Tea @ work - why is it always so horrible?

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Even if I use a proper teabag, real milk and use my own mug, somehow I still end up with a sickly cardboard syrup. Why?

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 08:34 (eighteen years ago)

what is the water coming out of? (this is u&k)

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:21 (eighteen years ago)

don't drink tea at work but as for coffee at work we have the following dilemma:

use the machine, which has yr actual real filter coffee, but which has been standing around inside the machine in a big tub for weeks on end gathering dust, and has to travel thru furry tubes

OR

use a kettle and fairtrade Cafe Direct which, whilst much better than the former worthy product Campaign Coffee (aka Brazilian Road Dust) still doesn't taste as nice as Nescafe (which may or may not kill babies these days).

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:25 (eighteen years ago)

1. Are you using your own mug?
2. Are you washing your mug before you use it?

Tea at work is alright, it should be worse given the minging amount of limescale that accumulates in approx 2 days in 2 kettles for 40 workshy wasters.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:29 (eighteen years ago)

I have never lived in a soft water area. I would like to know if the tea tastes different.

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:31 (eighteen years ago)

IT DOES!

You want Yorkshire Tea For Hard Water in these icky hard water areas.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

Is it true that reboiling "old" water in a kettle will deoxygenate it and make tea taste crap? Would that explain why my cups of tea:satisfaction ratio at work is about 5:1? Per Grozart's original post, it usually tastes funny compared to a brew made at home, despite same tea bags, milk, mug etc...The only variable is that I always boil fresh water at home, whereas here the kettle's on all day anyway so I just reboil it.

― Bill A, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

it's true that boiling water removed dissolved oxygen. but that's true of the first boil anyway, so the 2nd one won't have less. certainly i don't imagine that will make a significant difference.

― Alan, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:09 (eighteen years ago)

in urns that are constantly on the boil, they never really are boilING when you pour it. that might make more difference.

― Alan, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:10 (eighteen years ago)

Is it true that reboiling "old" water in a kettle will deoxygenate it and make tea taste crap?

I believe so, and that's why the tea at our work always tastes bad - the water comes from one of those wall-mounted boiler things (what are these properly called?). I've never brought in a thermometer, but I guess the water is either below boiling or else constantly boiling and thus deoxygenated. Plus it's probably full of limescale.

I sometimes manage to make good tea all the same, if I warm the mugs first. I think that helps. And leave it to brew for a decent amount of time, rather than just squashing the bag about.

Because I wasn't convinced the urn thing was 100 degrees, I took to putting the brewing mugs in the microwave for a while. It made the tea very dark very quickly. Wasn't sure if I wasn't killing everyone, so I stopped doing that.

― Alba, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:10 (eighteen years ago)

in my city we call the wall mounted boilers 'urns' even though they aren't really urns, or 'water heaters'. we have two on our floor at work and one is far hotter than the other. the hotter one definitely makes much nicer tea.

― gem, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

i made a great cup of tea at work once. with me it is purely random.

― blueski, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:47 (eighteen years ago)

Is it true that reboiling "old" water in a kettle will deoxygenate it and make tea taste crap?
Yeh, this is true. It also affects the delicate balance of flavours in a Pot Noodle.

One way to get good tea out of those boiler type things is to pre-heat the cups and then add the water from a great height. The additional pressure of the water shocks the life out of the teabag, so you don't need to stir or owt. Can be a bit messy, though.

― stet, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:52 (eighteen years ago)

I do that, a bit, but I worry that in choosing the appropriate height, there's a balance to be struck between bag splatting power and temperature loss.

― Alba, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

one of the orderlies in our office is apparently applying this method to making coffee, judging by all the coffee splatter all over the urn every morning. it grosses me out completely, i'm compelled to clean it all off before i can make my cup of tea. perhaps i should put this on the 'petty annoyance' thread...

― gem, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I never leave tea to brew long enough at work - at home I go off and do something else for four minutes, but at work I hover by the cup, well aware that I should be doing something productive.

― chap, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I've had fair luck making tea with the microwave at work. The hot water spout out of the coffee maker states it is 200 deg F, which I'm sorry is not boiling and is barely adequate for green tea. So, fill the mug with the hottish water (which is apparently filtered as well), then nuke to a boil, then drop in the tea bag.

― Jaq, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

We have Arrowhead water delivered at work: There's an instant-hot spigot that gives the perfect temperature water only when you use a paper cup or a hot mug. I'd say it makes pretty decent tea. Far better than the stuff that goes thru all the nasty old copper tubing in those industrial coffeepots they've had at every other place I've worked.

― libcrypt, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 16:43 (eighteen years ago)

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