>
>
>Square Peg wrote:

>> On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:38:39 -0700 (PDT), Rainy gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>

>>>
>>>
>>>Square Peg wrote:
>>>

>>>>
>>>> Is your point that the water must be brought to a boil quickly or that
>>>> it has to be gas and not electric or microwave regardless of speed?

>>>
>>>Boiling quickly or slowly definitely has effect. Try it.

>>
>> I definitely will.
>>

>>>Slowly boiled tea is sweeter and has less spark,
>>>less flavor. I generally prefer quicker boiled tea.

>>
>> I don't understand how bringing the water to boil somewhat more
>> quickly can make a discernible difference. It makes sense (to me) that
>> letting the water boil for a long time can remove oxygen, but does
>> that apply to an extra minute or two on the way to boiling?
>>
>> Depending on the amount of water and the wattage of the microwave, I
>> would think that the microwave could bring it to a boil about as
>> quickly as a gas range. So I did a little test. I put 32 ounces of tap
>> water in a saucepan on the largest burner on the gas range. I put 32
>> ounces of water in a 32 oz pyrex measuring bowl in my 1250 watt
>> microwave. I turned on the gas burner to the highest setting and then
>> hit the start button on the microwave and then started a stopwatch.
>> Here are the readings for each container to (a) the start of boiling
>> and (b) rolling boil:
>>
>> (a) (b)
>> Gas 5:28 5:58
>> Microwave 5:42 6:06
>>
>> Looks like a dead heat to me. With more water, the gas range would do
>> better and with less, the microwave would.
>>
>> So, it looks like tea made with water heated on this gas range should
>> taste the same as tea made with water heated in this microwave.
>>
>> Agreed?

>
>No, there was a very big difference between
>water I heated with slow electric range and
>slow heating by a spirit lamp, which I think
>should be very similar, if not the same,
>as butane or propane burner. Again, I'm no
>scientist so I don't know what the reason
>is for the difference.
>
>I should add that I might not even care with
>simple black teas. With green and whites
>difference is very big, with high grade
>black like a golden yunnan, difference is
>still pretty big. With slow-heating electric
>range, golden yunnan is much, much
>sweeter. But it's already a pretty sweet
>tea and it loses some flavor like that.
>

>>

>>>BTW forgot to add that it's good to aerate water
>>>before boiling, I do this by shaking the plastic
>>>water jug for ~15 seconds.

>>
>> I'll add that to my test parameters.
>>

>>>I'm not sure if a quick electric kettle will be as
>>>good as gas stove boiled water. I suspect it
>>>won't but can't give any proof or reasoning.

>>
>> Even if they take exactly the same amount of time to reach the desired
>> temperature?

>
>Yes, that's my point exactly. I know for sure
>that with different boiling time there's a
>difference in taste. When boiling time is the
>same, I think there would be, based on my
>experiements with a spirit lamp and also
>based on experiments with heating slowly
>on a gas range.