Michael Schwern's "How Long Is Five Minutes?", OSCON 2007

This is Michael Schwern's Perl Lightning Talk at OSCON 2007 on how to prepare a proper cup of tea.

• Category

  Howto & Style

[SeanBurke]

A problem: if you pour 100C water into a room-temperature pot, the pot (or mug) will quickly cool down the water.

So: put boiling water in the empty mug/pot-- maybe just let it sit, or maybe (carefully and slowly) move it around-- until the mug/pot is hot to the touch. Discard the water. And NOW start the real process of making A Proper Cup Of Tea. Then the tea-infusing water will stay at a the proper high heat for longer.

(Think of it as the reverse of serving cold beer in a chilled mug.)

[SeanBurke]

* If you're going the loose-tea route (as any sane person should), I find that it's worth spending a bit of money to get some gear to ease the process:

xrl~dot~us/3toc

xrl~dot~us/3tn8

xrl~dot~us/3toa

I think the third one is larger than the second one and also comes with a four-minute countdown timer. The fact they both say they're "coffee presses" has never stopped me from using them for tea.

* And for timing, there's always: sleep 4m && xmms ~/some_obnoxious_music

[SeanBurke]

~茶道!!~

* Some teas do best with different infusion times and temperatures. For example, the rooibos that I have every morning infuses for *eight* minutes in ~180F water, on the recommendation of the notes on the package. (I get it from adagio~dot~com, where they specify such things.  By comparison, their Irish Breakfast says just four minutes in really boiling water, 212F)