To be fair, their CTC Broken is shit as well. I didn’t understand where their reputation for a good brew came from until I realised how very different tastes at different times and in different contexts can be.
ETA: @Grey_Devil beat me to it
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I wish i could say i’m a coffee snob, at this point i’m more of a wanna be snob but i’m far too lazy to really care. I just happen to know enough having worked with coffee for a few years.
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Specifically, your line on tea is spot on. I can’t talk about coffee, which I don’t really drink. But I know enough about it to know you are right.
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Us Americans can’t follow instructions when it comes to tea (See Boston Harbor).
I’m equally lazy when it comes to tea, my Brit and Japanese friends were horrified to learn that i heat up my water for it in the microwave, which somehow magically makes bad hot water? I live in the future, if i could heat up my water with a laser i would
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I haven’t wandered into the home espresso market. I think it is because I’ve never had a sit down with someone that knows about those things.
I’ve read those brewing guidelines by the different organizations for my daily drip. And I let it affect a few bits of my routine and paraphernalia. Most of it is me wanting a ritual that I can do no matter what mood or weather or whatev so that I am able to find a moment of “do this, then that, then this will happen”.
That little moment of organized behavior and some hot earthy stimulant is nice.
This is turning off topic by the minute but I love it.
I had have American friends who did the same. The thing is: water is supposed to boil before you pour it on your tea leaves. Even for green tea, with necessarily lower temperature rangeing from 90 to 60 °C depending on the kind of tea you are brewing, the water is supposed to have boiled before. I’m not a purist when it comes to that, I’ve got a high quality electric kettle which heats water to the given temperature value (and I double-checked if it was really the given temperature - I’m not a purist, but some things would be just horrid…).
Black tea? Boil the water. Pre-heat your mug or pot. Use a filter in which the leaves can float freely.
Water in the microwave almost never boils. Otherwise you’d have to use a huge mug to prevent spilling. So, no black tea from the microwave for me. It does taste differently if the water has boiled for at least very short while.
The rest of the boiling quite possibly is due to poor water quality in the past, and geographically still today. Also, as you stated above, culture. Ask anyone from a region where samowars are common. It’s a different kind of tea, I would even say a completely different drink.
I still own two kettles and a fire basket from the Sahel zone to prepare Maghreb-style green tea (with mint and sugar, loads of both). I rarely do, even though this was a staple when I used to work in Kel-Tamashek areas. Preparing it here just isn’t the same. I tried, and I don’t like it. The surrounding different culture makes it wrong.
Also, if you can’t sit at a fire in the sand and have a Sahel or desert climate, it even tastes bad.
The same is less true for coffee, for some reason. A fine espresso does taste good under any circumstances. And a ceremoniously brewed traditional Ethiopian coffee has also been good wherever I tried it.
I can’t really explain that, but then, I also don’t drink coffee much.
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My Brit friends have terrible tea-making habits, they dump an arbitrary number of teabags (the cheapest ones) in warmish water, immediately add cold milk and sugar, and let it sit for at least 15 minutes, sometimes 30. When it has the temperature that is similar to how they enjoy their beer, they consume it, without ever taking out the teabags.
But they definitely would enjoy heating the water with a laser.
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It’s amazing, isn’t it?
I mean, stereotypical Italians are crazy about coffee.
Stereotypical Brits are crazy about tea.
But between them, there’s a whole continent of a gap between the reality and the stereotype. I have yet to behold any Italian who would willingly drink re-heated coffee, for example…
ETA: yeah, I’ll have a laser brew, too. But I’m already quite excited with an induction kettle.
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I don’t know the situation today, but 10 years ago I one could buy self-heating espresso in italian gas stations. A shot of espresso in a cup that contains a chemical heating element. That‘s reheated coffee in my book.
Of course I bought one, and it tasted awful.
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Well, quite. Just because Americans can’t make tea doesn’t mean we can’t make coffee 
Oooookay.
Colour me surprised. Or not. Capitalism’s answer to everything is re-heated awful stuff.
here‘s a variant on youtube:
oh…one of my favorite movies.
You want water that’s nice and aerated as the oxygen level impacts how the tea extracts. Supposedly something about the microwave means you get stagnant water without enough oxygen in it.
I’ve never bothered to look into whether it’s true, and I can’t say I notice a difference if I get the water to the right temperature. The important thing seems to be using water fresh from the tap, or poured from a bottle. So it’s aerated before you heat it. Rather than water that’s been sitting in a kettle. That I can tell the difference. The standing water makes tea that tastes like metal.
According to Brits/Irish people. Other parts of the world would admonish you to never let the water boil. As even the steeping temperature for black teas is slightly below boiling. And some people will tell you that boiling the water will drive out the oxygen, ruining the tea. That doesn’t seem to be true, as apparently a lot of the air/oxygen leaves as it heats up.
Most Asian methods for making tea involve no boiling. And Russian methods can involve actually boiling the tea.
That said boiling water. Taking it off the heat. And pouring it from height into a pot/mug as is proper in the British isles is a dandy way to get that slightly below boiling temp and a bunch of aeration going on. That tends to be how I do it, cause it’s low investment. There’s no thermometers or watching kettles like a hawk.
Uhhhhhh. Have you used a microwave? Real easy to get water to boil in there. And you really just need a bit of head space to avoid boiling over. It’s not pasta water. Water on it’s own doesn’t build bubble structures and foam over. Even in an uncovered sauce pan on the stove you need maybe an inch or two to avoid splashing.
Very smooth containers like pyrex measuring cups can cause water to "super boil. It gets a bit hotter than 100c without bubbling. And a sudden shock can cause that container to flash boil into steam, including something as slight as picking it up. Which is pretty god damned dangerous. But that’s got more to do with lack of places for bubbles to form and start the cascade, and it’s pretty rare. It’s still at the boiling temp. And you can avoid it by tossing a chop stick or a spoon in there.
Otherwise water in the microwave will just boil and bubble away just like it does on the stove. I do it often. Sorta the only thing I use the microwave for, heating up liquids.
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Hey- the best cup of straight coffee I’ve ever had to this day was in London, at the Harlingford Hotel. Small place, but affordable with awesome breakfasts and best coffee I’ve ever had, from a Bodum french press.
I have one too, and a pourover setup (which I’m about to use right now), and I still can’t duplicate it.
I use a 250$ Bartaza Virtuoso grinder, with upgraded Preciso burrs, and a 25$ Mr. Coffee during the week, haha. I buy phenomenal coffee and use good water- and a 25$ drip jobbie honestly does fine. I do proper pourover on weekends when I have time.
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