A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
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A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
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Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#2I personally follow the ISO 3103 standard when I'm brewing tea.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#3Also, the Royal Society of Chemistry: http://www.rsc.org/pdf/pressoffice/2003/tea.pdf
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#4it's a shame for such a distinguished person to make such an amateur mistake - point 10 is indeed answerable:
1. people who put the milk in first have become adept at adding exactly the right amount of milk to a cup of any size. It's a ubiquitous skill, learnt virtually as soon as the person begins drinking tea in this (proper) way. Orwell was clearly inexperienced.
2. adding the milk last requires simultaneous stirring to correctly assess the tea's consistency. This wasteful and complicated activity is not required when the milk is added first, as the milk is evenly mixed with the tea by the pouring process itself. This saves considerable time.
3. adding the milk to an already boiling cup of tea burns the milk, ruining the flavour of the tea.
However, a true tea lover would never soil their tea by adding milk in the first place.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#5it's a shame for such a distinguished person to make such an amateur mistake - point 10 is indeed answerable: 1. people who put the milk in first have become adept at adding exactly the right amount of milk to a cup of any size. It's a ubiquitous skill, learnt virtually as soon as the person begins drinking tea in this (proper) way. Orwell was clearly inexperienced. 2. adding the milk last requires simultaneous stirr…
One can become just as adept at stirring the correct number of times. Its a ubiquitous skill too.
Also, this myth about 'burning the milk' - I get my latte at 180 degrees, and the milk is not 'scalded' or 'burned' or any other thing - its just fine.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#6it's a shame for such a distinguished person to make such an amateur mistake - point 10 is indeed answerable: 1. people who put the milk in first have become adept at adding exactly the right amount of milk to a cup of any size. It's a ubiquitous skill, learnt virtually as soon as the person begins drinking tea in this (proper) way. Orwell was clearly inexperienced. 2. adding the milk last requires simultaneous stirr…
One can become just as adept at stirring the correct number of times. Its a ubiquitous skill too. Also, this myth about 'burning the milk' - I get my latte at 180 degrees, and the milk is not 'scalded' or 'burned' or any other thing - its just fine.
I suppose there is a prescribed direction of stirring?
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
One can become just as adept at stirring the correct number of times. Its a ubiquitous skill too. Also, this myth about 'burning the milk' - I get my latte at 180 degrees, and the milk is not 'scalded' or 'burned' or any other thing - its just fine.
I suppose there is a prescribed direction of stirring?
This depends entirely on which hemisphere said tea-maker is located.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#8I personally follow the ISO 3103 standard when I'm brewing tea.
As a collector of knowledge of limited utility and a lover of various kinds of tea you have just made my day.
I'm totally going to start telling people I use the ISO 3103 standard for my tea preparation.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#9it's a shame for such a distinguished person to make such an amateur mistake - point 10 is indeed answerable: 1. people who put the milk in first have become adept at adding exactly the right amount of milk to a cup of any size. It's a ubiquitous skill, learnt virtually as soon as the person begins drinking tea in this (proper) way. Orwell was clearly inexperienced. 2. adding the milk last requires simultaneous stirr…
One can become just as adept at stirring the correct number of times. Its a ubiquitous skill too. Also, this myth about 'burning the milk' - I get my latte at 180 degrees, and the milk is not 'scalded' or 'burned' or any other thing - its just fine.
The milk in a latte is typically gradually heated to its temperature, whereas when cold milk is added to hot tea, it changes temperature rapidly. This causes the Maillard Reaction, fundamentally changing its flavour. This is like the difference between cooking a steak at immediately high temperature vs gradually increasing temperature. Same resulting temperature but one is delicious and the other is brown and floppy.
Re: A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell (1946)
#10Orwell is silly. You want your tea strong? Certainly. You want your tea pure, tasting like tea? Definitely. You want your tea bitter? ... While I can appreciate that for anyone who has to deal with the exigencies of war and rationing there is no real alternative, really good tea, made from the better parts of the tea plant, is not bitter even when exceptionally strong. It does, however, taste wonderfully of tea.
Try the Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (aka "far too good for ordinary people") some time. :P