[HN Gopher] Tea Chemistry (1997)
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Tea Chemistry (1997)
Author : aabiji
Score : 72 points
Date : 2026-01-23 19:37 UTC (6 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.researchgate.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.researchgate.net)
| wolfi1 wrote:
| quite interesting but I would have expected some insight into the
| preparation itself as how long do you have to steep, what
| temperature should the water have, etc
| n4r9 wrote:
| I'm not sure there's much real scientific research on
| preparation (at least when this was published in the 90s),
| especially as it can be quite subjective. There's a bit about
| factors affecting caffeine content on p.425:
|
| > The quantity of caffeine that infuses into a tea brew is
| determined by infusion time and by leaf style. Longer infusion
| times lead to greater quantities of caffeine in a tea beverage.
| Smaller sized tea leaves give a more rapid and stronger
| infusion, whereas larger leaves and uncut leaves lead to weaker
| infusions. This results in more or less caffeine extraction,
| respectively. The caffeine content of a typical tea beverage
| will range from 20 to 70 mg per 170 ml of infusion, with a
| typical infusion being prepared from about 2 to 2.5 g of tea
| leaves. Coffee brews typically contain from 40 to 155 mg
| caffeine per 170 ml beverage. There has been little research
| done on the pharmacology of tea-beverage caffeine. One study
| suggests a dose of caffeine from tea has a different
| physiological effect than a pure dose of caffeine (Das et al.,
| 1965). This has been attributed to the amino acid theanine,
| which is unique to tea. However, there are no well-designed
| clinical studies to support this position. The consensus among
| scientists today is that caffeine from all beverage sources has
| a similar physiological effect. The actual content of caffeine
| depends on many factors, particularly the method of brewing. A
| brew prepared by the Chinese "gong-fu" style is likely to have
| a different caffeine impact compared with the Western style of
| loose tea or to that from a tea bag (Hicks et al., 1996). Some
| reports have suggested that green tea contains significantly
| less caffeine than black tea. This may be influenced by the
| clone of leaf used to produce the tea or by the impact of
| different brewing techniques. No significant differences have
| been found when brewing green and black teas under similar
| conditions (Hicks et al., 1996), discrediting the theory that
| withering and fermentation have a significant impact on
| caffeine content (Sanderson, 1972).
| tmtvl wrote:
| Well, depending on what you drink there are articles about
| that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35658412
| teleforce wrote:
| The BBC has come up with an excellent short documentary on how
| to perform proper tea preparation [1].
|
| Essentially the hot water need to be boiling hot (100 degree
| celcius) and leave it brewing for a minimum 4 minutes after
| pouring into a cup of tea.
|
| From personal experiences, if you want to make good chai masala
| (or spicy milk tea) you need to keep it in boiling water for
| considerable amount of time (like cooking on stove), with the
| ingredient of tea (generous amount), equivalent amount of
| evaporated and sweetened condensed milk (like half can of milk
| for medium pot), together with combination of your preferred
| different spices for examples cinnamon (Sri Lanka cinnamon not
| the fake ones), jeera, clove, star anise, etc. Since the
| condensed milk is already sweetened, no need to put sugar, but
| you can add pure honey for extra wonderful aftertaste.
|
| In UAE, karak chai is their national drink that are sold in
| most of the restaurants and eateries. Fun facts, and heaven
| knows for whatever reason the default tea brand being used
| there is always Lipton.
|
| [1] How you've been making tea WRONG your entire life - BBC:
|
| https://youtu.be/Fhuc6qOGNPc
| card_zero wrote:
| (Jeera == cumin. "Fake cinnamon" I guess comes from species
| in the genus Cinnamomum other than the Sri Lanka / Ceylon
| species.)
| t-3 wrote:
| Mainly just avoid Chinese cinnamon/cassia, as it has a more
| complex bitter flavor (good for savory, not so much for
| sweet).
| xattt wrote:
| Science has shifted, depending on the discipline, from a
| colonial universalism perspective to one that accepts that
| "the truth" varies and can be a local phenomenon.
|
| I have a hard time buying into a prescriptive tea-making
| procedure. For example, you can heat up your temperature to
| boiling, but by the time you pour it, it will likely be down
| to the low to mid 90s.
|
| There's other factors such as the material of the mugs (which
| might be more or less conductive of temperature) and the
| delta between the water and air temps. The composition of the
| tea itself will also vary year-to-year and you have no idea
| of the vintage of the Lipton/Tetley tea bag dust stock you're
| buying.
|
| tl;dr Strict procedure = placebo
| card_zero wrote:
| One confounding factor is how much you want a cup of tea at
| that time.
| eru wrote:
| Of course, the BBC being British, they only tell you how to
| brew British style tea.
|
| For proper tea, you should probably look at Asian sources.
| gilrain wrote:
| To be fair, the British invented and innovated that style
| of tea. You should only look east if you're interested in
| the many other styles.
| gilrain wrote:
| This is like claiming everyone is making coffee wrong and
| then describing how to make a cappucino with city roast
| Nigerian dry-process beans.
|
| Yep, cool. That's a recipe. For one type of preparation. With
| one type of bean. And one style of roast.
|
| The ignorance of global tea culture in the west, including
| Britain, is very cringe.
| speedgoose wrote:
| It's funny to witness many British people being so much
| into tea, while they mostly drink poor quality tea with bad
| technique.
|
| A bit like many French people having a shitty failed dark
| coffee as breakfast every morning.
| gilrain wrote:
| It depends on the tea you're brewing, what you want to make
| with it, and your personal taste. How could there possibly be
| an objective answer?
| the-mitr wrote:
| of possible interest
|
| George Orwell's 11 rules of tea making
|
| https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...
| ghtbircshotbe wrote:
| 6 heaping teaspoons of tea per quart of water seems like a lot
| of tea.
| fransje26 wrote:
| It depends on how much you want to sleep in the coming days..
| iberator wrote:
| You must be from USA. In Europe you give tea even to
| toddlers and they sleep just fine. You mistook tea for
| coffee lol (Americans...)
| t-3 wrote:
| Coffee usually has about twice as much caffeine per cup
| as tea, but that depends a lot on the variety of tea and
| the brewing method/amount used.
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| Europeans have a tendency to not make the distinction
| between herbal infusion and tea... No one is giving tea
| to toddlers, well I hope not.
| jayd16 wrote:
| I guess they're making milk tea so it ends up being as strong
| as you want.
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| It depends really on the infusion time.
|
| Gong Fu brewing method has "worse" ratio but on purpose, a
| good oolong is marvelous. So is a good Pu'Er or green tea.
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| Lot's of red flags in his way of tea making, but what can you
| expect from a British born in India on foods or drinks.
| wcfrobert wrote:
| > "First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China
| tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays--it is
| economical, and one can drink it without milk--but there is not
| much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more
| optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that
| comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian
| tea."
|
| These are some of the worst tea-making tip I've ever seen. I
| get that taste is subjective and all, but come on... This is
| like saying:
|
| "Al Pastor street taco in Mexico has its virtues - it is
| economical, and one can eat it without salsa - but there is not
| much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more
| optimistic after eating it. Anyone who has used that comforting
| phrase 'a great taco' invariably means Taco Bells"
|
| CTC tea [1] is inferior in quality. They are mass-produced,
| brews quick, and tastes way too strong (hence the milk). Tea
| was invented in China and tea culture goes back thousands of
| years. India and Sri Lanka only started producing tea in the
| mid 1800s. Robert Fortune literally dressed up as a Chinese
| merchant, snuck into some rural village in Fujian, and smuggled
| some teas back so the British East India Company can cultivate
| it in and around India.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush,_tear,_curl
| tmtvl wrote:
| 'China tea', yeah because there's no difference between, say,
| any given wulong and pu'er.
| chrisjharris wrote:
| He's writing from a certain time, place, and culture, in
| reference to the teas that were available to him at that
| time. I'm not sure what you're arguing - that black tea
| didn't subjectively make him feel wiser, braver or more
| optimistic? And his tips for making black tea are perfectly
| sound.
|
| If I remember correctly, he actually wrote that essay because
| there was a world event that his compatriots were getting
| outraged about, and this was his way of being provocative by
| not covering it. But I may have that wrong.
| pasc1878 wrote:
| Experiments on how to make tea (well does milk go in before or
| after) is the original exposition of statistical testing of the
| null hypothesis.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_tasting_tea
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Worth mentioning that though tea does contain polyphenols and
| flavinoids which are good for us (and l-theanine and caffeine
| which we enjoy introducing to our nervous systems), it's had a
| much bigger impact on health historically because it required us
| to heat water to boiling (or near boiling, depending on what kind
| of tea you're making).
|
| Also, can't miss a chance to spice things up with the mention of
| adding salt to brewed tea[1]. Which is heretical, but seems
| palatable to me, though I probably wouldn't do it to good tea.
|
| 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68085304
| wallygator88 wrote:
| Salted black tea with butter is delicious
| (https://simplytibetan.com/2010/12/07/bho-ja/)
| MisterTea wrote:
| When I switched to black coffee I read that putting a tiny bit
| of salt in cuts the bitterness. It works and the amount of salt
| needed is so small that you don't taste it, less than a pinch.
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