_Skum 1 points 9 months ago

In the UK they have proper electricity in domestic properties and kettles boil quickly…