Professor Alan Mackie has put an end to the age-old debate about the ‘right’ way to make the perfect cup of tea, and says this is the way to ensure you get the most flavor out of your tea.
If there’s one thing the English love, it’s black tea with milk, and it’s a habit that many other nations have adopted from them.
Although the amount of milk and sugar added to tea varies according to everyone’s taste, we all use the same method of preparation – we put the tea filter in the mug, pour boiling water over it and then pour in the milk after steeping.
But it seems we’ve done it wrong so far.
The expert says we should pour the milk over the tea filter first – the secret to perfect tea, he says, especially when the water is hard. Research by INTU, a company that makes water taps, and Professor Alan Mackie, Head of Faculty at Leeds University School of Food Science & Nutrition, found that minerals in hard water can prevent the flavors in tea from developing properly.
But if the milk is poured into the mug first, the proteins in the milk reduce the mineral content of the water and preserve the flavor. The hardness of the water is determined by the amount of calcium and magnesium it contains – the more of these and other minerals in the water, the harder it is.
As Professor Mackie explains, “Flavour by and large is produced by the different compounds in tea including tannins in particular. The more minerals present in water the more difficult it is for these compounds to develop the flavour – resulting in the dull cuppas you get in hard water areas.”
“Making tea the traditional way – steeping a bag in hot water before removing it and adding milk – results in the tannins turning into solids before they can develop the flavour properly,” explains the expert.
“But, if the milk is added at the start of the steeping process then its proteins can bind to the tannins and other minerals in the water – preventing them from turning solid – which in turn gives you a far superior flavour.”
Kieran Taylor-Bradshaw, Executive Director of INTU, said, “A decent cuppa brings joy and brightens the day, but for too many it remains a distant dream, with hard water to blame.”
She said she was pleased that their research could finally offer a solution to this problem and show the “right” way to make tea.