I hate

Tea is a serious business. I will not be delayed. If you empty it, you refill it. That's the law.

Apart from the monetary, water and energy waste, a full kettle will also take longer to boil than one with a mug's worth of water tho.

ACAB

Yeah, some bastard did that to me just now. I only put in enough for my cup because who has time to wait for 6L to boil.

surely the boiled water in a kettle is going to be 'fresher' than the piss and shit tainted muck you get out of the tap?

#teachat

Water that has been left standing or been previously boiled retains less oxygen, drawing the water from the tap helps oxygenate it. The higher oxygen levels improve the infusion process and give you a better cuppa.

#marginalgains

Wouldn't the higher levels of chlorine affect the taste more than lower oxygen levels? You have to boil tap water for fifteen minutes to remove chlorine, longer than a kettle boils for.

People who can taste the difference between a cuppa made with twice boiled water and one made with freshly boiled water will probably be the same people that can hear the difference between hifi interconnects.

A bit of googling shows the same quote from the same "tea expert". #science

I would be more concerned about the first kettle-full of water drawn off in the morning has picked up, overnight, measurable amounts of lead from aged pipes.

Tea is a serious business.

Which is why.

ALWAYS USE FRESHLY DRAWN WATER.

Plus you should only boil what you need to save electricity, kettles use loads. I always empty out whatever excess water my wife has boiled before refilling with the exact right amount (everyone has a talent) of fresh water, pumped directly from the lake district, then I use teabags (Yorkshire or twining) in mugs because I'm not that much of a cunt, but I can tell if the waters been boiled more than once, tastes kinda flat.

If the water's been boiled twice, or if you like to let it stand (before boiling obvs) to get rid of some of the chlorine, then pouring it from a bit of height into your mug does help to re aerate it.

I mean you don't have to put the mug on the floor or anything. Just a few inches is good. And makes you feel like a Japanese tea master.

Also, hold the teabag on a teaspoon at the top of the mug and pour water over and through it. Makes a lovely cuppa that does.

(This method was shared by Mr Scruff, the Ninja Tunes guy who runs a tea tent at festivals.)

And always pour the milk in first

Not for me. Milk after everytime.

And always pour the milk in first

You wot m8!?

Tea is an infusion. Milk is an emulsion. Emulsions inhibit infusions.

Science bro. Do you even?

Drinking an animal’s breast milk.

surely he has made the tea in a pot?

Milk (or substitute) after tea has reached desired strength if bag in mug, before is fine if it's from a pot, although after means you can judge strength a bit better.

No no. The preceding comments directly reference mug based brewing methods. Besides, even if you are using a pot, milk first ruins your control over final levels of milkyness as it is too easy to too add too much. Milk first just doesn't work for standard English breakfast tea.

The only reason you’d ever want to put the milk in first is to prevent your cup from cracking from the heat of the boiled water. I don’t really own any paper thin fine regency china cups or anything like that, so I put milk in after.

I've just remembered, we do actually have a thread for this.

Besides, even if you are using a pot, milk first ruins your control over final levels of milkyness as it is too easy to too add too much.

If using a familiar vessel, it's really not that difficult to judge.
Regardless of fine china or stoneware mug, milk first mixes beautifully.

If you have really fine china, the heat of tea first won’t crack it... hence the lowly peasants went milk first to protect their sub-par china.

Nonsense.

"To test the recipe for the perfect cup of tea put forward in 1946 by
George Orwell himself, Dr Stapley of Loughborough University
established that putting the milk in after the boiling water is
incorrect, as it causes the milk to heat unevenly (as opposed to
pouring the water on top of it). This uneven heating of the milk
causes the proteins in it to denature, meaning they lose their
structure and “clump”, affecting the taste and contributing to that
skin you get on the top. So when someone says they can tell if you put
the milk in first or second in the tea you’ve made for them just by
tasting it, turns out they probably can."

A nuclear chemist who I used to work with always insisted on milk first because in his (paraphrased) words "adding the milk first creates a colloid which creates a nicer mouth texture".