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How to survive boiling water

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11–20 of 131 posts

Re: How to survive boiling water

#11
That was a fun read. The author has a really good storytelling style.

I dont understand why the cold brew test had fewer bacteria than the steeped teas. If the bacteria are shielded in spores, shouldnt it be expected that they have the same amount of bacteria?

Re: How to survive boiling water

#12

Cool story with an interesting ending (to me at least). Just a tiny nit... Should "Brewed as directed for 4 minutes in boiling water." be "Brewed as directed for 4 minutes in boiled water." Was the tea sitting in water that was boiling or placed in water that just boiled? The later is how I brew my teas.

Left in previously boiled water for 4 min. We can deduce this from the second sample, which simulates forgetting your tea bag in the mug for 15 min.

Re: How to survive boiling water

#13

That was a fun read. The author has a really good storytelling style. I dont understand why the cold brew test had fewer bacteria than the steeped teas. If the bacteria are shielded in spores, shouldnt it be expected that they have the same amount of bacteria?

I think it’s just that the bacteria in the hotter container woke up to a warmer, nicer environment. Warm temperatures are much better for bacterial growth. While it was too hot they didn’t seem to care at all since their spores protect them completely from damage.

Re: How to survive boiling water

#14

That was a fun read. The author has a really good storytelling style. I dont understand why the cold brew test had fewer bacteria than the steeped teas. If the bacteria are shielded in spores, shouldnt it be expected that they have the same amount of bacteria?

They could have some coating that make them stick to the content of the tea bag, basically affecting their solubility.

Re: How to survive boiling water

#15

Cool story with an interesting ending (to me at least). Just a tiny nit... Should "Brewed as directed for 4 minutes in boiling water." be "Brewed as directed for 4 minutes in boiled water." Was the tea sitting in water that was boiling or placed in water that just boiled? The later is how I brew my teas.

Isn't boiled water what goes up into the air?

Re: How to survive boiling water

#16
post #9

Another organism that survives pasteurization is paratuberculosis, in milk. It is commonly found in commercial dairy herds. In my opinion, this is alarming. Many consider it to be a candidate for the cause of Crohn’s disease. Johne’s disease, which occurs in a subset of cattle infected by paratuberculosis, bears many similarities to Crohn’s disease. When Crohn’s disease was first described, it was believed to be an i…

More good reasons to avoid the expensive poison water called milk

Re: How to survive boiling water

#17

So under most brewing conditions a nonzero amount of this microbe survive, but that count is 3 orders of magnitude lower what might be termed a “therapeutic dose?” What even is a good experimental design for probiotic tea? Brew -> agitate in hydrochloric acid & digestive enzymes for X minutes -> mix with billions of existing gut microbes (that may kill this microbe or out-compete it for resources) and incubate at bod…

The author does mention that a synthetic digestive system was used in another experiment, so you may be correct!

Re: How to survive boiling water

#18
Learning that MIT has an ancient bottle of rotting milk reminded me of my 9th grade science teacher. He had been teaching for decades and had a tremendously messy little office attached to his classroom. The pièce de résistance of his menagerie of scientific oddities was a large fish tank filled with many strata of mottled goos. I asked what it was and he said it used to be an ordinary aquarium, filled with fish and water, and he just left it alone for 20 years.

Re: How to survive boiling water

#19
A great read from the author. It reminded me of my previous life as a bioprocess engineer, where I led investigations into biologically contaminated batches in biotech. It was fun stuff and I still remember some of the best advice I received from an Executive Vice President to never underestimate a microbe.

On this subject, I once led an investigation in which Bacillus cereus somehow survived in situ media sterilisation for 30 minutes and >121.1°C, despite there being no cold spots. At the end we realised it was the bioburden load of a media component and water temperature used during compounding.

Re: How to survive boiling water

#20

That was a fun read. The author has a really good storytelling style. I dont understand why the cold brew test had fewer bacteria than the steeped teas. If the bacteria are shielded in spores, shouldnt it be expected that they have the same amount of bacteria?

Agreed - I really enjoyed the writing. I'd have normally skimmed for the conclusion but ended up reading it all. Shame that that's so rare these days.
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