Every now and then, we at IFLScience write something that’s seen as a little controversial.
Science has a very particular definition of “best”:
That’s right. If you haven’t spat out your morning cuppa in horror at this point, then you’ll be able to discover that, by using the following method of tea making, you’ll get roughly 80 percent of the catechins from your tea, and 92 percent of the caffeine – far more than if you use the traditional kettle boiling technique.
1 – Put hot water in the cup with your teabag. So far, so normal.
2 – Then, plonk the teabag-filled container in the microwave and heat it for 60 seconds at 500 watts.
3 – Wait a minute, dunk the bag up and down 10 times, squeeze it out, then enjoy your brew, you heathen.
... it appears that a scientist by the name of Dr Quan Vuong, a researcher at Australia’s University of Newcastle, is the primary antagonist here.
Back in 2012, he actually looked into microwaving (green) tea and what it would do to the compounds inside the leaves. Based on careful chemical analyses, Vuong’s study concluded that the method above extracted far more nutrients than any other.
...
So there you have it – science does ruin everything.