As someone who has spent considerable time living and doing business in Britain, I like to keep up with the headlines over there. Naturally, anything with ‘tea’ in the headline piques my interest immediately. So, when I saw "Storm Ciarán’s low pressure made tea taste worse, say scientists," I had to click.
Please enjoy my appraisal of the article in the style of a tabloid website.
Storm Ciarán possibly brewing up marginal trouble.
The article described how a big storm last November caused record-breaking low pressure, the lowest seen in 200 years! A PhD student at the University of Reading, Caleb Miller, conducted an experiment using temperature sensors and a standard electric kettle. He found that the boiling point of water dropped to 98°C.
Intrigued, I expected details about the controlled experiments that followed: a hypothesis, methodology, blind taste tests, data collection, and analysis. I imagined reading about the equipment used, participant recruitment, and how they ensured participants could reliably identify the difference between the two temperatures beyond random chance.
PhD student, Caleb Miller, wondering how to get the perfect brew at 98°C.
I even pondered how they would achieve the exact temperatures of 98°C and 100°C simultaneously during a low-pressure day. Would they use the same brand of kettle in some kind of pressurised container?
Can you taste the stormy impact on your tea? Thought not.
Alas, none of this was included. It’s almost as if the experiment had nothing to do with tea and that ‘Millions of Britons were forced to drink subpar cups of tea last November due to the record-breaking low pressure caused by Storm Ciarán’ is quite frankly a complete fabrication intended to make a reasonably interesting study a bit more clickable.
British tea time: Sacred ritual or victim of atmospheric pressure?
This highlights a significant issue: the level of journalism on science and engineering topics is far from where it needs to be. Especially when it concerns something as important as tea.
I think it might fall on us to blind taste test tea brewed at 98°C and 100°C to see if we can taste any difference at all.
Blind taste test: Is it 98°C or 100°C? A nation holds its breath.
Watch this space.
Disclaimer:
Ai may or may not have been used to produce some of these pictures. Stay vigilant.