Some Guidelines for Making a Proper Cup of Tea

MSNBC just reported on a study which showed that the beneficial effects of tea are cancelled out when you put milk in it. According to MSN:

The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital. If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects, you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments.

Since I quit smoking about three years ago, I’ve been drinking, like, five cups of tea a day to fill the void, but I’ve totally been cheating death by using soymilk instead of cow’s milk. Which, you know, hooray for getting one over on Death, but the underlying point here is that cow’s milk is designed for baby cows, not for one’s Earl Grey or English Breakfast.

While I’m on the subject—ever since I moved to the U.S., I’ve noticed that a lot of people here don’t always bring their water to a full boil before pouring it on their tea. WTF is that all about? For a proper cup of tea, you need to use boiling water to activate the tea leaves, and then let it steep for at least a minute. Then, if you don’t want to drop dead from a heart attack right there on the spot, skip the cow’s milk and have some soymilk with that bad boy. At any rate, that’s how I do it.

Stay tuned for more scintillating tea tips next week. I have a lot to say on this subject.