How to brew the perfect cup of tea, according to scientists Wine News

However, there are ways to avoid the movie in the first place, suggests Kiran Tawadey, the tea expert behind Hampstead Tea. “We always recommend that you use filtered water for tea,” she explains. “It takes away all the movie activity and you get a nice clear cup of tea as long as you use high quality tea, that’s a huge variable. You get different origins from different countries with different levels of polyphenols.”

It might also be worth looking at how your tea is grown, says Tawadey. “Tea is an intensively cultivated crop these days and, for the record, I find that organic tea tends not to have this reaction with water, I don’t know why. It could be due to the very fines. particles of tea leaves. When people use tea dust, you get a film of dust which clumps with the hard water film and makes the problem worse, but if you use larger leaf tea, you will find much less. ”

The Zurich study found that the film only becomes visible after 30 minutes, so it pays to drink your tea while it is still hot.

Another way to thin the film or remove it entirely is to add a pinch of an acidic substance such as lemon or orange, Tawadey adds. “The calcium carbonate in the movie is alkaline, so adding an acid like a dash of lemon dissolves it,” she explains. But be careful what you add to your tea. “If you put lemon in an English breakfast with milk, you’ll just have a really disgusting cup of curd tea; it certainly wouldn’t work. Lemon is a specific flavor that won’t work with all teas, I definitely wouldn’t put lemon in an Asam tea. It’s delicious with an Earl Gray, I would prefer an orange in a Darjeeling tea.

This new research on the tea film is not the first attempt to codify ways to achieve the perfect blend. Here are some more tips for brewing the perfect tea …

The five-minute infusion method

According to Dr. Stuart Farrimond, an expert tea maker, the longer a tea is brewed, the higher its caffeine and antioxidant content. A tea steeped for 30 seconds contained 35 milligrams of caffeine, while a five-minute brew increased the figure to 50 milligrams. Leaving the tea bag on for the same period also doubled the level of antioxidants.

“Tea is a great source of antioxidants and these are natural substances that our body uses to fight disease, so it’s important to let it steep,” says Dr Farrimond.

Dr Farrimond cited four golden rules of tea. They are:

1. Never drink from a Styrofoam cup, which absorbs the flavor
2. Use a red or pink cup, which makes the drink sweeter
3. Filter the water, which removes calcium and magnesium residues, preventing the formation of scum
4. Infuse for five minutes

Be patient

In 2011, a study from the University of Northumbria found that it takes eight minutes to brew good tea. After eight minutes, the temperature of the tea drops to 60 ° C, the right heat to discover all the flavors at their best taste.

The method involves adding boiling water to a tea bag in a mug for two minutes before removing the bag and adding milk for six minutes. But the researchers stressed that it was crucial not to wait too long, 17 and a half minutes to be exact, as the tea would drop to 45 ° C, damaging the flavor.

The guide to the 11 rules

Author George Orwell was obsessed with tea. In January 1946, while Britain was still reeling from war, he published an 11-step guide to making the perfect comforting drink in the Evening Standard.

He insisted on bringing the teapot to the kettle rather than the other way around and encouraged tea drinkers to avoid sugar, which destroyed the flavor of the drink. “You could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in hot still water,” he joked.

And what about the first debate that divides tea or milk? Tea has always been the first for Orwell. “I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable.”