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Comment by rvkennedy | Hacker News Reader

He kinda lost me with the unfunny cartoon, the sugar but no milk, and the microwaving the water for your tea thing. For an alternative, and I think authoritative opinion, try Christopher Hitchens, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/03/christophe...

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Also, Douglas Adams on a very similar subject:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2002/12/a_proper_cup_o...

So the best advice I can give to an American arriving in England is this: Go to Marks and Spencer and buy a packet of Earl Grey tea. Go back to where you’re staying and boil a kettle of water. While it is coming to the boil, open the sealed packet and sniff. Careful---you may feel a bit dizzy, but this is in fact perfectly legal. When the kettle has boiled, pour a little of it into a teapot, swirl it around, and tip it out again. Put a couple (or three, depending on the size of the pot) of tea bags into the pot. (If I was really trying to lead you into the paths of righteousness, I would tell you to use free leaves rather than bags, but let’s just take this in easy stages.) Bring the kettle back up to the boil, and then pour the boiling water as quickly as you can into the pot. Let is stand for two or three minutes, and then pour it into a cup.

I don't trust the idea of microwaving water for tea, because microwaved water will probably be sub boiling temperature.

actually microwaved water will frequently be above boiling--microwaving lets the water remain still enough for it to get superheated. when you disturb it (with a teabag, spoon, etc.) it will start bubbling wildly (and quite possibly give you a nasty scald)

And by "frequently" you mean "almost never, cuz I've been trying to get it to happen for years and it damn well doesn't"

It depends on what you have the water in. A very smooth-sided container with very pure water has few nucleation sites and so the water is much more likely to become superheated, while a beaten up mug and standard tap water is less likely to superheat without boiling.

happens to my tea all the time--i don't know if it's actually superheated in the sense of being >212, but it sits perfectly still in the mug until i drop the bag in, at which point it goes nuts with the bubbles.

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