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.”

  • @thedirtyknapkin
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    110 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      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
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        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
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            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.