An American scientist caused a storm in a cup across the Atlantic Ocean, when she gave Britain advice on preparing its favorite hot drink.
Michelle Frankel, a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, says that one of the keys to the perfect cup of tea is a little salt. This advice came in Frankel’s book “Steeping… The Chemistry of Tea,” published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The suggestion of adding salt has sparked an outcry among tea lovers in Britain, where a common stereotype depicts Americans as rude people who fill their stomachs with coffee drink and, if they do, make their tea in the microwave.
The US Embassy in London intervened in this turmoil, with a post on social media, reassuring “the good people of the United Kingdom that the unimaginable idea of adding salt to Britain’s national drink is not official US policy.”
The comic post read: “Let us unite in our drenched solidarity and show the world that when it comes to tea, we stand together. The United States Embassy will continue to prepare tea the right way via the microwave.”
The embassy later clarified that its post was “a funny play on our shared cultural ties,” and not an official press release.
On the other hand, the word “soaked” is no joke. The book’s publisher says it is the product of three years of research and experimentation, explores more than 100 chemical compounds found in tea, and “uses chemistry with advice on how to brew a better cup.”
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2024-01-25 22:06:32
