You know, after that very video where Tennessee Titans QB Will Lewis not only puts mayo in his cup of coffee, but then drinks it with visible pleasure, I thought it would be difficult to surprise me with anything. As it turns out, reality always throws new ideas at us – each one crazier than the last. Even if the source of the idea is a respected college professor.
A few days ago, Michelle Francl published a book called Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, which examines in detail the methods of preparing the world’s most popular beverage from the point of view of a chemist. And one thesis from this book literally infuriated the Brits, who considered this almost a desecration of their national drink.
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This American chemistry professor recently published a book dedicated to tea-brewing through the eyes of a chemist
Image credits: Anna Stampfli (not the actual photo)
Let’s immediately put aside any doubts about the competence of the author – professor Michelle Francl is an honored and outstanding American scientist, and once was one of the 1000 most cited chemists around the world. Professor Frankl has been teaching chemistry at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania since 1986, and was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Philadelphia Section Award in 2019.
Image credits: Lorena Martínez (not the actual photo)
In this book, the author gives several wholesome pieces of advice for an ideal tea cup – but also urges us to add a pinch of salt in there
In her book, the author studied not only the chemical processes that occur when dried tea leaves come into contact with hot water, but also combed through many historical recipes for tea-brewing, in search of a kind of Holy Grail of all tea-lovers, the ideal cup of tea.
In particular, among the tips that Professor Francl gives are to use large tea bags so that the leaf fragments can move after being immersed in water, to pre-heat the cup before pouring the tea, and to use short, stout mugs (according to the author, they have less surface area, thus keep your tea hotter).
Moreover, the researcher even specifically addressed the British regarding the question of what to add first – tea or milk (Professor Francl claims that milk should be poured into tea to reduce the probability of its curdling). It would seem that you couldn’t ask for more! But British tea drinkers on X were outraged by the idea of adding a pinch of salt to their tea cups!
“Add a pinch of salt,” the author of the book wrote. “The sodium ion in salt blocks the chemical mechanism that makes tea taste bitter, especially when it has been stewed.” Period. The juggernaut of British national outrage over the desecration of their sanctuary on X was inexorably set in motion…
Image credits: USAinUK
People in the United Kingdom on X were literally outraged by such a ‘disgrace’ towards their national drink
Firstly, the residents of Albion, hurt in the best of feelings, demand that the Americans stop advising them how to properly brew their own national drink. Secondly, British tea-lovers consider adding salt to tea almost a form of perversion. Thirdly… probably two points will be enough.
Image credits: Calum Lewis (not the actual photo)
The U.S. embassy in London also joined the thread with a beautifully brewed cup of trolling
It even got to the point that the official X account of the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom entered the thread. The letter, the text of which was posted by the embassy’s SMM guys, contains an admission that adding salt to tea has never been (and never will be) American official policy, and that this is only the private opinion of one U.S. citizen. And the letter also states that “the U.S. Embassy will continue to make tea in the proper way – by microwaving it.” Oh, it would be better if they didn’t write this at all…
It seems that relations between the countries after this were literally on the verge of breaking. “America… You are Dangerously Close to Declaring War with us Brits!” one of the Britons wrote on X. “Also – We do appreciate you NOT using salt in your drink that you Hliariously call ‘Tea’. Proper Tea, (and we should know) is made with Boiled water from a Kettle. NOT F* ****G MICROWAVED.”
Well, great trolling from the embassy, probably referring us to this viral TikTok video. And the thread itself turned out to be funny, playing on the eternal contradictions between the Americans and the Brits. On the other hand, if we ignore British national pride, then many Asian peoples (where tea, in fact, takes its historical roots) have indeed been adding salt to tea for many centuries.
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Meanwhile, many nations in Asia actually have been adding salt to tea literally for centuries
For example, in Tibet, from time immemorial, a pinch of salt has been added to tea – precisely for the same purpose that Professor Francl writes about. And, for example, in Mongolia, there is the so-called ‘Suutei tsai’ – a traditional drink that is prepared on the basis of green tea and milk, with the addition of fat, salt, flour and rice. A description of this drink can be found in the chronicle of Guillaume de Rubrouck, a Flemish monk who visited the Mongol Empire in the mid-13th century.
Be that as it may, if I never dare to drink coffee with mayo, then a cup of tea with a pinch of salt… who knows? Probably, after this post is published, I’ll go and try to brew a drink like this, and then I’ll definitely share my impressions. In the meantime, you can also express your tastes and your point of view on this ‘dispute’ in the comments below.
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