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A jargogle
Feb 22, 2011
I live in the UK. I'd like to get my mother some slightly better tea for her birthday (Her usual is earl gray tea bags from twinnings though I know she can brew using leaves), does anyone have any reccommendations, both for places to buy from and also types of tea to buy?

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Sirotan
Oct 17, 2006

Sirotan is a seal.


A jargogle posted:

I live in the UK. I'd like to get my mother some slightly better tea for her birthday (Her usual is earl gray tea bags from twinnings though I know she can brew using leaves), does anyone have any reccommendations, both for places to buy from and also types of tea to buy?

Maybe this is way too touristy for you but when I was in London a few years back I picked up some excellent loose earl gray from Harrods, and have since acquired a few more of their teas as gifts. I found the tea quality to be very good, and they also come in really nice tins.

pork never goes bad
May 16, 2008

Fortnum and Mason have some very nice Indian teas, Darjeelings &etc. They also have good teawares.

milpreve
Feb 29, 2012

Death Vomit Wizard posted:

Thanks for the great pics. Come to think of it, I haven't tried any "tea leaves + flowers" teas. Does the oolong taste not completely mask the rose taste? Also, have you gotten the oolong leaves to unfurl all the way yet? They still look half-balled in your last pic.

The rose taste is very very subtle, but I think it will be more pronounced with hotter water. I would hardly know it's there right now. My mom got an oolong with lavender for herself. I had three cups the other night on the same leaves and they were completely open by then. Actually, the spent leaves took up about half of the IngenuiTEA. It was pretty cool. That was my first consumption of the tea, I've been letting it steep a little longer now and it's better. I will update once I'm back to my place and can try it with properly hot water. I'm terrified of microwaving water and my parents do not own a stove-top kettle, so it will have to wait until Monday.

Another tea I have that is tea + flowers is my Dragon Pearl Jasmine. Last year I bought a bag of jasmine flowers and I added them to the pearls, so now it's a little more jasmine-y. The pearls are pretty old, so the rejuvenation helped.

aldantefax
Oct 10, 2007

ALWAYS BE MECHFISHIN'
It's been a little bit since I posted anything in here so I figured I'd stop in and say hi!

Recently I put a little bit down for the Life in Teacup Spring pre-orders for various green teas. It cost a little more than I had originally anticipated (mostly because I took advantage of a post-pre-order-upsell for more tea and forgot about it) but I am totally looking forward to it! Sadly, the preorder window has closed.

I picked up a Finum permanent filter from Amazon for about 10 bucks for the large one, and it is performing like a champ. The ultrafine metallic mesh is a lot easier to handle and the lid/coaster design is quite serviceable. The bodum filter I used in the Let's Drink post has a tendency to get leaves stuck in its much larger filter holes.

As a mixed blessing it fits perfectly with another large teapot I have but not with the fish teapot that I used in the Let's Drink post. I'll have to get one size down for that one specifically!

Winszton
Oct 22, 2008
http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Bean-Direct-Pinhead-Gunpowder/dp/B002GWH7QA/ref=lh_ni_t

I just got bought this. I've never had non-bagged tea so I'm kind of excited to try this
How can one keep tea nice and hot for a good while? When I brew it I'd like to make a few cups worth but probably won't be be drinking out of a big thermos or anything.
A well insulated tea pot?

aldantefax
Oct 10, 2007

ALWAYS BE MECHFISHIN'
Depends on what you mean by 'a good while'. Thermoses are pretty solid for keeping liquids warm, but you can use a tea cozy or some kind of trivet that you can stick a tea light candle under (they're called that for a reason!). Otherwise, insulated desk and travel mugs also fare admirably.

edit: 2 pounds of gunpowder green, I hope you don't kill yourself drinking that! Try with mint (whole leaf or crushed) and keep your water cooler than boiling.

Meaty Ore
Dec 17, 2011

My God, it's full of cat pictures!

Speaking of mint, I have spearmint growing wild in a small patch of my back yard. I've also noticed that the $3.00 boxes of mint "tea" sold at supermarkets is simply dried, chopped and bagged mint leaves; the obvious course of action is to pick, wash, and brew herbal "tea" with my own damned mint--I can only drink so many juleps, and the stuff keeps coming back anyways. The only question I have is, is there any point in chopping the leaves up before brewing them up? Also, any good ways to dry the stuff out for use during winter?

Meaty Ore fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Apr 12, 2012

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.
You'll want to dry it for tea. I think you can just dry it in the oven, I know I've seen instructions for it but it's pretty much just spreading it out on a cookie sheet at very low heat.

No need to chop it up, it'll crumble once it's dry.

pork never goes bad
May 16, 2008

If you chop it before drying, the cut edges will oxidize. This will affect the flavor - not sure if positively or not! The mint tea you get on a shelf, the leaves are dried roughly whole, and then crushed when dry.

Cpt.Wacky
Apr 17, 2005
I think I posted a while back in this thread about adding mint leaves to tea. Adding whole fresh leaves had basically no effect, but bruising them up first gave a nice minty flavor. So a handful fresh and bruised might work for straight mint tea. My peppermint and spearmint starts aren't big enough to harvest yet, but I'll have to try it when they are.

milpreve
Feb 29, 2012
My recommendation for drying mint is to go pioneer on it. Make a bouquet of the mint sprigs, tie the ends with twine, and hang them upside down somewhere dry. When the stalks are dry, remove the leaves and you are good to go! I do this with chammomile, too.

OnceIWasAnOstrich
Jul 22, 2006

I got a bunch of random tea samples from Upton (and a friend of mine got several sampler packs from Adagio) to compare. On one end the Magnolia Blossom Oolong is excellent and one of the best floral-scented teas I've tried.

On the other end the "Water Fairy" Wu-Yi Oolong, and the "Wuyi Ensemble" from Adagio smell, and taste, like marijuana. I started taking around the steeped leaves in my teapot to random people at work and asking everyone what it smelled like. So far everyone has either told me it smells like weed or declined to answer, because they didn't want to say it smelled like weed.

edit: "It smells like being hotboxed in a car"

aldantefax
Oct 10, 2007

ALWAYS BE MECHFISHIN'
Bay Area denizens, Samovar is running a campaign right now via Groupon and LivingSocial. The deal is the same, but LivingSocial's promo is running for longer than Groupon is.

LivingSocial - http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/15/deals/283438-55-to-spend-on-food-and-drink

Groupon - http://www.groupon.com/san-francisco/

Stipulations: 25 for 55, all credit must be used in one go, minimum 2 people at a table, usable at the following locations:

Castro
498 Sanchez St.
San Francisco, California 94114

Hayes Valley
297 Page St.
San Francisco, California 94102

---

I'm probably going to go to one of these locations with a former coworker of mine next weekend, 4/21 or 4/22. If you want to join, we'll be coming from the East Bay, so we can arrange carpool and the like if you want to join!

Meaty Ore
Dec 17, 2011

My God, it's full of cat pictures!

Thanks for the ideas. I did try picking a few sprigs, plucking off the leaves, washing and running them through the salad spinner before adding to boiling water, and got some very bright green, lightly mint-flavored liquid. Not bad, but could have used a little sugar to brighten up the flavor somewhat, and this from someone who as a general rule doesn't sweeten his tea.

Drying bunches of sprigs sounds like a good way to go, so I'll probably do some of that when the stuff matures a bit more.

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Milk with tea tastes like Yuck and Gross had a baby. How can I enjoy milk with my tea? Is there a trick like add more sugar? Maybe the problem is that I'm using two percent milk....

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Wedemeyer posted:

Milk with tea tastes like Yuck and Gross had a baby. How can I enjoy milk with my tea? Is there a trick like add more sugar? Maybe the problem is that I'm using two percent milk....

Which tea are you using and how long are you steeping it for? Milk and tea works best when the tea is a nice strong and concentrated black.
Also which taste do you find gross?


Now what do you guys think about adding Vervain and mint to tea? it makes the taste of black tea more appeasing somehow.

Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Apr 18, 2012

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

Wedemeyer posted:

Milk with tea tastes like Yuck and Gross had a baby. How can I enjoy milk with my tea? Is there a trick like add more sugar? Maybe the problem is that I'm using two percent milk....

Try chai, in America at least it's typically drunk with milk (because it would be terribly bitter/spicy otherwise).

redmercer
Sep 15, 2011

by Fistgrrl

Hummingbirds posted:

Try chai, in America at least it's typically drunk with milk (because it would be terribly bitter/spicy otherwise).

It's made with milk everywhere because that's how it's supposed to be made.

Cpt.Wacky
Apr 17, 2005

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Now what do you guys think about adding Vervain and mint to tea? it makes the taste of black tea more appeasing somehow.

Did you mean Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora) or actual Verbena? I think Lemon Verbena and Mint would be a good combo.

I can't remember who recommend me some Early Grey type stuff from Uptown Teas a while ago. I got them and have been trying them when I had time at home. From the Earl Grey sampler I really liked the Earl Grey Creme Vanilla. Earl Grey Blue Flower and Earl Grey Lavender were both good too. The Earl Grey Chocolate was a little weird, but then I don't like chocolate mixed with other stuff usually. I haven't tried the other ones enough to form an opinion yet but I'll try to remember to follow up when I do.

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Which tea are you using and how long are you steeping it for? Milk and tea works best when the tea is a nice strong and concentrated black.
Also which taste do you find gross?


Now what do you guys think about adding Vervain and mint to tea? it makes the taste of black tea more appeasing somehow.

Nice! brand orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea. Yeah it's a walmart brand but it gets me caffeine in the morning. My adagio teas will come in the mail eventually.
Generally I just microwave the poo poo until my candy thermometer tells me the temp is about 180ish. After the water turns into tea color I take out the bag and dump cool water in because I don't have that much time to wait for it to cool. I was hoping I could use milk to cool it off instead of water because I hear it tastes good and maybe I don't have to use too sugar.

Hummingbirds posted:

Try chai, in America at least it's typically drunk with milk (because it would be terribly bitter/spicy otherwise).

Yah I've been looking at chai mixes and'll give it a try, maybe.

Picture which is not mine: http://mypbrand.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Nice-tea.jpg

Arcturas
Mar 30, 2011

Wedemeyer posted:

Nice! brand orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea. Yeah it's a walmart brand but it gets me caffeine in the morning. My adagio teas will come in the mail eventually.
Generally I just microwave the poo poo until my candy thermometer tells me the temp is about 180ish. After the water turns into tea color I take out the bag and dump cool water in because I don't have that much time to wait for it to cool. I was hoping I could use milk to cool it off instead of water because I hear it tastes good and maybe I don't have to use too sugar.


Try getting your water a little hotter (boiling is usually fine for black teas) and letting it steep a bit longer. My guess is that your tea is understeeped. Try timing your steeping - let the teabag sit in the teacup for about five minutes while you make breakfast or whatever. That can help.

Also, some people just don't like milk + sugar in their black tea. They're heathens and terrible, but what'cha gonna do? You could try a little lemon juice and sugar instead of milk and sugar instead. It won't help your "oh god my tea is too hot and I need to sprint to work in 30 seconds" problem, but it can be very tasty.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Cpt.Wacky posted:

Did you mean Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora) or actual Verbena? I think Lemon Verbena and Mint would be a good combo.


I don't have the original packaging (it was a plastic bag and I have enough mason jars to spare) anymore but by regarding the smell and leaf shape it's most likely Lemon verbena. It's kind of a family recipe and my mother always tells me it's quite good.

For the tea I just use either a generic black or Chunmee Green gunpowder tea. I know neither are particularly satisfying on their own but with the verbena and mint it makes for a nice cup of tea.

wedemeyer posted:

Nice! brand orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea. Yeah it's a walmart brand but it gets me caffeine in the morning. My adagio teas will come in the mail eventually.
Generally I just microwave the poo poo until my candy thermometer tells me the temp is about 180ish. After the water turns into tea color I take out the bag and dump cool water in because I don't have that much time to wait for it to cool. I was hoping I could use milk to cool it off instead of water because I hear it tastes good and maybe I don't have to use too sugar.

For milk-tea the black tea doesn't have to be prime stuff, unless you are looking for something you would sip unbelievably slowly. Satisfaction can be achieved by just assuring that (at the very least)a good, strong black tea taste exists.

Bolded is where you are going wrong. Diluting most teas, in my experience, makes them taste flat and generally bad compared to what you might get with the full thing, even worse if you add milk afterwards.
Black tea already doesn't have most of the delicate oils that exist in lighter teas, so it is okay to boil it ever so slightly to release that tasty goodness. I always play it by eye so I can't recommend any perfect temperatures but a slight boil is good. Add milk to taste, a teaspoon of sugar and you should be ready.

I don't know tea by microwave though, you might have a better chance with an actual kettle.

quote:

I can't remember who recommend me some Early Grey type stuff from Uptown Teas a while ago. I got them and have been trying them when I had time at home. From the Earl Grey sampler I really liked the Earl Grey Creme Vanilla. Earl Grey Blue Flower and Earl Grey Lavender were both good too. The Earl Grey Chocolate was a little weird, but then I don't like chocolate mixed with other stuff usually. I haven't tried the other ones enough to form an opinion yet but I'll try to remember to follow up when I do.

Earl Grey Vanilla would be divine. The signature earl grey taste with that fleeting bit of volatile vanilla sweetness, I can't wait to get my hands on some.

Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Apr 18, 2012

Bees on Wheat
Jul 18, 2007

I've never been happy



QUAIL DIVISION
Buglord
For cheap and easy tea with milk, I usually put the tea bag and a bit of milk in the cup, then pour the water over it. For something fancier I'll brew looseleaf in a pot, add milk and sugar to the cup, then pour tea over it. Doesn't matter what kind of tea, either. I'll drink blacks, oolongs and greens like this. For some reason, adding the milk to the cup first makes it taste better. Also, this tends to be one of those situations where less is more. If you drown your tea in milk it'll taste awful. I usually add just enough milk to coat the bottom of my cup.

Culinary Bears
Feb 1, 2007

Seconding the Earl Grey Creme Vanilla from Upton as being worth checking out if you're into Earl Greys. It's subtle and very pleasant, one of my favorites.

There's also the Sacher Blend, which has lots of Darjeeling and vanilla and is sort of like a strongly flavored (both in the tea and the vanilla) version of the same concept, but it's too strong and weird for my tastes - too much vanilla with the bergamot makes me think of coffee creamer/dry meringue cookies/orchid tea. Could be worth a sample if you're curious though.

Ravendas
Sep 29, 2001




Milk tea is amazing if you think of it more like a flavored milk than a flavored tea. I live in Taiwan and get them all the time from vendors and at restaurants. Milk tea is also what you can get the pearls in, though they're a bit too sweet and heavy for me to drink without feeling sick.

Here in Taiwan there are obviously tons of tea shops. Most of them sell looseleaf tea in either those little metallic folded bags in a container, or they'll have these big canisters that they scoop the tea out of and weigh.

TianRen tea (天仁) has a ton of stores here, and is the most easily recognizable. I think you can buy their bagged tea in America? I don't remember. Maybe I'll go in later and take a pic or two to post on here.

As for my tea preferences, when I'm out and about I'll order wulong or wulong-green teas from the vendors (half sugar, light ice), or a lemon-green tea if I want something sour. It's like lemonade made with green tea, and is awesome.
At home, when I'm lazy I'll throw a bagged TianRen wulong bag in a cup and call it a day. Otherwise I have some looseleaf Eastern Beauty tea (東方美人茶)or a different looseleaf wulong in a little pot, and drink out of the tiny teacups. I should expand out and get some other random ones though.

Random Chinese fact! Black tea is called Red tea here. Because honestly, it's not really black. It's the standard go-to for milk tea, and is otherwise drowned with sugar. It seems to never be drunk in a formal setting however.

Bees on Wheat
Jul 18, 2007

I've never been happy



QUAIL DIVISION
Buglord
TianRen is pretty easy to find here; I actually recognized the characters pretty easily. There are a ton of asian markets around here, and they all seem to stock at least one variety.

There's also a pretty big difference between milk tea and tea with milk. One is a sugary beverage that you get at a cafe and is mostly flavored syrup, the other is real tea with a dash of milk in it. I actually enjoy both methods of preparation; it just depends on what I'm in the mood for and whether I want to drop $4 on a cup of flavored milk. (The answer is usually yes.)

aldantefax
Oct 10, 2007

ALWAYS BE MECHFISHIN'
Oh man. OH man. I went overboard on a visit to Aroma Tea Shop in San Fransisco with pork never goes bad. I ended up with:

1/4 lb Tie Guan Yin
1/4 lb Ginseng Oolong
1/2 lb 2011 Alishan Oolong (cut rate deal, too!)
1/4 lb Peach Oolong
3 oz Phoenix Oolong
1 oz Phoenix Orchid Oolong (also marked on tag as Ben Shan)

also two bamboo coasters and a small 9 pc. gongfu set (gaiwan, fair cup, 6 tasting cups, tea boat) and a crystal glass fair cup

Then, the following day, the first part of my preorder from Life in Teacup arrived...

2 x 25g 2012 Pre-QingMing Da Fo Long Jing (dated 4/3/2012)
1 x 25g 2012 Dong Ting East Mountain Bi Lo Chun (dated 4/9/2012)

...and then I got the $25 for $55 dine-in credit at Samovar...

:negative:

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.

aldantefax posted:

Oh man. OH man. I went overboard on a visit to Aroma Tea Shop in San Fransisco with pork never goes bad. I ended up with:

1/4 lb Tie Guan Yin
1/4 lb Ginseng Oolong
1/2 lb 2011 Alishan Oolong (cut rate deal, too!)
1/4 lb Peach Oolong
3 oz Phoenix Oolong
1 oz Phoenix Orchid Oolong (also marked on tag as Ben Shan)

also two bamboo coasters and a small 9 pc. gongfu set (gaiwan, fair cup, 6 tasting cups, tea boat) and a crystal glass fair cup

Then, the following day, the first part of my preorder from Life in Teacup arrived...

2 x 25g 2012 Pre-QingMing Da Fo Long Jing (dated 4/3/2012)
1 x 25g 2012 Dong Ting East Mountain Bi Lo Chun (dated 4/9/2012)

...and then I got the $25 for $55 dine-in credit at Samovar...

:negative:

It seems that you have a bit too much tea on hand. Perhaps you should send it to me.

Death Vomit Wizard
May 8, 2006
Bottom Feeder

Ravendas posted:

TianRen tea (天仁) has a ton of stores here, and is the most easily recognizable. I think you can buy their bagged tea in America? I don't remember. Maybe I'll go in later and take a pic or two to post on here.
Ravendas, going to Taiwan and loving Ten Ren Tea (that's how they spell their English name) is kind of like going to France and loving Carlo Rossi wine. All I can say is, you have an extraordinary opportunity now to learn everything about oolong (and puerh) tea. Stick with it, and one day you will wonder that you ever drank tea from Ten Ren (let alone from a teabag). The best thing you can do when starting out is try to make friends with an old Taiwanese guy. Or you could try meeting up with the Tea Masters guy.
Email me what city you live in, maybe we can meet up at a real tea shop some time - lonhig..at..gmail

pork never goes bad
May 16, 2008

Stephane is great, he has many really great teas for sale. I keep going back and forth on some tea wares he has, very tempting.

---

To the folks talking about bag tea, lovely black tea with milk, &etc, you're killing me. A bunch of people have mentioned Upton in the past few pages - get some Belseri Estate Assam, or Mincing Lane Blend if you like a little smoke in your blacks, a tea sock, and make proper tea. It's not loving hard. If you're making water in the microwave, make the water first, pour it over the tea, steep about 20% longer, and you'll make OK tea. But, really, a water boiler from Black and Decker can be had for about $15 from a hardware store, or get this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-K2070Y-Electric-Kettle/dp/B00023XCWS/ref=sr_1_6?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1334983786&sr=1-6

Then once the water is boiled, pour it over the tea, steep for 4-5 minutes (3 minutes for CTC or fannings grade tea - the Belseri Estate I recommend above is a CTC tea and works best at about 3.5 minutes). Then add the milk to the tea (or add the milk to the cup and pour the tea into the cup - don't steep the tea with milk).

It will be a revelation.

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings
So I've recently acquired a 'iced tea maker' which so far, has surpassed my expectations and made very nice iced tea- both from bag or loose.

Can anyone recommend some nice teas to use for ice tea? Flavored teas are fine, and I'm not a stickler for quality with iced tea as long as it is refreshing. Cheap would be best, I've been going through more tea than I'm used to, even brewing multiple times, as I'm no longer the only one drinking it. I'm not too sure about iced green tea though.

Hawkperson
Jun 20, 2003

I adore Adagio's raspberry tea iced. I also like peppermint.

pork never goes bad
May 16, 2008

I will again recommend Upton. Depending on the kind of tea you want, they have many good options, and even have an iced tea category, in fact.

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/catalog.asp?begin=0&categoryID=215

Comic
Feb 24, 2008

Mad Comic Stylings

pork never goes bad posted:

I will again recommend Upton. Depending on the kind of tea you want, they have many good options, and even have an iced tea category, in fact.

http://uptontea.com/shopcart/catalog.asp?begin=0&categoryID=215

:O Interesting, I've been meaning to order from them, anyway.

Thanks for the raspberry tea suggestion too, Hawkgirl, I think I may grab some of that next time I order from adagio.

Arcturas
Mar 30, 2011

I like Upton, and am a huge fan of their tiny sampler tins. I don't drink all that much tea, so it's a handy size, and I can always buy a bigger bag/tin from somewhere and use a labelmaker to repurpose the sampler tins.

My friend, on the other hand, is a big Tao of Tea fan, ever since he lived down the street from one of their stores. Having tried their website as well, I think I might be a convert. While it lacks some of the specificity of Upton (ordering exactly the ABCDOPLSDFJT Uplands Estate Tea from Western Abudabi or wherever), and that sucks, it is much more user-friendly and the more general descriptors are nice for a relative tea novice like myself.

I imagine as you get more into tea and have internalized the differences between teas, Upton is better, but for new folks I think I'll start recommending Tao.

Ravendas
Sep 29, 2001




Death Vomit Wizard posted:

Ravendas, going to Taiwan and loving Ten Ren Tea (that's how they spell their English name) is kind of like going to France and loving Carlo Rossi wine. All I can say is, you have an extraordinary opportunity now to learn everything about oolong (and puerh) tea. Stick with it, and one day you will wonder that you ever drank tea from Ten Ren (let alone from a teabag). The best thing you can do when starting out is try to make friends with an old Taiwanese guy. Or you could try meeting up with the Tea Masters guy.
Email me what city you live in, maybe we can meet up at a real tea shop some time - lonhig..at..gmail

I've lived in Taipei for almost 6 years now. I just mostly drink tea from vendors on the street, and stop in TenRen when I actually want some tea at home, just because it's a big friendly easy to shop in place.

Zelmel
Sep 17, 2004

O brain new world, that has such ganglia in't!

pork never goes bad posted:

If you're making water in the microwave, make the water first, pour it over the tea, steep about 20% longer, and you'll make OK tea. But, really, a water boiler from Black and Decker can be had for about $15 from a hardware store, or get this one from Amazon

Okay, I see this all over but really, how does microwaving your water boil it any differently than with some sort of flame or heating element? Not to call you out personally or anything, but I've tried looking around online for reasons on this, and so far most of them I've seen are total bullshit. I mean, yeah, it does make it hard to get accurate sub-boiling temperatures unless you want to wait for it to cool, but the only other reason I've seen that seems to have any grounding in actual science is the idea of superheating, which is really unlikely to happen with water that isn't distilled and/or isn't in a narrow container.

Doesn't it matter a whole lot more how the quality of your water is and what container you're boiling it in (so that it doesn't pull in flavor from its vessel or lose heat really quickly or the like)?

NihilCredo
Jun 6, 2011

iram omni possibili modo preme:
plus una illa te diffamabit, quam multæ virtutes commendabunt

The physical process is actually somehow different, I think it ends up causing uneven temperature through the body of water.

Empirically, all I know is that one morning I microwaved the water directly in the cup, then dropped a few leaves in the cup, and the water/leaves mixture immediately BURST OUT and spilled all over the table. Since then I've always remembered to either pour the water from a separate container or to stir the water first before putting the leaves in.

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pork never goes bad
May 16, 2008

Zelmel - the two primary reasons I tend to advise against microwave boiling are risk and the fact that most people do it directly in the cup. Typically when someone microwaves hot water, they pull out water at significantly lower than boiling point. This might work for green tea, for example, but for a proper black tea it doesn't make a good cup. Going all the way to boiling the cup is typically extremely hot, and the water can boil over rapidly once you hit it with a spoon, or even just rock the cup. The second issue is that you will typically add leaves to the cup, rather than pouring water over the leaves when using a microwave. The mechanical action of swirling, roiling water hitting leaves encourages more rapid saturation of the leaves with water, which results in more even extraction. You could solve this by using a microwave--proof jug, and then pouring the water into a mug, but you exacerbate the safety issue there, and again, typically people won't end up heating the water to a proper boil.

It's less that the microwave is inferior in any absolute sense, but for a good strong cup of black tea a proper kettle is much closer to foolproof.

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