TRANSCRIPT
Hannah: "Oh my gosh. I feel- Hang on, I need to have another sip."
Sunil: "They taste surprisingly similar."
Alex: "I didn't actually notice that it had salt in it so I'm not sure that that's improved the flavour or not but the concept seems weird."
Hannah: "I think I'd be open to it because it did taste really nice. It didn't taste bad or anything. Maybe I will consider putting a pinch of salt in my tea in the future."]]
These Australian tea-drinkers are the latest to offer their voices amid a growing controversy in the world of hot brewed beverages.
A professor from the United States has been both shunned and lauded around the globe for her views on the ideal cup of tea
Her secret ingredient? A pinch of salt.
Professor Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College Pennsylvania, told CBC English she's been studying the craft of tea-making and believes to have found the perfect formula.
"I've read 500 papers, drank 400 cups of tea, tried all sorts of experiments in my kitchen. My perfect cup of tea starts with loose black tea, usually a nice English breakfast and then use boiling water and I let it steep for four minutes. That little pinch of salt makes it you know less bitter. My perfect cup of tea."
The inclusion of that final ingredient created a stir of controversy, largely from the United Kingdom, where tea traditionalists weren't too pleased with the suggestion.
The resulting backlash caused the U-S Embassy in London to release the following tongue-in-cheek statement.
"Today's media reports of an American Professor's recipe for the perfect cup of tea has landed our special bond with the United Kingdom in hot water...We want to ensure the good people of the UK that the unthinkable notion of adding salt to Britain's national drink is not official United States policy. And never will be...The US Embassy will continue to make tea in the proper way - by microwaving it."
But some tea enthusiasts have rightly pointed out that salt in tea is hardly a new tradition.
David Lyons is the founding director of the Australian Tea Cultural Society, a not-for-profit looking to spread awareness of the benefits and pleasures of drinking tea.
He says people throughout East Asia have been using salt in their tea brewing as early as the eighth century.
"Tea with salt has been around for thousands of years. I was in China two weeks ago, and was invited to a Tang Dynasty tea house and was served Tang Dynasty style tea. In that tea was salt. In Mongolia, they have their suutei tsai which is their milk tea and that has salt in it. In the Himalayas, places like Nepal or Bhutan, they drink salt tea. Remember that salt is just a flavour enhancer so if you add it to anything, it will improve the flavour."
But for many, the salty addition is still a bit difficult to swallow.
Sunil says he grew up with tea-lovers in the household but they would never think to reach for salt.
"Being from an Indian family we used to drink a lot of chai so you know boiling with cardamom pounds, ginger, that sort of thing, a fair bit of sugar. But I wouldn't think to put salt in it. No, I mean I put a lot of different things in. I've had tea with honey, I've had tea with monkfruit. But no, I wouldn't think about salt. That's not the flavour profile you think of with tea."
Hannah, who spent much of her life in Japan, says going abroad helped her to appreciate the richness of the tea-making tradition.
"I moved to Japan and tea is very much a part of that culture. So then I think my relationship changed and developed and I came to appreciate tea more maybe in the context of like they have tea ceremony and then I saw tea, from starting off as just a fun pastime to more of like, oh this is more of an art form."
And it is an art form that many take seriously.
Another criticism that tea expert David Lyons has regarding U-S Professor Michelle Francl's tea-making formula is the notion of putting milk into the mug second following the tea, which he says is scientifically incorrect.
"I completely disagree. That's a real shame because scientifically, that's completely incorrect. Because there are two chemicals that when you put the milk in first, and when you pour the hot black tea into the cold milk, there's actually lacto globulin in the milk and there's tannins which are in the tea. And when hot tea goes into the cold milk they actually blend together, they combine and latch on to each other and that creates a more buttery flavour."
The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation identifies tea as the world's most consumed drink after water, and Australia serves as a perfect example of the intersecting of different tea-making traditions.
Beyond our minor disagreements, Mr Lyons says he would love to see Australia foster a new and innovative multicultural tea tradition.
"We certainly believe that there should be a tea culture that reflects the multicultural and historical foundations of Australia. And not just those of the British tea culture."
