this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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xkcd

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No, of course we don't microwave the mug WITH the teabag in it. We microwave the teabag separately.

https://explainxkcd.com/3022/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Do Americans make tea in a kettle? Teabag inside the kettle?

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[–] LovableSidekick 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Patrick Stewart once said American tea was one thing he would never get used to. "For a proper cup of tea the water must be boiling when it hits the leaves." He really didn't like being brought a carafe of somewhat hot water with a teabag next to it. Even as an American I can relate.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I’m an American who drinks tea. I’d love to hear from our distant countrymen on how accurate this is.

[–] Darkard 24 points 1 day ago (3 children)

100% spot on. Microwaved tea is comparable I would say to microwaving a steak

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s foul. Cup of Tannin, more like.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

... wait, there are some americans who put the tea BAG in the microwave with the water?!?

I've MADE tea using a microwave before and it was ALWAYS "heating the water in the microwave, then adding the teabag to the hot water", it never even crossed my MIND to have the tea bag inside the microwave, and frankly that sounds AWFUL.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe, who knows? Reheating tea though is absolutely foul. Worse than reheating coffee, somehow, and reheating coffee is pretty bad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Why would you reheat tea in the first place? Just pour more boiling water in it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Preaching meet choir.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Close enough to zero to be a rounding error, I'd bet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I'm often on here telling stories if how evil my mother was, and now I know I can skip all the tedious rehashing of her many evil acts and just tell people she made tea by putting the tea bag in a mug of water and microwaving the whole thing.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

For a start, you don't make tea in a kettle, you boil the water in that, then either pour into a mug or a teapot

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I refuse to believe that Randall doesn't know how tea is actually made, so it has to be a meta-joke / troll.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

That’s how I do it. Electric kettle. Glass.

[–] Passerby6497 1 points 1 day ago

Jokes on you, my kettle comes with a built in steeper, so I make my tea in the kettle!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not British, but in my experience... accurate.

I mean, I'm also not British and am roughly aligned with this spectrum myself.

Look, if you can tolerate the absolute nonsense you hear from Americans about how to make coffee you can deal with me having a spice rack specifically to make tea.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What nonsense do you hear about making coffee?

Everyone has their own way, but there's no wrong way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I make coffee by drinking hot water, then chewing whole coffee beans and swallowing them. I then wash it down with milk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Eh, chocolate-covered coffee beans aren't bad, if they're reasonably fresh. That's not too different.

Really the only way you can do coffee wrong is if you boil it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

I got a free bag of those from the shop where I buy my coffee once. They're really nice. I absentmindedly worked my way through the bag that afternoon, wondered why I was feeling so ill, and then realised I had consumed about two pots of coffee in pure bean form

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My husband is Northern German, close enough to England that he was horrified at the thought of making tea in the microwave. And he doesn't even really drink tea when he's not sick.

[–] oncewhen 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ha, my sister lives in Germany and the weirdest thing she finds about German tea habits is that they only drink tea in winter, which I guess is kind of on a par with being sick. In the UK tea is a constant but in Germany it seems to be more of a special circumstances thing (illness, cold weather...). Even the person my sister buys her tea from shuts up shop in the summer because there's no market for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tea is an inefficient delivery system for caffeine. If there's no caffeine in it, it's a warm beverage that relaxes you. So why would the industrious German worker bee want to bother with tea bags when coffee is right there? Unless of course the bee is sick and needs to relax, doctor's orders, to get back to work as soon as possible. ;)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Austrian here and I too would never make tea in the microwave. (I too drink tea mostly when I am sick.)

[–] ClanOfTheOcho 5 points 1 day ago

Not perfectly relevant, but I've always enjoyed Professor Elemental's take on tea.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

is it even on the chart when my water cooler at home has a hot spigot that dispenses water at just the right temperature for tea brewing? it's basically like having a kettle that's always ready...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

In the neighboring State from where I live in Brazil, a lot of gas stations have publicly accessible hot water taps. Even some parks and plazas have them. It's for the Mate drinkers to refill their Thermos.

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[–] NickwithaC 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Needs to map sweet tea that the south enjoys.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So, where do I put my gaiwan on the spectrum?

[–] nandeEbisu 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For when you actually want 10 tiny cups of tea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Rookie numbers! Try 20-50 tiny cups.

[–] nandeEbisu 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

At some point you need to admit you're just drinking brown water and not tea anymore.

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