Smag (Rant)

[Chris Green]

But weren't we talking specifically about de-frosting?

[Max Demian]

They used to say that you should always take the pot to the kettle rather than the other way round, so the water was properly boiling to make the tea. And special blends of tea were made for mountaineers so the tea would taste good in the thin air where water boils at less than

100 C.

I don't suppose you guys put in "one for the pot" either.

[The Natural Philosopher]

What's a 'pot'?

[Vir Campestris]

I want 80 degree or so water in my green tea. So I put a bit of cold in the bottom of the mug, then add water from the kettle.

Andy

[Sam Plusnet]

Microwaves with a knob/dial to set the time are absolutely crap at.. actually setting a time. If you try to set 3 minutes, you will often get 2 minutes... or maybe 4. If you just want to warm a small quantity of milk (as I frequently do) then you don't have a chance. You don't have a hope of selecting 60 seconds.

I do agree that flat panel "touch" switches which actually require you to jab them so hard that the whole microwave moves - are somewhat less than ideal.

[alan_m]

It's the thing you put your tea bag in :)

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, That's a mug.

[Theo]

With a blast-and-pause microwave you can overcook items on defrost - eg chicken breast, where the outside starts to go white while the inside is frozen. I haven't tried an inverter but I'd guess it might be better for this?

Blast-and-pause mitigate this by having a very short blast time, but that means it takes a long time to defrost (~20 mins on the defrost setting)

Theo

[mm0fmf]

Ignorant f****ng philistine not making tea in a tea pot!

[mm0fmf]

That was what was always nice staying in business class hotels when I was out working in Japan... they had a kettles that heated to 80C for your green tea. Best hotel had one with buttons for 80/90 and 100C. It also had a super advanced techno-toilet with male/female bidet modes, heated seat, auto-flush and anti-skid mark mode!

[Fredxx]

As TNP has stated, microwaves cook through dielectric loss. This is much higher in liquid water and quite low in ice.

While I accept a conventional transformer microwave has an off-on behaviour, whereas an inverter may provide a continuous low power, the issue of differential dielectric heating between water and ice is precisely the same.

[RJH]

Speaking for the topish of range Panasonic I find the knob makes dialing in the time easy - 10s increments with a slow turn, then multiples with a faster turn. Simple to enter say 15m40s. And there's a 30s button - press for multiples of 30s.

[RJH]

For instant coffee, the water should be well off the boil - 80-90C.

I'm with Robin on this - the Bosch kettle does what I want and saves energy. Flipping expensive though.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Some of us who put thermometers into boiling water discover than its seldom above 90°C - it may be right at the base where its heated, and the bubbles may be, by by the time the kettle is off or than pan is off the stove its all well less than 100°C.

[The Natural Philosopher]

What a total f****ng waste of time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If God had intended us to make tea in a tea pot he wouldn't have created mugs

[alan_m]

Or just pour the milk in first.

[charles]

Tea for two?

[alan_m]

How much money does it actually save over a year?

[Tim Streater]

Even worse, using tea-bags. Should be using loose tea, which is readily available and can either be used in a tea-pot or a concrete mixer such as this

Leave to infuse for at least 4 minutes either way.