I can understand wanting to use a microwave in the US. As a transplant from Scotland to California I will never cease to be disappointed by the weak performance of 110v kettles. (Way) Back East I used to have a 3kW kettle. Tea water in seconds!
We’re building our own house now so I’m wiring in a 240v socket just for a kettle. Well worth it. (Got to be careful with the Earth - I mean “Ground” - though).
Q: Is it true that all British cuisine is awful?
A: If prepared correctly, yes.
How a real patriot drinks their tea
Every so often, someone does a study that purports to discredit the traditional way of preparing a specific food that always gets presented in the media as being more credible than it should be given credit for being.
In the study, it talks about reducing certain unsatisfactory conditions that could lead to making a better cup of tea while admitting that the unsatisfactory conditions they site are an opinion and not some broad fact about proper tea enjoyment.
Having said all this, I can cook, bake, and brew a great cup of coffee. I couldn’t make a good cup of tea if you threatened me. Sounds simple, hot water, tea, wait a certain number of minutes, and serve… Why does this taste so bad? I feel like I am Kramer from realizing that a shower doesn’t have to take longer than a few minutes. I haven’t tried any salt, but since my complaint revolves around general bad flavor and not film on the surface of the tea… I don’t think it will help.
I think of this drink as the beverage version of the Aesop’s fable of the Miller who tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing no one. Or at least I find it awful.
Disgruntled employee’s last day?
Only if it is Fermented Yak’s Butter.
Building a house to get a decent cup of tea? That’s real commitment! 
Heresy!
The only true way to make tea is Yorkshire Tea and Hendos.
This advice, from Instructions For American Servicemen Living in Britain 1942, is instructive:
“The British don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It’s an even swap.”
I don’t know, for me, a bit of bitterness is part of the point of tea.
I went to one of those traditional tea ceremonies when I visited Kyoto, and I’m glad that I did, but honestly it went on for what seemed like a long time since I was quite uncomfortable sitting squatted on my knees like that, so when the tea was finally served it probably tasted better than normal just because I knew that it meant that the ceremony was almost over and that I’d soon be able to get off of my knees.
I remember as a child watching my grandfather (an English immigrant) pour his tea from the cup to the saucer and sip it that way. The practice was apparently common in Britain in the 19th century.
In the study, it talks about reducing certain unsatisfactory conditions that could lead to making a better cup of tea while admitting that the unsatisfactory conditions they site are an opinion and not some broad fact about proper tea enjoyment.
This was my first thought. The author seems to have dismissed the possibility that part of the enjoyment of a cup of tea could be a bit of bitter flavor. We enjoy bitterness is beer and coffee and mixed drinks, but somehow she assumed that the “perfect” tea would have no bitterness.
“JUST STOP ANCHOVIES!”
@teknocholer The saucer thing is for those whose tea really is barely off boiling and they can’t wait (or have unhardened throats). Water was hotter in Britain in the 19th century - I blame the Tories.
You’re spot on. I know how to make the perfect cup of tea for me.
How you take yours, well, that’s your (tea)bag.
‘Tea. Assam. Builder’s. Hot’.
(Tho as an Earl Grey fan, Picard would probably have me thrown in the brig for that)
Tea. Hot. Wet. No milk, no sugar. Now.
