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An expert says you could be making your cup of tea wrong, missing out on the perfect brew.<\/p>\n
Chemist Dr Michelle Francl believes we should be adding a pinch of salt to scientifically reduce bitterness. She also says tea drinkers should be warming the milk up first to avoid curdling.<\/p>\n
The tips are in her book Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, reports The Daily Star. Dr Francl, of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, US, said: \u201cI enjoyed the challenge of explaining it in a way that people who are not chemists can appreciate the beauty of the chemistry happening and can use what they\u2019ve learned to make a great cup of tea.\u201d<\/p>\n
She claims to have analysed hundreds of years’ worth of wisdom to scientifically perfect a cup of tea. And she found the pinch of salt to be the optimal addition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This, she says, is because the \u201ckey element\u201d that is sodium ion \u201cinteracts with the chemical mechanism that produces the perception of a bitter taste\u201d. Her other top tips include eating up the cup, never using the same bag twice and never putting tea in a microwave.<\/p>\n
Figures show approximately 100million cups of tea are gulped down in Britain each day. The brew expert said her research gave her a \u201cchance to combine my love for chemistry and my delight in a really good cup of tea\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also found people in the past have tried to decaffeinate tea with vodka. The chemistry professor said: \u201cEven after all these years of drinking tea and doing research in chemistry, I learned new things about what is in my cup and how to make the very best cup of tea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read hundreds of research reports and tried everything from adding a dash of salt to a cup to trying to decaffeinate tea with vodka in my quest to understand how a cup of tea comes together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n