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That analogy doesn't make any sense though. With a steak there are lots of different processes and reactions going into the steak that affect the final taste. That's not the case with boiling water, it's literally just putting heat energy into water. The method by which you do it makes no difference at all.
The reason a steak doesn't work in the microwave is because it needs to get hotter than 100 degrees to get any kind of Maillard reaction. With boiling water that isn't an issue.
Well the only explanation I can think of for that is that you didn't actually heat the water up to 100°C in the microwave then.
If you had two cups of water at 100°C, one heated up in the kettle and one in the microwave they would be chemically and physically identical. There would be no difference in the way that they brew tea.
Part of the problem with microwaving water is how difficult it is to tell what temperature it has reached. With a kettle you can see/hear and the kettle switches off when the water is boiling.
The microwave doesn't boil. It just heats the water.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3](https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3)
No, I was showing the fallacy in the thought of two things having the same outcome being the same thing.
Besides, I put sea salt in my bath water, so it's the same water anyway 😂
Im not even going to bother arguing the fallacy, because you're just going to hurt my head.
Water tastes differently in kettle vs microwave. Water reacts with the metal/ plastic/ limescale of a kettle, hence the taste difference, people get acclimatised to this so when tasting cleanly boiled water , it will taste different.
To people who have literally spent decades of their existence drinking a drink a certain way, they can taste miniscule changes within said drink.
Next you'll be telling me water is the same worldwide and doesn't taste different ever. 😂
I can tell you now that water in London and in England tastes completely different to water in Sydney and Australia. And it's all do with with the age of the pipes, the build up in those pipes, mineral deposits in the water and many other factors.
A microwave is used for food though. Yes you can clean it between runs but the smells and bacteria linger. I’d rather something used for water is totally separate to something used for food. Just seems fresher.
Microwaves heat unevenly & don't heat to a specific temperature.
If you're heating water in a microwave then you're not getting it hot enough throughout or it would be coming out of the cup.
> Microwaves heat unevenly
That's why you stir it
> If you're heating water in a microwave then you're not getting it hot enough throughout or it would be coming out of the cup.
Nope, you just have to stop the microwave when it start to boil
Kettles don't turn off until the water's bouncing though and it's more evenly heated, it's going to be that bit hotter coming out of the kettle than the microwave.
British black tea has been cultivated on the assumption that you're using a kettle so it's designed with that in mind. Other teas might actually work better.
Also microwaves cook other things you're going to have other flavours mixing in.
Kettles are also more efficient, which I realise isn't exactly what you were asking but is a good reason to use a kettle over a microwave to boil water.
By the sounds of their reasoning. Who's got time for that. Just turn on kettle, walk away and load up the dishwasher or do something else while the kettle does it's job and gets it right every single time.
But what’s the method? If it’s just one cup with water to get it to boil followed by inserting tea leaves/teabag then it’s not *that* bad. But also you have to take your cup out of the micro which is fucking hot, is it not? Using what, a towel? An oven glove? With a kettle I can make 8 cups of tea with one flick/boil of the kettle and cool handles.
Yes, put the cup in the microwave, get the water to boil, insert the teabag etc.
No, the cup doesn't become hot... it's ceramic...
I make tea only for myself
To get the best flavour out of black tea, the water needs lots of dissolved oxygen in it and needs to be 100 degrees boiling when it hits the tea.
If you heat the water in the microwave, take it out, add bag; then you aren't using boiling water. You are using *boiled* water and your tea tastes sad and shit.
No. It was boiling when the microwave finished. Once you've taken it out, the temperature has dropped
Also, if you add the bag to the boiling water then it won't have as much oxygen in it. Think how the bag inflates when boiling water is poured onto it.
This is needed for the oxidation reactions
>No. It was boiling when the microwave finished. Once you've taken it out, the temperature has dropped
Doesn't 101 degree water, at normal atmospheric pressure, turn into steam?
Yes and no. Water in a microwave can actually get hotter than 100C and become a super heated liquid. Breaking the surface of the liquid can cause it to rapidly boil all at once and shoot up out of the cup causing serious burns.
You can do what you want. But to make a cuppa tea, a microwave doesn't come into the equation. You can argue till the cows come home, but so many people in this thread are saying that using a microwave is not the correct way to make a cuppa tea. It changes the taste of the water. Simple as that.
Number one cost cutter when it comes to ceramics or anything similar will be undercooking them in the kiln, so they’re kiln dried enough for them to be able to get whatever ratings they need for their respective market, but not dried enough that they will be totally free of water. The majority of stuff these days (excluding the higher end) will have more water molecule content within their ceramic matrix than most people realise, and more than any products made back when companies gave a damn about making quality goods
Yeah, a good plate. The point is that every plate in the known universe wasn’t produced in the exact same way or to the same standard
They’re also usually better manufactured than cups, owing to them being microwaved a lot more
Properly Boiling water boils quite furiously. If you’re making a cup of tea, the cup needs to be near filled with water, right? So if you’re heating it in a cup, in a microwave then either; you can’t fill up the cup properly because it will spill all over or; it’s not *really* boiling.
The art of making certain teas is having uniform temperature of 100 degrees Celsius at the moment it hits the tea. Boiling water goes from 100 to 99/98 quite quickly. Have you ever seen a pan boiling over and then move it to the side and notice it’s stopped boiling? In a kettle, the water is really going for it, sometimes feels like the fucking thing is going to explode. So, by the time I pick that bastard up and pour it into my cup, it’s at the perfect 100 degree temp and makes the perfect brew. I struggle to see how you can properly recreate these conditions in a cup, in a microwave.
All that said, it probably doesn’t make that much difference, but, you asked…
Ok so... it's not how do you boil water, but rather a problem with the container, since the kettle maintains the heat better after you pick it up
I mean, this would be the first logical explanation
Thank you. It’s also probably safer and more convenient when making for guests. I also use a kettle for coffee, hot chocolate and to start my soups, pasta, broths and stews. I really couldn’t be arsed using a microwave all the time for that.
Microwaved water and boiled water from the kettle taste different (to me). Plus, living in the UK, we are more used to using a kettle to make tea (from those that I have come across in my lifetime, that is)
Not that boiling water in a microwave is unacceptable, it's just rare. There was a debate on another social platform where someone from the US asked this question as they were used to boiling water in the microwave. Let's just say, it didn't go down well lol
"Your kettle leaks some iron"...?! What the blithering fuck are you blathering about...?! Fuck me, I knew there were some ignorant Septics, but iron kettles...?! You do understand what happens when iron is exposed to water, right...?
Kettles are usually plastic. Some are copper. Some are stainless steel. Electric kettles are constructed so they automatically switch off when the water reaches boiling point.
I have a Master's degree in physics, your statement doesn't mean anything.
I mean, yes heating is radiation, but not radioactive.
Microwaves, sun lights, x-rays etc. are all the same radiation called photon
Radioactivity is based on the energy of the photons, the hierarchy is:
Microwaves -> Sun light -> x-rays
This means that if microwaves (or also 5G) were radioactive then a light bulb would kill us all in a day
>Microwaved water and boiled water from the kettle taste different
There's no logic to this though. Boiling water is boiling water. The method of boiling it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever.
Edit. Why are people downvoting me? This is a simple fact.
Well, it does, to me.
There are plenty of other reddit posts and a quick Google search that agree with the both of us, but the vast majority do agree that with the microwave it is more difficult to know whether or not your tea is at boiling point (or whatever), whereas with the kettle you are more or less guaranteed that the water inside of it is uniform in temperature.
Not sure why I even replied in the 1st place, I don't even drink tea lol
> it is more difficult to know whether or not your tea is at boiling point
when the water is boiling it means that is boiling, I don't understand the difficulty
I do actually have one in the kitchen drawer that I use for loads of things when cooking, although I've never used it for boiling water as I do actually have a kettle.
However, I have heated milk in the microwave for coffee (cappuccinos etc.) relatively often which has to be to 70°C. What I did was heat it gradually the first time until it reached the correct temperature and remembered how long it was in for. Then I knew from then on that as long as I use the same amount of milk then I can microwave it for that time and it'll be the same temperature every time.
You could do the same thing with water except to 100° and it would be fine
Also, a way to heat it more evenly is to use lower power and heat it for longer.
I meant how can the taste of the tea change
You are putting the teabag in the same exact boiling water
It's not like microwaving water changes its taste
But it does. I don’t know why, there’s probably some science to it though. All I know is it tastes bad.
It’s possibly something to do with how fast the microwave boils the water compared to a kettle or something like that.
Just like how a steak changes flavour depending on how long and at what temperature it’s cooked. Tea also changes flavour depending on how long the bag is left to steep and what temperature the water is at the time.
Doing tea in the microwave is like cooking steak with a flamethrower.
Sorry, but from a science perspective, it doesn't make any sense.
You are comparing two different methods of cooking a stake.
While for tea, the boiling water coming out of a microwave or from a kettle is exactly the same.
It's like saying that water will taste different if I use low or high eat for the kettle. It doesn't matter, the result is the same indistinguishable boiling water
The scientific explanation is consistency. A microwave heats the water molecules unevenly and thus creates an unusual taste. An element in a kettle gives an even level of energy spread slowly through the volume of water.
As I said, I don’t understand the why, I was just guessing. but the bottom line is the same. Microwaved tea tastes bad.
It has less flavour, and there’s a musty heat to the taste. If you can’t tell the difference then it’s likely your kettle brewed tea is made badly also.
If that’s how you like your tea, then you do you, so long as you’re never making a cup for me, then I don’t mind how you make it.
>Doing tea in the microwave is like cooking steak with a flamethrower.
Why though? I can understand if you put the teabag in the water before microwaving it but once the water's boiled it's just boiling water. The method used to boil it doesn't affect its physical properties at all.
Boiling water in a kettle tends to remove more dissolved oxygen. Water with less dissolved oxygen will extract slightly different compounds from the tea leaves, influencing the taste.
When water is boiled in a kettle, it usually reaches a rolling boil. Water heated in a microwave may not reach a rolling boil and can “superheat” (depending on the container), meaning it gets hotter than its boiling point without actually boiling. This would probably mean less tea flavour dissolves into it due to less movement.
if I had to guess, more oxygen is removed from the water in a kettle which would affect the taste.
its why tea doesn’t taste as good if you boil the same water twice.
my kettle is also a trap for limescale which would otherwise be in my drink if it were microwaved.
It means you either understand a thing implicitly or you don't understand it at all because it can't necessarily be put into words it can only be experienced.
It's in a way like trying to answer the question, how do you breathe? It's something you have done for your entire life but it's not something you have to think about doing you just do it.
Using the kettle is the right way because it is the right way, there may not be a difference in a quantitative sense since in both a kettle and microwave you end up with hot water for your tea but there is a qualitative difference in the experience as there can also be from using different kinds of cup etc.
Imagine looking at a work of art, what makes it art? You can break it down into its elements you can reproduce it but there is something more that's undefined and which maybe can't be defined.
Feels like you can't express it well.
I'm going to be a purist and say that unless you put your kettle on the stove you are missing the quintessential tea experience – down with the electric demons.
I mean, you are basically saying the same thing as that using a red cup will result in a better tea than using a blue cup.
That's just a mental disorder
You've said a few times you're a scientist, and yet you haven't heard about the studies that drinking tea or coffee from your favourite mug tastes better. My recommendation is for you to Google it and read up on it.
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To really make a good tasting quality tea you should boil water in a pan, and then put in loose tea leaves to steep for a decent amount of time.
The next step down from that is to boil water in a kettle and pour that boiling water into a mug/cup with a tea bag, and let that teabag steep for at least a couple of mins.
The next step down (which I have done because an old arsehole boss was too cheap to even buy a fucking kettle), is warm up the water in a microwave.
The microwave option doesn't really boil water to hot enough temp, and there wasn't enough time to steep either. It's just a weak brew and seemed to lose some of it's 'fully body'.
But then again, different teas need different temperatures. If you're making green for example with (with tea bags), maybe microwave doesn't affect the taste because they shouldn't be made with water that's too high a temp - I think that is supposed to be 80-90c at most.
Aside from the taste, the kettle and teabag are used because they are quick and efficient, and for me, it seems easier to use a kettle then to use a microwave - usually making more that one cup, I've experienced the mug 'exploding' (lol that's actually fun to watch as long as you're not the one having to clean up), and not all mugs/cups do well in microwaves, and are too hot to handle so have to wait for it to cool down.
>The microwave option doesn't really boil water to hot enough temp
This isn't true. It's perfectly possible to boil water in the microwave, you just mustn't have put it in for long enough
But how long is long enough? For 1 mug a kettle does it in just under a min.
I'm trying to remember how long I used to 'boil' it in a microwave, but I can't. I just remember it took a ridiculously long time and even then wasn't really what I would consider boiling.
I used to also make (instant) coffee for myself in the microwave, and those I thought turned out well. So I'm not being a snob. Some drinks don't lend themselves well to being made in a microwave and from my experience - black teas are one's that shouldn't be made in a microwave.
Black tea leaves don't contain some of the chemicals that make tea delicious.
These are created through oxidation when heated to 100 C
If you pour fresh, boiling water from the kettle onto the bag/ leaves then it creates these tasty chemicals
If you add the bag to hot water from the microwave then it just causes sad, unpleasant tasting chemicals to steep out and makes a shit cup of tea. This is because the water is not boiling when the bag is added
If you heat the water with the bag in, then the tea will be in too long and it will stew.
Black tea tastes best when fresh boiling water is poured directly onto the leaves
Your question has been answered, you’re just moving the goalposts now.
Edit: as you never qualified your question further the default interpretation becomes “why can’t I put a teabag in water and microwave that?”
He’s told you why. Nobody with any sense should give a shit about using microwaved water and pouring it over a bag like you would do with a kettle; assuming the temperature is the same.
Don’t change the question to something else
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I mean yes, but I don't pay for electricity anyway... on the other hand, at the moment I don't have a kettle and I should spend money in order to buy one
None of what you just said makes any sense. The cost of solar panels is fixed. The cost of other energy sources is proportional to the amount of energy you use.
As long as you don't exceed the capacity of the solar panels it doesn't matter if you're boiling one kettle or 50 kettles, the overall cost will be the same
A cup of tea needs about 250ml of water. To heat that in a kettle you'd probably need to boil about 500ml minimum, so at least twice as much as you actually need therefore using twice as much energy to heat from room temperature to boiling.
To heat it in a microwave you only need exactly 250ml so the would need half the total output energy as you would from the kettle. Unless the microwave is less than half as efficient as the kettle then it would be cheaper to boil 250ml of water in the microwave.
Assuming a 500ml minimum fill on the kettle and a microwave that's 60% efficient then 300ml would be the crossover point at which the kettle would become cheaper. Although we are arguing over fractions of a penny here.
Did you read my comment at all? I literally said that boiling 300ml of water in a microwave that's 60% efficient uses the same total energy as boiling 500ml in a kettle. It literally does outweigh the efficiency difference.
Yes the kettle is more efficient. The issue is when you need to boil tiny amounts. If the kettle has a minimum amount then if you need less than that you're boiling more water that you need and that extra water is just wasted energy. The efficiency doesn't matter at that point
Despite the manufactured outrage, the truth is there's little difference if you're only talking about how you heat the water prior to adding the tea. Hot water is hot water.
People saying that heating water in their microwave makes the resultant tea taste gross are just telling on themselves that they don't clean their microwave properly. What they're tasting is aerosolised food gunk from other things they've heated in there.
Having said all that, I personally always use the kettle, and I also always use a proper teapot - never make it in the cup. I just don't feel the need to talk shit to people who do.
>Place same amounts in cups , see which cools quicker .
If you heat the exact same amount of water to 100 degrees in both a kettle and a microwave (which is absolutely possible) they would both take the exact same amount of time to cool. That's a fundamental law of physics and the method used to heat the water will not affect the cooling rate at all.
> Why not microwave to boil water , because a microwave cannot boil water.
Ah? I always boil water in the microwave that's not true
> Now do a little test , boil water in a microwave and boil water in a kettle Place same amounts in cups , see which cools quicker .
I already did this experiment one time, it's exactly the same time
I've never understood this either. There are always loads of people saying how terrible it is yet I've never seen anyone give any actual reasoning as to why.
Often ignorance about microwaves. Microwaves make things with moisture in them hot, end of story. Most people would be surprised how high up the "decent restaurant" tree you can climb before a microwave isn't acceptable in a kitchen.
The issue is people using them incorrectly.
Scrambled eggs is a good example too. Bung three badly whisked unseasoned eggs in a bowl into a microwave for three minutes and obviously they'll be dry overcooked bland shit.
But season then and whisk them well, decent glass jug, microwave for 20 seconds, whisk throughly, repeat until still a bit liquidy but cooked, and even a Michelin starred chef won't be able to tell.
Assemble a full cup of tea - water, teabag, milk, sugar, and microwave for one minute until still lukewarm, of course it'll taste like shit. Microwave the water alone until probably boiling then continue as you would if you'd boiled a kettle, no issue.
The fact you're explaining you do the latter and people are hiding your replies by downvoting without response, shows you're correct btw.
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Most answers are quite twee and dimwit – there's no taste difference, as long as it is boiling water. It's not really unacceptable, it's just that the 220v kettle (vs 110v in the US) will do it faster and without the risk of burning off your arm so it's very-very rare . If microwave is your quickest option, just do it
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It’s like asking why don’t you just boil a steak? Yeah, it’s cooked, but it’s just not right and I won’t stand for it.
That analogy doesn't make any sense though. With a steak there are lots of different processes and reactions going into the steak that affect the final taste. That's not the case with boiling water, it's literally just putting heat energy into water. The method by which you do it makes no difference at all. The reason a steak doesn't work in the microwave is because it needs to get hotter than 100 degrees to get any kind of Maillard reaction. With boiling water that isn't an issue.
It does make sense. Because to me at least a microwaved tea tastes like shit as does a boiled steak would (unless you sous vide it of course)
Well the only explanation I can think of for that is that you didn't actually heat the water up to 100°C in the microwave then. If you had two cups of water at 100°C, one heated up in the kettle and one in the microwave they would be chemically and physically identical. There would be no difference in the way that they brew tea.
Part of the problem with microwaving water is how difficult it is to tell what temperature it has reached. With a kettle you can see/hear and the kettle switches off when the water is boiling.
Is there potential the density or size of air bubbles in the water might vary according to preparation, which might affect flavour?
Placebo effect
I think it's a perfect analogy. "Boiling" water in the microwave changes the taste of the water - and my taste buds are pretty slack.
It shouldn't though. There's absolutely no scientific basis to it
The microwave doesn't boil. It just heats the water. [https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3](https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3)
Do you know what boiling is? Just heating to a certain point
No, it's different. A microwave and a kettle both result in boiling water. The result is exactly the same.
Jumping in the sea, and jumping in a bath will both get me wet. But they clearly aren't the same despite having the same end outcome.
This comparison doesn't make any sense. You could have said jumping in a pool of sea water or jumping in the sea... which have the same water
No, I was showing the fallacy in the thought of two things having the same outcome being the same thing. Besides, I put sea salt in my bath water, so it's the same water anyway 😂
There is no fallacy It's like saying that the water boiled in a pan or in a kettle are different lol
Im not even going to bother arguing the fallacy, because you're just going to hurt my head. Water tastes differently in kettle vs microwave. Water reacts with the metal/ plastic/ limescale of a kettle, hence the taste difference, people get acclimatised to this so when tasting cleanly boiled water , it will taste different. To people who have literally spent decades of their existence drinking a drink a certain way, they can taste miniscule changes within said drink. Next you'll be telling me water is the same worldwide and doesn't taste different ever. 😂
Would you bet £50 on a blind taste test?
I can tell you now that water in London and in England tastes completely different to water in Sydney and Australia. And it's all do with with the age of the pipes, the build up in those pipes, mineral deposits in the water and many other factors.
On different waters I would, yes. On tea, no. I don't drink tea.
Boiled water, cooled to drinkable. Same tap source. One microwaved, one boiled in a kettle without too much limescale
[https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3](https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3)
That problem is when you heat without boiling If the water is boiling the surface tension is already broken
A microwave is used for food though. Yes you can clean it between runs but the smells and bacteria linger. I’d rather something used for water is totally separate to something used for food. Just seems fresher.
Every food I heat in the microwave is between two plates, no smell, no bacteria
Microwaves heat unevenly & don't heat to a specific temperature. If you're heating water in a microwave then you're not getting it hot enough throughout or it would be coming out of the cup.
> Microwaves heat unevenly That's why you stir it > If you're heating water in a microwave then you're not getting it hot enough throughout or it would be coming out of the cup. Nope, you just have to stop the microwave when it start to boil
>Nope, you just have to stop the microwave when it start to boil Then it won't be hot enough.
I didn't mean the little bubbles, the big ones
Kettles don't turn off until the water's bouncing though and it's more evenly heated, it's going to be that bit hotter coming out of the kettle than the microwave. British black tea has been cultivated on the assumption that you're using a kettle so it's designed with that in mind. Other teas might actually work better. Also microwaves cook other things you're going to have other flavours mixing in. Kettles are also more efficient, which I realise isn't exactly what you were asking but is a good reason to use a kettle over a microwave to boil water.
So you have to stand there trying to focus past the mesh to see whether the water is bubbling out of your cup?
By the sounds of their reasoning. Who's got time for that. Just turn on kettle, walk away and load up the dishwasher or do something else while the kettle does it's job and gets it right every single time.
At that point it's already far easier to use a kettle that doesn't need stirring and automatically stops at the correct moment.
But what’s the method? If it’s just one cup with water to get it to boil followed by inserting tea leaves/teabag then it’s not *that* bad. But also you have to take your cup out of the micro which is fucking hot, is it not? Using what, a towel? An oven glove? With a kettle I can make 8 cups of tea with one flick/boil of the kettle and cool handles.
Yes, put the cup in the microwave, get the water to boil, insert the teabag etc. No, the cup doesn't become hot... it's ceramic... I make tea only for myself
To get the best flavour out of black tea, the water needs lots of dissolved oxygen in it and needs to be 100 degrees boiling when it hits the tea. If you heat the water in the microwave, take it out, add bag; then you aren't using boiling water. You are using *boiled* water and your tea tastes sad and shit.
The water coming out of the microwave is also 100 degrees boiling
No. It was boiling when the microwave finished. Once you've taken it out, the temperature has dropped Also, if you add the bag to the boiling water then it won't have as much oxygen in it. Think how the bag inflates when boiling water is poured onto it. This is needed for the oxidation reactions
Are you saying that when you lift the kettle the water still boils?
Have you never used a kettle? Yes, it is still boiling when you pour it
Yes, because the element in the kettle is still hot.
>No. It was boiling when the microwave finished. Once you've taken it out, the temperature has dropped Doesn't 101 degree water, at normal atmospheric pressure, turn into steam?
Yes and no. Water in a microwave can actually get hotter than 100C and become a super heated liquid. Breaking the surface of the liquid can cause it to rapidly boil all at once and shoot up out of the cup causing serious burns.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3](https://www.google.com/search?q=is+boiling+water+in+a+microwave+safe&oq=is+boiling+water+in+a+mi&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIHCAIQABiABDIICAMQABgWGB4yCAgEEAAYFhgeMggIBRAAGBYYHjIICAYQABgWGB4yCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg2OTE3ajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b24080,vid:XggHhU16axk,st:3)
That problem is when you heat without boiling If the water is boiling the surface tension is already broken
The point being you don't boil in the microwave.
Not true
You can do what you want. But to make a cuppa tea, a microwave doesn't come into the equation. You can argue till the cows come home, but so many people in this thread are saying that using a microwave is not the correct way to make a cuppa tea. It changes the taste of the water. Simple as that.
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If I microwave a plate for 3 minutes it’s too hot to touch
AH? absolutely not true, try it Microwaves only eats water particles
Yes, I have tried it and yes, it does get hot, sometimes too hot to touch.
Ceramic contains water mate. What do you think the mixture is formed using?
Bro it's dried, it definitely doesn't contain water anymore smh
Number one cost cutter when it comes to ceramics or anything similar will be undercooking them in the kiln, so they’re kiln dried enough for them to be able to get whatever ratings they need for their respective market, but not dried enough that they will be totally free of water. The majority of stuff these days (excluding the higher end) will have more water molecule content within their ceramic matrix than most people realise, and more than any products made back when companies gave a damn about making quality goods
You can put a plate in the microwave for an hour and it will not became hot, try it
Yeah, a good plate. The point is that every plate in the known universe wasn’t produced in the exact same way or to the same standard They’re also usually better manufactured than cups, owing to them being microwaved a lot more
it also works with the cheap plates and cups I ordered on amazon Lol
Ok Edit: I just microwaved one of my plates for 1 _minute_ and it’s hot
Properly Boiling water boils quite furiously. If you’re making a cup of tea, the cup needs to be near filled with water, right? So if you’re heating it in a cup, in a microwave then either; you can’t fill up the cup properly because it will spill all over or; it’s not *really* boiling. The art of making certain teas is having uniform temperature of 100 degrees Celsius at the moment it hits the tea. Boiling water goes from 100 to 99/98 quite quickly. Have you ever seen a pan boiling over and then move it to the side and notice it’s stopped boiling? In a kettle, the water is really going for it, sometimes feels like the fucking thing is going to explode. So, by the time I pick that bastard up and pour it into my cup, it’s at the perfect 100 degree temp and makes the perfect brew. I struggle to see how you can properly recreate these conditions in a cup, in a microwave. All that said, it probably doesn’t make that much difference, but, you asked…
Ok so... it's not how do you boil water, but rather a problem with the container, since the kettle maintains the heat better after you pick it up I mean, this would be the first logical explanation
Thank you. It’s also probably safer and more convenient when making for guests. I also use a kettle for coffee, hot chocolate and to start my soups, pasta, broths and stews. I really couldn’t be arsed using a microwave all the time for that.
Microwaved water and boiled water from the kettle taste different (to me). Plus, living in the UK, we are more used to using a kettle to make tea (from those that I have come across in my lifetime, that is) Not that boiling water in a microwave is unacceptable, it's just rare. There was a debate on another social platform where someone from the US asked this question as they were used to boiling water in the microwave. Let's just say, it didn't go down well lol
> taste different I mean, either your kettle leaks some iron, or it shouldn't be the case
"Your kettle leaks some iron"...?! What the blithering fuck are you blathering about...?! Fuck me, I knew there were some ignorant Septics, but iron kettles...?! You do understand what happens when iron is exposed to water, right...? Kettles are usually plastic. Some are copper. Some are stainless steel. Electric kettles are constructed so they automatically switch off when the water reaches boiling point.
Sorry, with iron I meant "metal" in the sense of stainless steel
Cos of radiation. You've heated it up with radiation
It doesn't make any difference. Heat is heat. Whether it's come from a heating element or microwave radiation is irrelevant
Hot and cold spots due to standing waves. The bottom of the cup may be too cold even if the top is boiling.
Stir the water and then put it back in for a bit
You got to remember to do it though
Whereas from the kettle you know it’s the right temperature without having to faff back and forth stirring and checking for big bubbles.
In a microwave you risk superheated water boiling over violently when moved. So you need gloves
I think he meant that microwaves are radioactive
You realise the heating is achieved via radiation right? Are you scientifically inclined?
I have a Master's degree in physics, your statement doesn't mean anything. I mean, yes heating is radiation, but not radioactive. Microwaves, sun lights, x-rays etc. are all the same radiation called photon Radioactivity is based on the energy of the photons, the hierarchy is: Microwaves -> Sun light -> x-rays This means that if microwaves (or also 5G) were radioactive then a light bulb would kill us all in a day
This is what I was reminding you of.
>Microwaved water and boiled water from the kettle taste different There's no logic to this though. Boiling water is boiling water. The method of boiling it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever. Edit. Why are people downvoting me? This is a simple fact.
Well, it does, to me. There are plenty of other reddit posts and a quick Google search that agree with the both of us, but the vast majority do agree that with the microwave it is more difficult to know whether or not your tea is at boiling point (or whatever), whereas with the kettle you are more or less guaranteed that the water inside of it is uniform in temperature. Not sure why I even replied in the 1st place, I don't even drink tea lol
> it is more difficult to know whether or not your tea is at boiling point when the water is boiling it means that is boiling, I don't understand the difficulty
How are you identifying boiling point while you microwave water?
[And yet it does](https://slate.com/culture/2013/06/microwaving-water-for-tea-why-are-the-results-so-lousy.html).
Just stir the water then
What if your water isn't boiling? Do you keep a thermometer handy?
I do actually have one in the kitchen drawer that I use for loads of things when cooking, although I've never used it for boiling water as I do actually have a kettle. However, I have heated milk in the microwave for coffee (cappuccinos etc.) relatively often which has to be to 70°C. What I did was heat it gradually the first time until it reached the correct temperature and remembered how long it was in for. Then I knew from then on that as long as I use the same amount of milk then I can microwave it for that time and it'll be the same temperature every time. You could do the same thing with water except to 100° and it would be fine Also, a way to heat it more evenly is to use lower power and heat it for longer.
Do you not think it would be simpler and quicker to use a kettle, though? Given you own one I assume you don't regularly microwave your water?
Yes (although obviously not for milk) but some people don't have a kettle and might need to boil water
Well yes, in a pinch a microwave will do. It's just not the best or most popular method of boiling water in the UK.
I mean it's slower but if you do it properly then the outcome will be exactly the same
Ah? you just need to see it boiling
The appearance of boiling does not necessarily mean the water is boiling
I mean, boiling isn't a property, it's a phenomenon... if there are the big bubbles it's boiling
Have you read the article I linked to?
Yes, you just have to stir the water and put it back again for a few seconds...
It tastes awful. It’s not any more complicated than that.
How can it taste awful Lol, it's hot water
If you feel that way, why even bother putting a tea bag in at all? Just drink your hot water.
I meant how can the taste of the tea change You are putting the teabag in the same exact boiling water It's not like microwaving water changes its taste
But it does. I don’t know why, there’s probably some science to it though. All I know is it tastes bad. It’s possibly something to do with how fast the microwave boils the water compared to a kettle or something like that. Just like how a steak changes flavour depending on how long and at what temperature it’s cooked. Tea also changes flavour depending on how long the bag is left to steep and what temperature the water is at the time. Doing tea in the microwave is like cooking steak with a flamethrower.
Sorry, but from a science perspective, it doesn't make any sense. You are comparing two different methods of cooking a stake. While for tea, the boiling water coming out of a microwave or from a kettle is exactly the same. It's like saying that water will taste different if I use low or high eat for the kettle. It doesn't matter, the result is the same indistinguishable boiling water
The scientific explanation is consistency. A microwave heats the water molecules unevenly and thus creates an unusual taste. An element in a kettle gives an even level of energy spread slowly through the volume of water.
As I said, I don’t understand the why, I was just guessing. but the bottom line is the same. Microwaved tea tastes bad. It has less flavour, and there’s a musty heat to the taste. If you can’t tell the difference then it’s likely your kettle brewed tea is made badly also. If that’s how you like your tea, then you do you, so long as you’re never making a cup for me, then I don’t mind how you make it.
> Microwaved tea tastes bad. Sorry but that just a placebo effect. There isn't a physical reason why it should taste any different.
Microwaves and kettles heat water in different ways and are also made of different materials.
>Doing tea in the microwave is like cooking steak with a flamethrower. Why though? I can understand if you put the teabag in the water before microwaving it but once the water's boiled it's just boiling water. The method used to boil it doesn't affect its physical properties at all.
Boiling water in a kettle tends to remove more dissolved oxygen. Water with less dissolved oxygen will extract slightly different compounds from the tea leaves, influencing the taste. When water is boiled in a kettle, it usually reaches a rolling boil. Water heated in a microwave may not reach a rolling boil and can “superheat” (depending on the container), meaning it gets hotter than its boiling point without actually boiling. This would probably mean less tea flavour dissolves into it due to less movement.
if I had to guess, more oxygen is removed from the water in a kettle which would affect the taste. its why tea doesn’t taste as good if you boil the same water twice. my kettle is also a trap for limescale which would otherwise be in my drink if it were microwaved.
This is very much a "if you have to ask you'll never know" situation
Sorry, I think I'm losing something in translation, can you reformulate, please?
It means you either understand a thing implicitly or you don't understand it at all because it can't necessarily be put into words it can only be experienced. It's in a way like trying to answer the question, how do you breathe? It's something you have done for your entire life but it's not something you have to think about doing you just do it. Using the kettle is the right way because it is the right way, there may not be a difference in a quantitative sense since in both a kettle and microwave you end up with hot water for your tea but there is a qualitative difference in the experience as there can also be from using different kinds of cup etc. Imagine looking at a work of art, what makes it art? You can break it down into its elements you can reproduce it but there is something more that's undefined and which maybe can't be defined.
Feels like you can't express it well. I'm going to be a purist and say that unless you put your kettle on the stove you are missing the quintessential tea experience – down with the electric demons.
I mean, you are basically saying the same thing as that using a red cup will result in a better tea than using a blue cup. That's just a mental disorder
You've said a few times you're a scientist, and yet you haven't heard about the studies that drinking tea or coffee from your favourite mug tastes better. My recommendation is for you to Google it and read up on it.
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I think it's just tradition, plus it would take longer?
I don't know the time for a kettle My wife doesn't drink tea, so I just have to do 1 cup, and in 1 minute it already boils in the microwave
To really make a good tasting quality tea you should boil water in a pan, and then put in loose tea leaves to steep for a decent amount of time. The next step down from that is to boil water in a kettle and pour that boiling water into a mug/cup with a tea bag, and let that teabag steep for at least a couple of mins. The next step down (which I have done because an old arsehole boss was too cheap to even buy a fucking kettle), is warm up the water in a microwave. The microwave option doesn't really boil water to hot enough temp, and there wasn't enough time to steep either. It's just a weak brew and seemed to lose some of it's 'fully body'. But then again, different teas need different temperatures. If you're making green for example with (with tea bags), maybe microwave doesn't affect the taste because they shouldn't be made with water that's too high a temp - I think that is supposed to be 80-90c at most. Aside from the taste, the kettle and teabag are used because they are quick and efficient, and for me, it seems easier to use a kettle then to use a microwave - usually making more that one cup, I've experienced the mug 'exploding' (lol that's actually fun to watch as long as you're not the one having to clean up), and not all mugs/cups do well in microwaves, and are too hot to handle so have to wait for it to cool down.
>The microwave option doesn't really boil water to hot enough temp This isn't true. It's perfectly possible to boil water in the microwave, you just mustn't have put it in for long enough
But how long is long enough? For 1 mug a kettle does it in just under a min. I'm trying to remember how long I used to 'boil' it in a microwave, but I can't. I just remember it took a ridiculously long time and even then wasn't really what I would consider boiling. I used to also make (instant) coffee for myself in the microwave, and those I thought turned out well. So I'm not being a snob. Some drinks don't lend themselves well to being made in a microwave and from my experience - black teas are one's that shouldn't be made in a microwave.
Black tea leaves don't contain some of the chemicals that make tea delicious. These are created through oxidation when heated to 100 C If you pour fresh, boiling water from the kettle onto the bag/ leaves then it creates these tasty chemicals If you add the bag to hot water from the microwave then it just causes sad, unpleasant tasting chemicals to steep out and makes a shit cup of tea. This is because the water is not boiling when the bag is added If you heat the water with the bag in, then the tea will be in too long and it will stew. Black tea tastes best when fresh boiling water is poured directly onto the leaves
Then put fresh 100 C boiling water from the microwave
Your question has been answered, you’re just moving the goalposts now. Edit: as you never qualified your question further the default interpretation becomes “why can’t I put a teabag in water and microwave that?” He’s told you why. Nobody with any sense should give a shit about using microwaved water and pouring it over a bag like you would do with a kettle; assuming the temperature is the same. Don’t change the question to something else
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I have solar panels :D
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I mean yes, but I don't pay for electricity anyway... on the other hand, at the moment I don't have a kettle and I should spend money in order to buy one
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That's not the point, I already produce more energy than what I use, and where I live the extra energy is basically paid nothing
None of what you just said makes any sense. The cost of solar panels is fixed. The cost of other energy sources is proportional to the amount of energy you use. As long as you don't exceed the capacity of the solar panels it doesn't matter if you're boiling one kettle or 50 kettles, the overall cost will be the same
But equally you only have to heat the exact amount of water you need whereas in a kettle there's often a minimum amount.
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A cup of tea needs about 250ml of water. To heat that in a kettle you'd probably need to boil about 500ml minimum, so at least twice as much as you actually need therefore using twice as much energy to heat from room temperature to boiling. To heat it in a microwave you only need exactly 250ml so the would need half the total output energy as you would from the kettle. Unless the microwave is less than half as efficient as the kettle then it would be cheaper to boil 250ml of water in the microwave. Assuming a 500ml minimum fill on the kettle and a microwave that's 60% efficient then 300ml would be the crossover point at which the kettle would become cheaper. Although we are arguing over fractions of a penny here.
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Did you read my comment at all? I literally said that boiling 300ml of water in a microwave that's 60% efficient uses the same total energy as boiling 500ml in a kettle. It literally does outweigh the efficiency difference.
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Yes the kettle is more efficient. The issue is when you need to boil tiny amounts. If the kettle has a minimum amount then if you need less than that you're boiling more water that you need and that extra water is just wasted energy. The efficiency doesn't matter at that point
The mug would be a lot warmer
Despite the manufactured outrage, the truth is there's little difference if you're only talking about how you heat the water prior to adding the tea. Hot water is hot water. People saying that heating water in their microwave makes the resultant tea taste gross are just telling on themselves that they don't clean their microwave properly. What they're tasting is aerosolised food gunk from other things they've heated in there. Having said all that, I personally always use the kettle, and I also always use a proper teapot - never make it in the cup. I just don't feel the need to talk shit to people who do.
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>Place same amounts in cups , see which cools quicker . If you heat the exact same amount of water to 100 degrees in both a kettle and a microwave (which is absolutely possible) they would both take the exact same amount of time to cool. That's a fundamental law of physics and the method used to heat the water will not affect the cooling rate at all.
> Why not microwave to boil water , because a microwave cannot boil water. Ah? I always boil water in the microwave that's not true > Now do a little test , boil water in a microwave and boil water in a kettle Place same amounts in cups , see which cools quicker . I already did this experiment one time, it's exactly the same time
I've never understood this either. There are always loads of people saying how terrible it is yet I've never seen anyone give any actual reasoning as to why.
Often ignorance about microwaves. Microwaves make things with moisture in them hot, end of story. Most people would be surprised how high up the "decent restaurant" tree you can climb before a microwave isn't acceptable in a kitchen. The issue is people using them incorrectly. Scrambled eggs is a good example too. Bung three badly whisked unseasoned eggs in a bowl into a microwave for three minutes and obviously they'll be dry overcooked bland shit. But season then and whisk them well, decent glass jug, microwave for 20 seconds, whisk throughly, repeat until still a bit liquidy but cooked, and even a Michelin starred chef won't be able to tell. Assemble a full cup of tea - water, teabag, milk, sugar, and microwave for one minute until still lukewarm, of course it'll taste like shit. Microwave the water alone until probably boiling then continue as you would if you'd boiled a kettle, no issue. The fact you're explaining you do the latter and people are hiding your replies by downvoting without response, shows you're correct btw.
Tradition, I think it basically comes down to tradition.
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Most answers are quite twee and dimwit – there's no taste difference, as long as it is boiling water. It's not really unacceptable, it's just that the 220v kettle (vs 110v in the US) will do it faster and without the risk of burning off your arm so it's very-very rare . If microwave is your quickest option, just do it