George Orwell said there were 11 rules for brewing the perfect cup of tea, despite a strong critic of Hitler and Stalin he was known to be quite the dictator when it came to how his tea was made. He made it clear that someone shunned the sugar bowl they could not call them self a tea lover.
As well as the sweet lovers, the great author also despised science. So, ironically, on the 100th anniversary of his birth a group from the Royal Society of Chemistry decided analyse and scrutinise his 11 point formula, intent on discounting his golden rules.
Dr Andrew Stapley, a chemical engineer at Loughborough University tore apart Orwell’s theory of the cuppa and set about writing new guidelines for the perfect brew. Despite Orwell determining six spoons of tea per pot in a post war ration era, Stapley determined that no more than a single spoon of leaves be used.
Stapley discovered that pouring cold milk into hot tea deformed the curled up protein strands of the milk which changed and arguably ruined the taste; this is the same process that makes UHT milk taste worse than fresh milk. Instead it is better to have the chilled milk already in the cup awaiting the tea allowing it to cool the tea on arrival.
Science also did a good job of dismissing Orwell’s claim that sugar ruined the tea, as a matter of fact it was the opposite, white sugar was proven to moderate the natural astringency of the tea, or simply ‘makes it less bitter’.
The RSC determined the best leaves to use were Assam leaves from India, they had the best consistency and the nicest taste compared to all other leading types of leaf. To compromise between the heat of the drink and the brewing process, the tea and water should be left to brew in the pot for two minutes and NEVER re-heated. After brewing, the tea should be poured from a ceramic tea pot into a tall mug shaped ceramic cup. If you want to go the extra mile pour the tea over a small teaspoon just above the surface of the milk to avoid it splashing and changing the taste of the milk with heat.
If you wanted to go the extra mile, gently warm the mug with hot water while the tea is brewing avoid pouring tea directly into cold cups and any tea lover would agree that in no circumstances should you use hot paper cups.