TeaChat

Chip... that is so gross.

You know Chip, that's a good point about the kettle...But I'm in denial you see. Thanks for bursting my bubble. I suppose next you'll be talking about global warming, huh? LOL. And I DO recall hearing that steel has to be heated to much higher temperatures than 212 F for any possible toxic repercussions. Either way...sasames rock the Casbah, do they not?

-Ian

FataliTEA wrote:Chip... that is so gross.

Yes...hard tea stain resin flakes in my tea...most nasty, ole chap.

Ian wrote:You know Chip, that's a good point about the kettle...But I'm in denial you see. Thanks for bursting my bubble. I suppose next you'll be talking about global warming, huh? LOL. And I DO recall hearing that steel has to be heated to much higher temperatures than 212 F for any possible toxic repercussions. Either way...sasames rock the Casbah, do they not?

-Ian

The shareef dont like it
Rockin the casbah
Rock the casbah
The shareef dont like it
Rockin the casbah
Rock the casbah

now I'm dancing

*Shivers*

Of course it's highly doubtful that the steel has any harmful health effects, but I'm worried about taste. Boiling water in steel is fine, but it's when the tea is in contact with the steel that bad things happen. I think what happens is that you have tea in contact with steel, the tea breaks up the steel into iron and carbon. Then the tea bonds with those atoms, creating Carbon-Tea, and Iron-Tea. Your taste buds pick up the iron and carbon because these are heavier than tea.

So Fatal, what's it like working for NASA's tea department? I hope they pay well.

This from the guy who is always on teachat asking me to help him do his general chemistry homework...

Hmmmm...

Are all screens and infusers made from steel? On my last trip I stopped at three or four high end tea shops (one in Uji) and they all sold infusers that looked like steel... so I assumed they were, but I could be wrong.

Also, isn't green brewed at about 160-175F? And only for 2 or 3 minutes? Is that hot enough to produce any sort of chemical change? I honestly don't know. I saw a few teapots at the sencha farm also, and they had - well, steel looking strainers on handles.

Do iron or steel teapots count as well? Aren't there some fancy ones around available? Stop by any tea section in a department store in Japan, and it seems as though 99% of their infusers are made of steel (maybe it just looks that way). This might be a good idea for a new Tea Talk With Yuki episode.

Does water from a Zojirushi suffer as well? Aren't those coated interiors?

How about metal - maybe what I meant to say was metal... steel would rust, no?

And for what it's worth, Chinese greens can't hold a candle to Japanese greens.

Metal? Which metal? Steel is a metal, which is more or less rust prone (or resistant) depending on the exact type of steel.

Plain iron and high carbon steel would both very easily rust. Some metals will not corrode so easily in the presence of water, however, much less at all, in their purer states.

It is interesting to me that people are concerned with brewing tea in a steal stainer yet we all eat with stainless steal flatware, unless you eat with only chopsticks or silver.

I also doubt that the 30-90 seconds that the tea steeps is going to make much difference, especially when you're talking about stainless.

If you're really paranoid, then do a double-blind kind of thing. Brew up two batches exactly the same (except for the infuser), then have someone mix them up and give you one at a time to see if you can tell the difference.

Cancer is tasteless, Abx.

Does anyone know of a way to heat and/or boil water without having it come into contact with metal of any kind?

Ian wrote:Does anyone know of a way to heat and/or boil water without having it come into contact with metal of any kind?

In a clay kettle, with water from a spring, directly from the ground and not through any plumbing.

But that is very unlikely to have readily available.