An American scientist has sparked a trans-Atlantic tempest in a teapot by offering Britain advice on its favorite hot beverage.

Bryn Mawr College chemistry professor Michelle Francl says one of the keys to a perfect cup of tea is a pinch of salt. The tip is included in Francl’s book “Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea,” published Wednesday by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Not since the Boston Tea Party has mixing tea with salt water roiled the Anglo-American relationship so much.

The salt suggestion drew howls of outrage from tea-lovers in Britain, where popular stereotype sees Americans as coffee-swilling boors who make tea, if at all, in the microwave.

The U.S. Embassy in London intervened in the brewing storm with a social media post reassuring “the good people of the U.K. that the unthinkable notion of adding salt to Britain’s national drink is not official United States policy.”

  • ndru@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    Thanks for taking the time to write that! I learned something new today. I usually take tea with oat milk, so now I’m curious what proteins oat milk has and if they act similarly. I’ll do some more reading.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      While I doubt that oat milk has casein, as it is an animal protein, it might have other proteins that bind tannin in similar ways. Keep us posted!