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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Monday, June 30, 2003 :::
Colby Cosh writes about tea. The (pdf-formatted) report on which he's commenting instructs one to put milk in one's cup before the tea (assuming you're the milk-tea sort), rather than after, so that less of the milk will contact the tea while the temperature exceeds 75 celsius. The milk-second crowd argues that one will be more likely to put in the wrong amount of milk, assuming that you'll completely fill the rest of the cup with tea. I suppose you could put some milk in first, then fill the cup, then add more milk as necessary. Or one can drink one's tea black and skip the whole fuss.
Anyway, the following point is also made.
Brew for typically 3 to 4 minutes (depending on the tea). It is a myth that brewing for longer times causes more caffeine to infuse into the tea. Caffeine is a relatively quick infuser and caffeine infusion is largely complete within the first minute. More time is, however, needed for the polyphenolic compounds (tannins) to come out which give the tea is colour and some of its flavour. Infusing for longer times than this, however, introduces high molecular weight tannins which leave a bad aftertaste.
I'd heard this in college -- that the caffeine tends to be leeched out early and the color/flavor come later. We would brew a late-night cup of tea with four teabags for fifteen seconds. Kept us up, it did.
::: posted by Steven at 1:12 PM
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