Is it really necessary to make tea with boiling water?

[Pints]

A few threads knocking about at the moment about kettles, how you make your tea, or whether milk is acceptable, etc.
What doesn't seem to be mentioned much, or in any sort of detail, is whether or not boiling water should be used to make a cuppa. The Tefal Quick Cup produces hot - but not boiling - water.

What's the consensus? Is boiling water a must-have for making a decent cup of tea? Should it be made on the boil, or is recently boiled preferred? Or should we be using 95C water produced by the Tefal for the perfect cup?

Over to you, the afficionados of sitting on your posteriors while drinking tea all day.

[scdan4]

oh yes.

preferably freshly drawn (not so sure about that bit, but my gran always insisted) but definately boiling water.

You can tell the difference.

It is hard to get a decent cup of tea "out" for this reason (among others) as many places use the hot water take off from a coffee machine. Ugh.

[Melman Giraffe]

I thought you could burn tea with boiling water

[tgr]

it's coffee that gets burned with boiling water. tea should be made as hot as you can get it, hence warming the pot

[Simpo Two]

Boiling for tea, not boiling for coffee as I understandd it (due to the volatile oils in coffee)

[Puggit]

Tea must must must must must be made with boiling water - there was a thread last week...

Anyone who puts milk in first is a muppet

[Plotloss]

See George Orwell's essay.

[VX Foxy]

Puggit said:

Tea must must must must must be made with boiling water - there was a thread last week...

Anyone who puts milk in first is a muppet

This. And the opposite for coffee

[AT]

Yes! We have one of those taps at work. It takes 1 min 20 seconds extra in the microwave to heat the water to boiling so you can get tasty tea.

[Wadeski]

depends on the tea - most green teas dont like boiling water. e.g. silver needle needs about 80 degrees C

[pugwash4x4]

iirc the perfect temp for coffee to release aromatics, create crema (obviously with pressure), but not burn the beans is 88c

the perfect temp for tea is 98c as it rehydrates the leaves properly and dissolves the aromatics

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3016342.stm is relevant

including "take the tea to the boiling kettle"

[Simpo Two]

pugwash4x4 said:

the perfect temp for tea is 98c as it rehydrates the leaves properly and dissolves the aromatics

Dissolves?


I leave you with this clever song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA

[davepoth]

Simpo Two said:

Dissolves?

There are lots of different "things" in tea that dissolve into the water. The nice bits leave the teabag quickly, the nasty bits later (hence stewing). For best effect for a "builder's tea", teabag in, boiling water in, milk in, (this drops the temperature sufficiently) stir to get the colour you want, then teabag out. It generally produces acceptable cups of tea regardless of how crap the tea is.

[Pothole]

boiling for sure. It's why canteen tea always tastes st

[Simpo Two]

davepoth said:

There are lots of different "things" in tea that dissolve into the water. The nice bits leave the teabag quickly, the nasty bits later (hence stewing).

Go for it; part of my degree was organic chemistry and biochemistry so I can go beyond nice and nasty

[whippy930]

Neither tea or coffee should be brewed (drawn) with boiling water- nothing to do with oils or any other such jibber jabber.... It just burns (shocks) it. Coffee should extract at between 87 and 92 degrees C. Tea a couple of degrees higher... Although the average consumer (in this part of the world) does enjoy tea to be "pipping" hot- take it from me, the flavours have not extracted as they could have if it had been brewed when a little cooler! Indeed - when "cupping" single origin coffee's or special tea's at our well renowned roastery (that's the bit that's supposed to tell you this is a bit more than a drunken opinion... :-) ) - we do so a little above Luke warm only... Flavours are at their very best here...

It's important to state this is for classic or "black" teas. Green or White tea's will certainly like being extracted (not dissolved???) at much lower temp.'s - they are very fragile!

For domestic use a good enough rule of thumb is count 30 secs after it clicks off boil and only then pour over either (black) Tea or Coffee....

All that said- make it how you like to drink it yourself dude.... :-)

HTH.

Edited by whippy930 on Sunday 17th July 04:41

Edited by whippy930 on Sunday 17th July 04:42

Edited by whippy930 on Sunday 17th July 04:44

Edited by whippy930 on Sunday 17th July 04:47

[Funk]

I had a Tefal One-Cup and it made a terrible cup of tea.

[Pints]

Funk said:

I had a Tefal One-Cup and it made a terrible cup of tea.

For how long did you let the tea draw?

[Simpo Two]

whippy930 said:

Neither tea or coffee should be brewed (drawn) with boiling water- nothing to do with oils or any other such jibber jabber.... It just burns (shocks) it.

I would suggest that oils, tannins, alkaloids many other things, are a damn sight more factual than 'shocks', which explains nothing... and burning is oxidation, if that's what you meant. Everything has proper explanation. Coffee has volatile oils in it which contribute to its flavour; boiling water causes some to evaporate. Milk is an emulsion of fat droplets in water; adding boiling water to milk can break that emulsion. ATETOD it's all molecules, so less jibber jabber please

[whippy930]

Hey simpleton two... It's your likes that stop me from posting in sections like this! It wasn't even you who used those terms above. Your a right little nettle... Go pick a fight with your nostril there... I bet you even look like mr burns too... What a dork ! Is being a dorkie nettle all you have to do on a Sunday morning?

Edited by whippy930 on Sunday 17th July 12:50