#tea science

[friday-tea]

Why do some tea ingredients work well together in a blend, but others do not? Take a minute and learn a bit about ingredient density to help you create your own unique flavors!

[friendofthecrows]

Continuing the tea experiment, London Fog edition to celebrate the start of fall 🍂(So, so yummy)

Highlights:

For the milk, a good food processor is better than an emulsifier or even a milk foamer.

This is my 4th batch I've photographed here, and you're going to use more milk than you think. 250mL for 1000mL tea.

For a more prominent tea flavor, the milk actually shouldn't stack up on up much at all, looking more like a thin foamy glaze of milk bubbles (the one pictured is a more milky one)

Make the tea and mix the non-milk materials in before you poor the milk in.

Use AT LEAST 4 grams of tea for 1000mL of water. I recommend 6 grams, 4 of Earl grey de la crème and 2 of lavender.

I didn't measure in grams (sorry) but I found the best honey amount is 2tsp for 1000mL. This is going to vary by taste.

Add almond milk. 5 drops per 1000mL.

And I cannot stress this enough add as much vanilla as you can fucking handle

Please feel free to repeat this experiment and give feedback! (I sure will (⁠*⁠´⁠ω⁠｀⁠*⁠))

[mechmagic]

Tea Kettles and Heat Transfer

HI! I am here to share with you all some heat transfer knowledge that you might find useful if you use a tea kettle a bunch and are sensitive to noise like I am or don’t enjoy the whistling going on for to long as you walk over to take the kettle off the heat source.

~Science-y Bit~

So one thing that isn’t often discussed when boiling water is sound. In the steps leading up to the actual “boiling” state (aka the “simmer”), the tiny air-pockets/bubbles are forming, expanding, and popping on the bottom of your pot/kettle of water. As the water approaches boiling this cycle increases in speed and quantity, resulting in louder noise being produced. When the boiling state is hit, the water has reached a relatively homogeneous temperature (it is nearly all the same types of hot) and the bubbles are now extremely large. If you are boiling water along with this explanation (idk), this is when the sounds suddenly cut back down to quiet. If you want a more science/ heat transfer heavy explanation please message me and I will hook you up with my class notes from ME 3345.

~TEA KETTLE APPLICATION~

Discussed above was the science side of what I am going to teach you about, reading it is not required. When you put a kettle filled with water on a heat-source, the water inside will start to make sound as it approaches boiling. It should get to around a medium level noise before it suddenly gets quiet, this indicates that the water inside is boiling! From my experiences,  the sound change to indicate boiling happens 30-60 seconds before the whistling does. And for sound-distance reference, I can pretty easily hear the kettle from my dining room from the kitchen. 

[highqueenseleni]

[betweenthebridges]

I'm going to put milk in my pomelo flavored rooibos tea and then i'm going to hipster tea hell for sure

[moonstalker24]

Morning Tea Science:

2 parts Gunpowder, 1 part Hibiscus, 1 part Baby Rose Buds (petals)

Steep for 4 1/2 minutes at 175 F

Result: Yum. Strong green with rose and a nice light sweet chaser. A beautiful deep pink when brewed. Scent has a pleasant rosy edge instead of the deep grassy scent gunpowder usually carries.

The sweet flavor carries over stronger when iced. Means it's very good hot or cold.

Needs no added sugars unless you like super-sweet tea.

Conclusion: Success! Definitely repeatable.

note: all ingredients from Souvia Tea

[kateifer-blog]

Moral of the story:

Don't let me drink tea with caffiene any time after like 8pm.  I will not sleep, ever.  At least I don't work until Thursday, so I won't be dead for work, at least.

In related news, I got my first Adagio fandom tea: The Mind and The Heart in the mail yesterday.  It's really good with a bit of brown sugar and honey.  I tried it with each individually, and then for the sake of tea science I decided to try it with both.

Experiment successful.