I'm a brit living in America.

[fesshole@mastodon.social]

I'm a brit living in America. At my office there's no kettle, but we have a hot water dispenser. Today it's broken. When I lamented I can't make a cup of tea, a colleague suggested I microwave the water. Trump is not the only thing that makes this place a hellscape.

[virbonus@sueden.social]

@fesshole Honest question: why not? The tea won't care how the water got hot.

[kc@social.coop]

@virbonus @fesshole because you’re the one that must live with yourself afterwards ?

[virbonus@sueden.social]

@kc @fesshole Use the microwave to boil water sometimes and live just fine, thanks for asking.

[dtm@mastodon.cc]

@virbonus

I wondered the same. It can’t affect the taste. Is it a principle thing? I boil a kettle on a stovetop every morning for coffee I make in a French press because that’s how I like to do it, but I’d microwave a cup of water for tea in a pinch.

Also don’t really trust the hot water from the tap. Idk why.

@fesshole

[cardboardfox@meow.social]

@fesshole I don't have a milk steamer anymore so I've been using the microwave to heat it up then using a spinny frother. It's really not that bad, but it doesn't heat up the liquid as hot as I'd want it for making tea.

[cassman@mastodon.social]

@dtm @virbonus @fesshole would you microwave the water for your coffee?

[dtm@mastodon.cc]

@Cassman

I don’t ever make a single cup of coffee so it’s never occurred to me to try, but at my old office I had a small 2 cup press and I used the instahot water dispenser because we didn’t have a kettle.

I suppose I would go by a cheap electric kettle and be done with it.

@virbonus @fesshole

[cassman@mastodon.social]

@dtm @virbonus @fesshole so.. same with the tea. Kettle is best.

[skjeggtroll@mastodon.online]

@dtm @virbonus @fesshole

It really _does_ affect the taste.

I suspect it's because boiling water in the microwave takes less time and doesn't induce convection currents so that the water retains more dissolved air than when boiled in a pot or a kettle, but that's just my personal theory.

(Re-heating a cold cup of tea in the microwave is fine.)

[dtm@mastodon.cc]

@skjeggtroll

I’ll accept the premise that you believe it tastes different regardless of whether that’s factually correct, and that’s enough.

Get an electric kettle, I say.

@virbonus @fesshole

[virbonus@sueden.social]

@Cassman @dtm @fesshole Again, why not? Hot water ist hot water. I've been known to microwave water for instant coffee in hotel rooms in emergencies, such as needing caffeine to make it to the breakfast room.

[virbonus@sueden.social]

@skjeggtroll @dtm @fesshole Sincerely doubt that. Solubility of air in water is a direct function of temperature. Of course one should make sure the water has time to equalize the temp.

[skjeggtroll@mastodon.online]

@virbonus @dtm @fesshole

Yes, but it takes time for the system to reach equilibrium. A bottle of soda doesn't immediately go flat when you open it, after all, but retains its fizz for some time afterwards.

[bernard_433@cupoftea.social]

@fesshole According to Mrs Beeton, you should be using water drawn freshly from the well to make tea ...

[mediocreman@mastodon.social]

@fesshole '"from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between" is most frequently attributed to Oscar Wilde and Georges Clemenceau' about a hundred years ago. And it still applyies. Long Live America. I was a Brit living in Chicago for a year. Return home to a country with pedigree and standards.

[mediocreman@mastodon.social]

@virbonus @fesshole Tea is more than Tea.

[oliver_schafeld@mastodon.online]

Damned internet. Now I need to conduct an experiment on the gustatory quality of #tea in conjunction with thermal preprocessing involving a stove pot, an electric kettle, and a microwave.

🫖 ️🧑‍ #science #humor

[dtm@mastodon.cc]

@skjeggtroll @virbonus @fesshole

This is the most Fediverse convo. The scientific quandary of boiling water using microwaves and the existential crisis of physics on the aesthetics of tea.

Judd Apatow tells the story of his mother when he was young. She was having financial difficulties after her divorce but still she went out and bought a Mercedes. Why, Judd asked? Why not get a Honda and have money left over?

“Because I’m not an animal,” she said.

[proedie@mastodon.green]

@virbonus @kc @fesshole Actually, using a microwave for heating small amounts of water (like one cup) is even more energy-efficient than using a kettle. It’s fine!