Tea time

foghorn said:
Why am I making all this fuss over a kettle?
I'm checking my reckoning against the smart meter reading. Funny thing is the smart shows 2 pence and sometimes 3 pence a cup, even one of 1p.
And, I have to say, I wait a minute or two to watch it update the display after a cup has boiled. That's what started me on this trip.
I suppose the smart meter is not so punctual in updating the display, and when it does it picks a number out of the air between 1 and 3 ??? I suppose and hope a more 'accurate' usage reading is being sent to the electric company.
Click to expand...
Yes I expect the accuracy may not be down to the nearest 1p and if the true value is intermediate you will also get rounding errors. But evidently you are in the UK so 240V applies. Or 230V - seems there was some fudging done to achieve EU harmonisation some years ago, whereby the official nominal voltage in the UK dropped, at least on paper, from 240 to 230. I think the real voltage varies a bit: it's the frequency that has to be rock-solid, so voltage can be allowed to vary with load to some extent.

But in the UK your kettle won't be 250W, for sure. It will be 1kW +/- a few %.
 
Sarkus said:
THAT's the phrase I was looking for, but couldn't think of it! :)
Small kettle, small amount of water. If just 1 cup then would only take a few minutes.
And sometimes better to have a cup of tea than none at all, even if it takes quite a while! ;)
Click to expand...
Especially in the USA, where nobody has any idea how to make tea! Ever since the Boston Tea Party they've always viewed it as vaguely unpatriotic and treacherous. (Like being called Benedict. My brother Benedict used to introduce himself as "Ben" when he travelled round the USA.;))
 
Is that video for real? Not an April Fool's joke? Not a statement of post-modern irony? The only thing they could do worse would be to use hot water from the tap instead of microwaving the cold water.
 
Sarkus said:
Is that video for real? Not an April Fool's joke? Not a statement of post-modern irony? The only thing they could do worse would be to use hot water from the tap instead of microwaving the cold water.
Click to expand...
It's real.

A lot of Americans don't know how to make hot tea (such as with milk). I'm not a huge tea drinker, or coffee for that matter. I prefer cold to hot drinks, but sometimes I savour a hot cup of tea and the smell that wafts up with the steam of pouring boiling water over that tea and allowing it to steep properly. There's nothing quite like it. I savour it when I have it.
 
Bells said:
Oh, come now

You're telling me this is not how to make tea?

https://twitter.com/whatforholl/status/1269711618163838985



*Disclaimer: I could not resist!
Click to expand...

Extremely doubtful you would get anything close to brewing tea leaves in a billy can over a open wood log fire
Screenshot_2022-04-29-02-49-06-14_7d6541707e0ad471ad1a839839bd7d1b.jpg

https://fedi.lynnesbian.space/@lynnesbian/101017275330154165

(Yes I know you are joking)

However boiling water in a cup in a microwave has some danger attached


(Sorry cannot shake off being nurse / safety officer)

:)
 

Attachments

  • 6218ed311d2484ad.png
    6218ed311d2484ad.png
    683.4 KB · Views: 0
Michael 345 said:
Extremely doubtful you would get anything close to brewing tea leaves in a billy can over a open wood log fire
View attachment 4831

https://fedi.lynnesbian.space/@lynnesbian/101017275330154165

(Yes I know you are joking)

However boiling water in a cup in a microwave has some danger attached


(Sorry cannot shake off being nurse / safety officer)

:)
Click to expand...
Yes indeed! We've had this one before but the risk of superheating if you try to microwave pure water in a clean vessel is non-trivial.

The explanation for why an American might try it is, I think, that they don't as a rule have kettles for boiling water. When we moved for a while to Houston TX, we had a lot of difficulty finding a kettle. When I asked at work what people did, they said they just boiled a pan of water on the cooker.

But as for the billy can I don't see a problem. You get the water boiling and then you pour into a teapot or mug with tea leaves in it. My very limited experience is that to boil water for tea over a camp fire, it is best when some charcoal has formed. It gets hotter.
 
exchemist said:
My very limited experience
Click to expand...
I'm guessing my experience of billy brewed tea would be less than yourself

I recall it being said the wafting odour of the brewing leaves was the moment to take the billy off the fire

Did not hear anything about charcoal. Did get a strange look when I fished out the tea leaves with a spoon

Never looked back when I found coffee

Them's were the days we were lucky :)

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
I'm guessing my experience of billy brewed tea would be less than yourself

I recall it being said the wafting odour of the brewing leaves was the moment to take the billy off the fire

Did not hear anything about charcoal. Did get a strange look when I fished out the tea leaves with a spoon

Never looked back when I found coffee

Them's were the days we were lucky :)

:)
Click to expand...
Boiling the water with the tea leaves already in is almost as bad as that American TikTok video.

You boil the water in the embers of the fire, then decant the freshly boiling water onto tea leaves in whatever you are using to brew the tea - a teapot or individual mugs. It's not hard. As I recall, what we did last time (quite a few years ago now) was get the fire to the hot ember stage, so no flames or smoke, then embed an opened tin of baked beans at one corner, put a saucepan of water directly on the embers in another corner and then, when the two are getting nicely hot, put some bacon on a grill supported on stones across the top , so all is ready at once. And then you have a nice breakfast, ready for a day's mountain walking.
 
exchemist - from above - Does not want to come down as a quote ???

"embed an opened tin of baked beans at one corner,put a saucepan of water directly on the embers in another corner and then, when the two are getting nicely hot, put some bacon on a grill"

For me that and a couple of slices of toast would be lunch. Breakfast would have been Cornflakes a few hours earlier

We were lucky

:)
 
It's even easier if you camp next to a McDonalds! ;)

(Although their tea was pretty awful back in the day... not sure what it's like now that it's all gone coffee-shop style... but nor do I care to find out!)
 
Michael 345 said:
exchemist - from above - Does not want to come down as a quote ???

"embed an opened tin of baked beans at one corner,put a saucepan of water directly on the embers in another corner and then, when the two are getting nicely hot, put some bacon on a grill"

For me that and a couple of slices of toast would be lunch. Breakfast would have been Cornflakes a few hours earlier

We were lucky

:)
Click to expand...
Not if you are walking in the Lake District. You need a solid breakfast for that - and you will have the appetite for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top