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.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    210 months ago

    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?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        210 months ago

        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
          link
          English
          110 months ago

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

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            110 months ago

            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
              link
              English
              210 months ago

              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…

                • @thedirtyknapkin
                  link
                  English
                  210 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.