Never re-boil water before making the tea

WHEN George Orwell wrote what many still regard as the definitive guide to making a good cup of tea he laid out 11 basic principles, from warming the pot beforehand to stirring the leaves before pouring.

What he didn’t insist on was that the water, which Orwell said absolutely had to be at boiling point before going into the pot, should be boiled just the once.

But it seems he was wrong to omit this detail from his tea commandments.

One of Britain’s leading tea experts has now said that the water used for making a cup of tea should never be boiled more than once. William Gorman, chairman of the Tea and Infusions Association, said boiling the same water more than once removes the oxygen and nitrogen and results in a “dull” cuppa.

And, extraordinarily, Mr Gorman advocates something which – had they been invented – Orwell would surely have balked at; using a microwave to reheat tea.

Mr Gorman, whose organisation represents tea packers, brokers and importers, said: “Usually when people’s tea goes cold they reboil the kettle and make another cup.

“But doing this you are guaranteed to give yourself a dull cup of tea. You need freshly drawn water for a good cup because reboiling it takes out all the oxygen and nitrogen out of it.”

He added: “A better solution is to put it in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds.

“When you microwave tea all you’re doing from a scientific point of view is just moving the molecules around and getting it back up to a decent temperature.

“It is not impacting the flavour at all.”