I just write “IRANIAN NUCLEAR SCIENTIST HERE” on the cup, publish the pictures and location everywhere, don’t move it for years, and then Israel will heat it up instantly for free.
Am I the only one that drinks cold brew tea? Organic decaf loose leaf green tea in a tea bag. Put in a pitcher of water and put it in the fridge for 3 hours. Remove tea bag. Pitcher of tea.
My mom would sun brew tea. I grew up in Florida. She’d take one of those Mt. Olive giant pickle jars and set it out in the sun for a few hours on the porch.
I like Turkish apple tea hot, but I don’t really drink other tea hot generally. I use the tea to slow my system down (as I’m doing now.) I have a J pouch and when I get pouchitis (inflammation of the pouch that acts as my colon) I can’t keep food or liquids in my system. For some reason, the tea helps calm it down a bit, stop bleeding and reduce diarrhea. It did the same when I had my colon and was fighting UC. I almost exclusively drink water or tea.
Cold brewed tea is great! It has noticeably less tannin tasting, if I know I want tea in the future I generally cold brew c: especially nice if you like making different kinds of syrups!
Isn’t knowing you want tea in the future just always though?
I’m British the entire conversation is deeply offensive to my people. Microwaving??? Putting mugs on a stove??? I am appalled!
On that note, as someone from a commonwealth nation, I was deeply appalled during the height of the pandemic when kettles couldn’t be purchased here as they weren’t considered ‘essential items’.
One reason that some Americans microwave water rather than use a kettle is that our electricity is half the power of UK electricity. It takes a lot longer for an electric kettle to boil here. That said, I do use a kettle when boiling water for tea.
What a bullshit excuse. I’m in Canada with exactly the same 110v power, and it takes very little time to kettle water. People say this all the time as some sort of justification, but it just isn’t.
When I went, if I ever saw one it was the equivalent of those cheap travel kettles. I think the average person there just doesn’t use it enough to justify getting a good one.
We have a Zojirushi. 120V does limit it somewhat, but it’s fine.
The water in our area of country is also hard as shit. We have undersink RO now, but before then, mineral buildup in the kettle was bad. Crusted like concrete if we didn’t stay on top of it.
…softeners are essential in aquifer country; our zojirushi served us well for a decade but after our whole-house filter blew out a couple of years ago i’m starting to see iron deposits despite the softener…
US water softeners are usually only on the hot pipe. They tend to add sodium to the water, and it’s not recommended to make it your primary drinking water source.
Our electricity is 120v here in the US, so kettles take forever
kettles take forever
For extremely small values of ‘forever’
US outlet is 120V@20A = 2.4kW UK outlet is 230V@13A = 3.0kW
It’s a 15% difference based on possible power draw.
Anecdotally the stove will still take many times longer. Even compared to induction my kettle is faster.
My guess is that in the UK/EU it’s not common to have powerful microwaves?
Most residential outlets in the US are going to be a 15A limit. You also have to reduce that by 20% for a continuous draw.
UK might be able to get away with the full usage because their plugs are designed to have a fuse built in. Not entirely sure on that, though.
That said, kettles are still a better option most of the time. Technology Connections has real world tests of this.
Do microwaves have some magic efficiency trick that lets them produce heat faster from the same exact energy? Like, how do they manage to be more than 100% efficient?
Microwaves are designed to heat water molecules. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
They don’t, kettles just aren’t that much more efficient at 120v. Like a kettle will still be faster, just not by enough for people to care.
I don’t even understand how that could work, surely a standard mug would break one way or another if you just stick it on the stove?
Porcelain has very good temperature shock resistance, stoneware quite good, earthenware bad. Your standard mug should be stoneware and take it just fine. There’s even stoneware pots.
The issue is rather that you shouldn’t use standard electric stoves with too small pots, on gas I guess that’s half-sensible but you’d be left with a charred mug that’s way too hot.
OK so the mug acts like a small pot, but isn’t the handle also crazy hot then?
Just thinking about it makes me want to go and lovingly stroke my kettle
I went through a coffee snob phase and got really into French Press coffee. And for that I bought an electric kettle. And its fantastic. Coffee, Tea, instant noodles. The thing is very useful. I love it.
Following the pattern, by kettle they probably meant the turkish combustion tea kettle.
WTF is happening in the second image? I need my tea making to be that dramatic.
It’s a variant on a samovar. Fire goes in the bottom ring, the cauldron keeps the water hot for refilling the teapot, and the teapot sits on top to keep warm while it brews.
And the metre-long column of fire is just for funzies?
Sometimes people fill the chimney with burning coals to make it heat up faster, you get a good breeze across the bottom, and you get funzies.
How much are you making? For one single cup it’s quicker in the microwave. Just over 2 minutes. No point in heating a water kettle’s worth. Doesn’t save much time. If you’re making 2 or more cups, then the kettle’s fine.
You do not need to fill up a kettle. The less you put in it the less time it takes too.
Takes 1 minute 30 seconds for my induction top to boil water
Doesn’t it depend on the amount of water?
No. If that thing ever ends up running in the ocean, we will all die
induction top
So enchanted. Got it.
The best method (arguably not very energy efficient) is a Zojirushi water boiler that keeps the water hot (175F, 190F, 200F) and boils when a temperature change is detected.
It’s so nice to have if you drink a lot of tea, or as some Asian households prefer, hot vs room temp water.
The Quooker tap seems like a good option. The electricity used for stand by is easily saved by not cooking more than necessary.
A kettle has a minimum amount like half a liter, which is completely wasted when you only need a cup.
It is so wrong to talk about temperatures that are near boiling using fahrenheit.
Haha. It boils to 212F and cools down to ideal tea steeping temperatures, which is very convenient.
How many British Thermal Units does it require to heat one gill of water to 212F from a room temperature of 72F if you have a 1/2 horsepower electric kettle?
electric kettles are the way and the light
I tried to get an electric kettle last year, but I guess they don’t make the kind that keep the water hot all day anymore. So I had to get a whole hot water dispenser that keeps it hot for days now.
Everyone in the country I live in just uses a thermos lol
they don’t make the kind that keep the water hot all day anymore.
Zojirushi does.
This is absolutely insane to me. Just boil enough for what you need. You don’t need boiling water on demand.
I don’t need to drink tea at all. But if I have to sit and wait for water to boil, I just don’t drink as much. Maybe it’s my ADHD, but I’ll just put it off and then suddenly it’s the end of the day.
They’re fast and efficient, by putting the heating element right up against the water, and also safe thanks to shutting off automatically. Great shit!
This is how everyone does it right? Right?! The only people that I know who don’t use an electric kettle are in their 80s. Or is this some cultural thing where people in the US/UK/whatever don’t use electric kettles?
UK here. Everyone has an electric kettle, even those aged 80+. They’re seen as a household essential.
We have a whistle kettle. It’s just as fast and prettier. Although definitely less efficient.
If you use on an induction stove, it’s probably more efficient
As a grown man in the US, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen an electric kettle in real life (only on British TV).
why are you expecting the UK to not use kettles?
US still has residential power from the last century
The power is not why Americans don’t own electric kettles (well some do but most don’t). It’s still faster to boil water from an electric kettle than on the stove. Americans don’t own electric kettles because they don’t drink much tea.
Or use a French press for coffee, apparently.
US has 110 voltage that can’t run a kettle for shit
The crazy thing is we have 240V service to the home, but we only use it for large appliances that also use high current. My stove is induction and is one of the things plugs into 240V, and I bet it can boil a cup of water (though in a pot/pan) faster than most kettles.
There are plenty of cases where having the higher voltage in our outlets would be nice. For me it’s probably corded power tools more than kettles. But the vast majority of devices are fine either way.
I really don’t know where this myth comes from. Electric kettles run fine over here.
Comparative for you maybe, but not for those of us who’ve seen them run on higher current
They run fine, but basically the same as a microwave, British kettles are just magic
Microwave is gonna be at least 25% slower.
This is true, but for how often Americans boil water, it’s just not worth having a dedicated device for most of them
Even with underpowered 110v an electric kettle still boils water faster than a stovetop IME. Still only a few minutes difference but it’s a difference.
Nah, a high power gas stove beats it in the “heat a cup of water as fast as possible with no regard to energy usage” competition, and is many areas will still cheaper because electricity is so expensive.
Gas Stoves are unhealthy and make you dumb
I’ll respect electric stoves when they support ceramic pans and get hot instantly
I don’t get the appeal of ceramic stove top pans but their are plenty of ceramic pans that support induction. Here is a random example
It’s okay, the two red triangles next to your username indicate that there might be already some damage done
It’s not even really about speed. My induction stovetop boils water much much faster than my kettle, but I use the kettle because it can be used unattended, go to a specific temperature, and hold a temperature.
Technology Connections tested that
Yeah I saw that comment elsewhere. I have to assume kettle/stove material/design/etc have some impact as well. Honestly, I trust TC so I’ll defer to them, I need to watch the video.
edit: yeah his testing is in-line with my experience, electric kettles are just faster.
We have one for every bedroom, for teamergencies
Electric kettles are actually a scam. Look up any BIFL forum, they’ll all say that stove top kettle is the way to go.
Nobody wants to use a stovetop kettle when they can just push a button and forget about it.
Also an electric kettle costs 10-20€ and lasts ~10 years, it’s also much more energy efficient.
No need to “buy it for life”
Yep , I never realized how fast they are. 2 cups boils in under 2 minutes.
Ur body is already made of like 70% water and also its already warm. Just eat the tea bag, thats what i do.
British Cuisine in a nutshell
mmmmmmm…plastic
You gotta take the wrapper off first obviously
Using cold water is the quickest, most energy-efficient and convenient way to make tea. Or coffee. Or hot chocolate.
How are you making hot chocolate with cold water? Lithium mixed in with the chocolate?
1 coffee mug/tea cup of water in the microwave for 1 minute is perfect for a single serving bag of tea. it doesn’t have to be boiling, just hot. 1 min is also not long enough to dangerously superheat water. hot is water is hot water, it doesn’t matter if you do it kettle or microwave.
edit: lol
No. Just no. You get shit cups of tea from coffee houses because the espresso machine doesn’t dispense boiling water. The water needs to be boiling for black tea.
Also how do you microwave water? It takes ages to get water to boil in there and can explode. Use a stove if you must, buy a kettle if you can.
Also if you put a cup, teabag, and milk in the microwave at the same time I will find you, and I won’t just force you to make a good cup of tea I will force you to make a perfect cup of tea that will ressurect the Queen of bloody England!
The culinary arts of my home country may be shit. But you fuckers make it worse by fucking up the most simple recipies!
It takes ages to get water to boil in there and can explode
Theoretically, if it’s an old-style microwave without one of those rotating trays, sure. But, “exploding” requires the water to be completely undisturbed as it’s heated beyond its boiling point. The smallest shake of the mug will disturb it enough that it just heats up and starts steaming/boiling normally if it gets hot.
I use an electric kettle so that I can heat green, oolong, black and herbal teas to the appropriate temps. But, I’m not scared of microwaves causing mugs of water to explode. It’s not that it’s impossible, but with modern microwaves with a rotating tray it goes from extremely uncommon to just not worth thinking about.
Also how do you microwave water? It takes ages to get water to boil in there and can explode.
Uh, I don’t use a microwave but this doesn’t sound correct. My wife boils one mug of water in about 2.5 minutes in the microwave. And I’m curious to see a citation for a microwave safe mug (no metal bits or decorations) full of water exploding in the microwave.
microwaves water for tea
this is why america is fucked
The microwave melts out the microplastics tho
doesn’t have to be boiling
Depends on the tea.
Black generally should. Green absolutely shouldn’t.
Something something typical US circuits can deliver less power than typical Euro circuits.
Not a lot less though.Turns out it depends, but the power rating in the EU is in theory usually about 2x that of US circuits, assuming similar current draws.I used to own a $15 plastic electric kettle, but it died after a year or two. When I went to target to get a new (hopefully better) one, I realized I could instead buy a plug-in induction plate on sale for $50, and a plain stainless steel kettle that somehow cost only $1.50 (less than the shitty bread that I was also buying? how?). The induction plate was honestly one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time. Sure, I have to wear earplugs to tolerate the high-pitched scream that the frequency driver makes, but it boils water just as well as an electric kettle and is also soooo much nicer to cook on than the resistive curlicue burners that came with my apartment.
A European 15 buck plastic kettle will likely also not pull more than 1500W. And probably only hold a litre. And still be overpriced.
Even a 10€ (sales tax already included)Kettle pulls 2200W and holds 1,7 Litres.
I love how confidently you say wrong stuff. It’s not like you could research this in one minute
https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_ok-owk-103-b-wasserkocher-weiss-2885881.html
Not the ones I was thinking of. Great, you found a cheap kettle at mediamarkt, good for you. Here’s a 1500W one, also not the one I was thinking of. I was thinking of one I once had. The one that’s the reason why my current one is 3000W and wide enough to not risk tipping over.
People who buy consumer electronics at Amazon from made up Chinese throwaway brands are beyond rescue.
They don’t care if their products are unsafe because they will never face consequences.
You can’t even be sure if the material is food grade.
MediaMarkt does, because it’s their own brand and would damage their reputation and financial bottom line
Something something typical US circuits can deliver less power than typical Euro circuits. Not a lot less though.
It’s a lot less. Half of what an European delivers. So your electric kettle takes twice the time
https://www.electricaltechnology.org/2025/02/americans-gas-kettles-europe-electric-kettles.html
Technology Connections did a video on this rule.
regular US outlets are 120V. regular EU outlets are 240V. P=VI, so to produce the same amount of power as a 240V kettle, a 120V kettle needs to draw twice as much current.
the gauge of a wire determines how much current it can carry without setting insulation on fire. home outlets are typically wired for 15A, around the world. so in EU, 15A service can deliver twice as much power since that’s 15A of current at 240V = 3.6kW, while in the US at 120V = 1.8kW.
so EU kettles are twice as powerful, typically.
At least here in Australia, 15A circuits are not very common. Only one of the places I’ve ever lived had a 15A outlet in a shed, which was likely installed by the previous owner for running a welder or plasma cutter, or some other high peak power tool like that. 3.6kW is massive overkill for general household use.
The standard circuit here is 10A, which gives you 2.4kW to play with. It’s been a while, but if I recall correctly that was part of the point Technology Connections was making - that the difference isn’t actually that great between 120 and 240V countries in practice. The change to boiling time from an electric kettle was pretty inconsequential between the two.
I believe he postulated that the real reason Americans don’t have electric kettles was that they didn’t have much need for them. They mostly don’t drink tea, and their coffee is largely prepared using drip coffee makers that heat their own water.
I didn’t bring my 3Kw UK kettle over because I heard it would probably blow the circuit. But my Australian colleague who moved back over here brought his UK toaster and it actually did blow the circuit.
Now we need to get the South Asians and East Asians fighting about putting milk in tea.
I went to a Thai restaurant and they said, “Milk?” And I made a disgust face. A good Thai dude at another table said, “It’s not western milk.” And I tried it.
Wow.
Then he said, “Try it on toast.” And fuck me. Another wow!
This. It’s so sweet and good.
Ooo condensed milk is also great with coffee and is how you make Vietnamese coffee!
Alternatively, if you prefer tea, Hong Kong milk tea uses black tea and condensed milk too.
Oh god Vietnamese coffee is so fucking good, it’s like crack I swear.
Thai iced tea is absolutely incredible and makes use of it as well, highly recommend.
edit: I actually just had Hong Kong milk tea just last week, it was great!
You know if you have a metal mug and an induction stove, you could put it right on the burner. Just don’t use the handle after.
Btw if you steep tea too long it turns bitter, so that’s what happens if you steep it cold. It is possible though.
