Judging water temp...thermometer?

If you are boiling water, it's easy to know how hot it is. Down here it's at 100'C. Up in Denver, it's a good bit lower.

If you're making a tea that wants to be steeped at a lower temperature, you need to measure it.

Some folks just boil water, then put it in the cup and wait some amount of time for it to cool down. But you still need the thermometer to find out how long it takes for the water to cool down to the right point in your cup, because it will be different in different cups.

When I do this kind of thing, I use a lab thermometer from Cenco Scientific because that's what's on my desk. You could use anything that will go up to boiling. But since I mostly drink black teas that want to be steeped at boiling temperature, I don't do this much.

An alternate method that some people use is to put water into the microwave, then heat it for a fixed amount of time. But you still need a thermometer so you can see how hot the water gets in _your_ cup in _your_ microwave with that amount of water. I don't like this, because small differences in the amount of water can make large differences in the final temperature.

I have seen folks do it in a deep pot on the stove. That stuff gets steeped damn near forever, which is why you need to put all the cardamom in t.

--scott

Persian tea tends to be really awful tasting to me if it is oversteeped or steeped at to high a temp.....although it is a fermented tea (I forget the type). I usually drink Sadaf brand Persian tea with bergamot (Earl Grey type).

Oh, here it is:

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My experience in Iran was not very strong, rather conventional black tea from a samavar, quite sweet, with the sugar cube chopped off the cone and held between the teeth. No cardamom, but I never got to the classy places you guys undoubtedly frequent.

Michael

It's almost always some kind of Assam. I must say I don't really care for that method of making tea, but I know folks who do.

--scott

For teas using temps at

For what it is worth: I asked my Turkish friend and he uses a Ceylon tea. Brews very strong and mixes with hot water to taste (ala a samovar). He also uses a lot of sugar...

Richard