Food Technology: 'International Incident Over Tea'

[Diplomatic Issue]

An American university professor stated in their book
that 'to make the perfect cup of tea,
you should add a pinch of salt.'
This announcement was made.

This single remark,
though just one line within a vast body of research,
has shaken the US-UK alliance
and looks set to develop into an international incident.

In the UK, this has sparked fierce backlash,
with people saying, 'It's a desecration of tea!'
and 'Americans couldn't brew a proper cup of tea if they tried,'
leading to a major uproar.

In response, the US Ambassador to the UK
issued a statement saying, 'Adding salt to Britain's national drink
is outrageous and not the official position of the US,'
escalating it into a diplomatic issue.

The incident began on the 24th of this month when
chemist Michelle Francl of Bryn Mawr College in the US
published a book titled 'Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea,'
and the controversial sentence was written in this book.

In the book, it is claimed that 'adding a pinch of salt
to tea can reduce bitterness.'
Why suggest adding salt, which is the exact opposite
of the common sugar or milk?

Regarding this claim, she stated, 'It is not something new,
but something that has been done for centuries,'
and she reportedly analyzed ancient documents from over 1,000 years ago
and past research papers for this study.

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[Backlash]

Furthermore, an 8th-century Chinese manuscript also
mentions the custom of adding salt to tea,
and as a chemist, I analyzed this method
to try and understand the mechanism behind it.

The results explain that the sodium ions in salt
eliminate the substances that make tea taste bitter,
effectively blocking them, and scientific evidence
is provided to support this.

However, the key is not to add too much salt;
by adding just a pinch of salt that you cannot taste,
the bitter components in the tea
are neutralized.

But when this news was reported in the UK,
the British, who have loved tea for a long time,
reacted with intense rejection in the comments section
of the British newspaper Daily Mail.

The content included critical opinions one after another,
such as "Absolutely impossible," "Americans can't brew proper tea,"
and "Stick to coffee."

Fearing that this commotion would cause a rift in
peaceful diplomacy with the UK, the US Ambassador to the UK
ended up issuing an official statement
denying Mr. Francl's views.

However, the unnecessary sentence added at the end of the statement,
"We will continue to make tea the right way by heating it in the microwave,"
ended up provoking the British again.

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【American Tea】

In the US, it is common to microwave a cup of water with a tea bag,
but in the UK, it is very common to brew tea
with water boiled in a kettle.

Regarding this, Mr. Francl also warns, "Never
heat water in the microwave," saying that
if water is boiled rapidly, oxygen is not released sufficiently,
causing tea scum and bitterness to form.

This commotion reached Mr. Francl's ears, and he said,
"I just realized after checking my email that it's become a huge uproar;
I never thought that adding salt would lead to
this kind of situation when I woke up this morning."

"I never intended to cause a diplomatic incident."
"But I am confident in this research, so I hope people
won't judge it without reading the book or hold prejudices."

When Mr. Francl was 10 years old, he drank tea
his mother brewed for the first time and loved it,
and based on that experience, his book contains many
methods for brewing delicious tea.

And they described their experience, saying, 'The way to brew American tea was
so terrible that the tea from a gas station was
better than the tea served at a high-end restaurant.'

Therefore, they state that this research was by no means
intended to mock British tea culture,
but rather to find a way for Americans to brew
tea that is both delicious and simple.