I true. Not an enquiring mind Barry, more a senile mind really!
stock problemOn Fri, 24 Feb 2006, Wazza Really? It's certainly about getting a meat flavour, or perhaps a more general rich savouriness, but is it specifically about a roast...
The next part of my experiment would be to try to determine what temperature the water *should* be in order to produce the flavour we want. The problem is that rules about 'milk first' or 'water first' came about because wealthy people wanted to show off their superior cups and the fact that they could stand boiling water.
With Japanese tea, the better the quality of the tea, the lower the water temperature needs to be in order to extract the full flavour. Putting milk in first will probably do two things. It will ensure that the milk is not scalded in the same way as if you add a small amount of cold milk to boiling water. But it will also ensure that infusion takes place at a lower temperature than if you add the milk at the end. This may or may not be a good thing. Further experiments are required.
But in the end, the answer has to be, make the tea the way you like it best. Oh heck, that sounds far too sensible for me. I must be having an off day! -- Lyndon
