advertisement


A nice cup of tea.

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Accuphase all the way down
When I was a kid, my parents, and pretty much all the grownups I knew, agreed that a cup of tea tasted better out of a bone china cup than out of a regular pottery one*.

To my youthful mind, that was an astounding claim. How could the container affect the taste?

A little older, and I did realise that I enjoyed tea out of a china cup more than out of a pottery one.

Nobody has offered me a convincing explanation as to why it should be the case. If we were to take a brew, put it into two cups, one bone china, the other regular pot, then if we were to measure the flavour compounds in each brew, they would be identical. But the consensus, for generations, has been that there is a qualitative difference.

Has anybody got any explanations?


*I put this in audio, rather than off-topic, because it resonates with the various cable/amps sounding different, threads in that experience confounds measurement.
 
One physical explanation could be the degree of heat.....pottery is thicker and will retain more heat.Indeed, one 'explanation' for the English habit of putting milk in first (is there any other way?) is that the milk lowers the temperature of the boiling water and safeguards fine bone china from cracking.
Or, and I assume this is behind your post, it could be all in the mind. Nothing odd or less 'real' about that: as Shakespeare put it: ''there is nothing that is good or bad but thinking make it so.'.
 
Over the last couple of years I have switched to china cups and they do add something positive to the experience.
 
Nope your WRONG all tea tastes the same and without at least 3 scientific studies and a letter from the queen you are wasting your time arguing:D:D

Totally agree actually I always use a fine bone china cup even at work, I have no idea why it should taste better but it does to me

Alan
 
I also agree about Tea, though I don`t drink a lot of it, but I prefer Coffee from an earthenware mug (except with sunday brakfast when a giant cup is required) . I also agree that this could go a bit like a cable thread.
 
Stainless Steel mug for coffee or teas is best plus you can run it along the bars of your cage with it when a hottie psychiatrist walks by...
 
paskinn said:
One physical explanation could be the degree of heat.....pottery is thicker and will retain more heat.Indeed, one 'explanation' for the English habit of putting milk in first (is there any other way?) is that the milk lowers the temperature of the boiling water and safeguards fine bone china from cracking.
Click to expand...

Putting the milk in first is regarded as a lower-class trait. I recall a snobbish acqaintance referring to a mutual friend as 'a bit MIF, darling'.
 
Joe Hutch said:
Putting the milk in first is regarded as a lower-class trait. I recall a snobbish acqaintance referring to a mutual friend as 'a bit MIF, darling'.
Click to expand...

I take both tea and coffee black that is without anything else added. I like to taste the beverage and not all the added gunge.

True that means good quality tea and coffee.

Bit like Hi Fi really.

Cheers,

DV
 
Thinner cup material = better air circulation in the mouth = better activation of taste receptors. Glass is better for that reason: hence wine rarely drunk from mugs.

Anything metal: no - chemically reactive. Plastic also - produces strong aromatics.

Also, the classic cup shape (wide at the top, narrow at the bottom) promotes rapid evaporation of volatiles because of faster cooling.

You're not imagining it!
 
Barrymagrec said:
I also agree about Tea, though I don`t drink a lot of it, but I prefer Coffee from an earthenware mug (except with sunday brakfast when a giant cup is required) . I also agree that this could go a bit like a cable thread.
Click to expand...

Or a shaving thread.
 
As a child always had tea boiled in an aluminium kettle with loose leaves, water and full fat milk. Tasted just perfect whether served in a steel mug, aluminium mug, china cup, melamine cup, plastic cup, or indeed a pottery cup. Perhaps if it is made right in the first place...!
 
Hi, I feel it is temperature related, with tea or coffee.
It is not the taste so much as the refreshing feel of a hot drink.
When it cools just a little it gets to a point when it is not refreshing.:)
 
Does a burr coffee grinder produce better results than a bladed one? As for tea, I put milk in last - it's easier to tell when you have enough. Some say it tastes different. ABX testing would sort that aspect out.
 
I can remember my mother insisting that when I made tea for her and my dad, I stirred hers first because she doesn't take suger and she could taste it if I stirred my dads first as he does. for a week I deliberately stirred hers second. i then asked if her tea was ok since I stirred hers first. Yes, she replied. we was poor so the milk always went in first.
 
Gaius said:
Over the last couple of years I have switched to china cups and they do add something positive to the experience.
Click to expand...

A bit like badger hair shaving brushes I presume.
Does the beverage retain its heat longer in a China cup? I think the thicker stoneware cools quicker.
Now man up, enough of ladies tea cups and tea pots and put your lose leaf tea in a well seasoned mug and take it like a man.
 
Aside for the charming beverage gossip, there is a serious point to the OP's question: there's a world of daily experience we take so much for granted that we don't subject it to empirical analysis.

When we do, things get unexpectedly complicated: sticking with drinks, the Case of the Cooling Cuppa famously showed that hot liquids freeze faster than cold ones.

Similarly there's a global consensus on what certain audio components sound like that is hard to reconcile with easily-made measurements.
 
It's not the bone china that makes the difference but the larger surface area,which allows oxygen to react with the tea and enhance the flavour. Similarly, it's the air in the boiling water which makes good tea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top