How to make the perfect cup of tea

[Orang Utan]

Oh dear.

Some mothers do ave em

 

[ymu]

Takes some getting used to (I'm a no sugar person, so the sweet milk is a shock), but it's pretty good and fortifying. In places that people only eat once a day it sustains the workers until the main meal. I'd be on it again if I went back.

Where I taught English they'd brew the tea up so strong that you were supposed to top up with hot water, then add milk. Really bitter and stewed. Not nice.

In Malaysia it's pulled tea. Strong tea with condensed milk, transferred from jug to mug and back again at increasingly impressive distances until it's all frothy, like a hot semi-sweet milkshake.

 

[kittyP]

And if you have sugar, please DO NOT USE THE SAME SPOON TO STIR IN THE SUGAR AND THEN TAKE THE BAG OUT OF MY MUG.

Sorry for the shouting, but I tell people this, having pointed out that I know they did it because my tea tastes foul, and then they do it again.

Everyone always tells me that I am imagining this

 

[Mrs Magpie]

You two must be super-tasters, kittyP and littlebabyjesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

 

[Firky]

Leave it to cool down? WHAT? It needs to be as hot as possible

Like your mum before I spoon her

 

[PursuedByBears]

I agree with most of Orwell's rules but will fight to keep my sugar in my tea.

 

[Firky]

Some mothers do ave em

Fuckin' A

(sorry, I love your mum jokes)

 

[Firky]

There's a study of people who do this and they are more prone to throat cancer.

You smoke

 

[kittyP]

You two must be super-tasters, kittyP and littlebabyjesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

Which is amazing considering the amount I smoke.
I have a very sensitive sense of smell too though. Dunno if that's linked.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

You smoke

I only was proffering information for the purposes of informed choice

 

[Firky]

I only was proffering information for the purposes of informed choice

Tell you what, I do miss a coffee and a fag. It is one of those things that are just made to go together.

(tea should be made in an earthenware pot too if no one has said that yet)

 

[Ax^]

how to make the perfect cup of tea

get me to make it


everyone else fucks it up

 

[peterkro]

Proper tea pot,turn pot several times before leaving to brew (fluid dynamics innit),milk last.

 

[clicker]

Strong enough to trot a mouse across....there is no other way

 

[Firky]

Strong enough to trot a mouse across....there is no other way

As orange as a Geordie lass on a Friday

 

[coley]

A cup of tea should last no more than a couple of minutes

You will be one of the first against the wall, then we shall see how long you want your last cup of tea and tab to last

 

[coley]

Fill kettle, from cold wetter tap, very important!
Select tea bag, ringtons Kenya gold for self or loved ones, tetleys or similar for unwanted visitors.
Boil kettle, slosh a bit of boiling wetter into pot, empty and add tea bags
Kill and dismember people suggesting putting bag into cup
Add sweeteners, sugar and milk as to guests stated requirements, pointing out latest govt health warnings
Dunk unwanted tea into dogs dinner
Whisk unwanted guests into the night air and crack on to the booze

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Fill kettle, from cold wetter tap, very important!

I've never come across a dryer tap......

 

[coley]

I've never come across a dryer tap......

There are two taps, the cauld wetter tap and the hot wetter, those using the hot wetter tap for tea making are needing re-educating or a job as the PA to the Milliband brothers

 

[Mrs Magpie]

those using the hot wetter tap for tea making are needing re-educating or a job as the PA to the Milliband brothers

When I was a very little girl, on Mothering Sunday I made a breakfast tray for my mother. She was alarmed that I'd made a pot of tea but I told her not to worry, I knew I wasn't allowed to boil a kettle so I made it using hot water from the tap. She told me years later that it was simultaneously the worst pot of tea and the best pot of tea she'd ever had.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

"perfect" tea?

involving a tea bag?



and doing it in A MUG not a teapot?



and

But. Putting a teabag into a cup, adding cold milk to that teabag, then adding hot water IS AN ABOMINATION.

^ this.

and I know I've posted this to most of the other threads where this subject has been raised, but meh, it's important

 

[stuff_it]

Milk in first IMO.

Yes if you have used a tea pot, definitely not if you are brewing in a mug.

 

[Lixer]

Mine is simple.
Lots of sugar, Lots of milk.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm curious to know if it really makes that much difference if the water is drawn straight from the tap, or if the kettle isn't left boiling for too long.
I probably don't have the palate for it ...

 

[bi0boy]

I'm curious to know if it really makes that much difference if the water is drawn straight from the tap

Certainly from the filter jug rather than the mains tap. Hard water + chlorine makes a massive difference.

 

[Quartz]

So, how do people rate their chances of an Ignobel?

 

[ericjarvis]

Please reassure me that the milk in first/last debate only relates to tea made in a pot. Nobody making a cup of tea in a mug would put milk in first, surely?

I do. A mate of mine did the research for his chemistry PhD. The milk is chemically different depending on whether it is dropped into boiling water or has boiling water dropped on it. Which taste you prefer is up to you, but they are different. I prefer milk first. End of.

As for the rest. The key thing chemically is that tannin comes out of the leaves more slowly than the rest of the chemicals making up the taste. So if you want your tea bitter then brew it longer. The point at which tannin takes over as the main flavouring varies depending on the size and type of the leaves. In general it's just a little over 3 minutes. Tea brews better from loose leaves in a pot. The more rounded the pot is the more effectively the tea infuses and the stronger the flavour. Also the darker the pot the better the infusion. So NOTHING beats tea made in one of those old style brown teapots.

That's the science. What you choose to do with it is down to your personal tastes.

But if you think the perfect cuppa is anything other than a 30% Darjeeling 70% Pekoe mix of loose leaves brewed in a round brown tea pot for 3 and a quarter minutes, and with the milk in the cup first, you are just plain wrong.

 

[bi0boy]

I do. A mate of mine did the research for his chemistry PhD. The milk is chemically different depending on whether it is dropped into boiling water or has boiling water dropped on it. Which taste you prefer is up to you, but they are different. I prefer milk first. End of.

Milk first from a pot, of course

But milk first with a tea bag in the mug? The milk might be chemically different, but the tea isn't even fucking brewed because it never meets boiling water so fat lot of good that will do you.

 

[gentlegreen]

But if you think the perfect cuppa is anything other than a 30% Darjeeling 70% Pekoe mix of loose leaves brewed in a round brown tea pot for 3 and a quarter minutes, and with the milk in the cup first, you are just plain wrong.

70 percent Fine Formosa Oolong, 30 percent Keemun - in a small stainless steel pot, first strong infusion probably gets 3 minutes and then diluted if it isn't mixed with the tail end of the previous batch (I miss out the first quick wash and throw away) .. after that there will be further infusions and dilutions ..
Milk never gets anywhere near my tea.

 

[ericjarvis]

Milk first from a pot, of course

But milk first with a tea bag in the mug? The milk might be chemically different, but the tea isn't even fucking brewed because it never meets boiling water so fat lot of good that will do you.

Even with crap tea I prefer milk first. It's no real effort and a tiny bit less crap.