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.”

  • chmod777@lemm.ee
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    9 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@lemm.ee
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      9 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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      9 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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        9 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@lemm.ee
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        9 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.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

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