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.”

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    Ok.

    So make Tea in the microwave with plenty of salt.

    I got it. Brits, you good? Boffins? Cheerio, pip, pip?

  • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Hold on, about to have my morning cup o Yorkshire, will report back

    Edit - it kinda just makes it… rounder. Tea is supposed to be a little bit bitter, the salt makes the softer flavours more pronounced so it kinda stops tasting like tea

    Edit 2, second cuppa. Just realised the prof probably doesn’t realise that a pinch of salt is actually quite a bit, so I tried an actual tiny pinch. You know what, it actually does improve it a tiny bit, but no enough that I need more salt in my life.

    Does that daft cow not realise how much tea we drink? This is diabolical

  • chmod777
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    10 months ago

    “agitating the bag”

    If you want to create a better cup of tea at least begin with tea leaves, not tea bags.

    • Nacktmull
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      10 months ago

      I could not agree more. However, a lot of tea drinkers love their dust filled paper bags.

    • Kraiden@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Care to elaborate? I don’t see how having the leaves in a bag is inferior to having them loose

      • marquisalex@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        A decent guide to tea grades here. Even with higher end teabags, any tea dust created (e.g. if the teabag gets squashed) gets trapped inside the bag. The tea dust makes for a more bitter cup.

      • Nacktmull
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        10 months ago

        With very few exceptions the tea used in teabags is of much lower quality than loose leaf tea. Often it´s just fannings and dust, swept from the floor.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Somehow I doubt tea companies are sweeping dust off the floor and putting it in tea bags. C’mon.

          • Nacktmull
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            10 months ago

            I am not an expert but I have read about such practices again and again over the years. It´s also common knowledge that food companies do much, much worse things.

            Dust is what remains after the tea has passed through the grading machine. It is powdery in texture and is often swept off the floor. Dust is considered the lowest grade of tea.

            Source: https://teapeople.co.uk/pages/loose-leaf-or-teabags

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Tea in bags is pulverized while loose leaf tends to be intact leaves. It changes the flavor.

    • Nacktmull
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      10 months ago

      We are not talking about Tibetan butter tea salt levels here. In the article it is recommended to use just enough salt to tone down the bitterness by blocking the bitterness receptors on the tongue, not so much that the tea actually tastes salty.

      • Jajcus@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Yeah ‘make a better tea by making it taste less like a tea’. I have seen a lot of that from people who just don’t like tea.

        Though, for me that also include Brits, who spoil a good tea by adding milk ;-)

        • flicker@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I’ll Chime in with my two cents that my experience with coffee and a pinch of salt really cuts the bitterness…

          But I prefer bitter coffee so it’s wasted on me.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, seems silly to discount something you’ve never tried just because it isn’t what you’re used to, but hey, that’s the English way.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The bad point for the British is: The professor is actually right! At least on the accord with the salt.

    I don’t agree with her on another issue: She suggested to add milk after brewing. Nope. You don’t add milk at all. Or worse, lemon juice. Milk murders tea. It basically kills the more interesting chemicals by binding them into a mass that can’t be used by the digestive tract.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        As someone with diabetes, I decline. But I am actually not opposed to someone using sugar. It does not react with the essential ingredients. Just don’t overdo it, tea is not soda…

    • SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net
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      10 months ago

      Depends on the tea, some tea is to be made with milk, for example chai, and some can be made with lemon juice, but most teas are to be brewed and had as is

    • ndru@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You have piqued my interest on the thing of milk binding up beneficial chemicals. Can you elaborate?

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The classic answer is that milk proteins (like casein) react with some the tea proteins (like tannin) and form bonds that the human digestion track cannot process. Tannin in black tea is responsible for most the bitter taste, which is the primary reason why people add milk to tea in the first place, but it is also one of the ingredients that make tea the more healthier beverage choice.

        There is a scientific article I’ve read years ago that gave a lot more details, but with everything scientific behind f-ing paywalls nowadays, I could not find it again.

        But I found an article that adds another interesting twist to the topic that I had not heard before: Milk Casein Inhibits Effect of Black Tea Galloylated Theaflavins to Inactivate SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro.

        • ndru@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Thanks for taking the time to write that! I learned something new today. I usually take tea with oat milk, so now I’m curious what proteins oat milk has and if they act similarly. I’ll do some more reading.

          • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            While I doubt that oat milk has casein, as it is an animal protein, it might have other proteins that bind tannin in similar ways. Keep us posted!

  • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Kinda surprised this is just now coming up for tea drinkers. 3rd wave coffee nerds have been using saline solution to cut down on bitter flavors for like a decade now.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    LONDON (AP) — 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 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.”

    The product of three years’ research and experimentation, the book explores the more than 100 chemical compounds found in tea and “puts the chemistry to use with advice on how to brew a better cup,” its publisher says.

    She also advocates making tea in a pre-warmed pot, agitating the bag briefly but vigorously and serving in a short, stout mug to preserve the heat.


    The original article contains 398 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!