A Heated Debate: Should Tea Be Microwaved?

A Heated Debate: Should Tea Be Microwaved? “I microwave my tea.” These words can turn friends into enemies as fast as pineapple on pizza. Australian Scientist Dr. Quan Vuong started a wave of controversy across social media when he suggested the optimum way to steep tea was using the household microwave. As it turns out, people all over the Internet are passionate about the proper way to prepare a cup of tea. Tea drinkers from South Korea to Britain chimed in via websites like Facebook and Twitter to voice their opinion on the matter.

Dr. Vuong’s method details placing one’s cup (water and tea included) into the microwave, then heating it for 30 seconds on half power. Let the tea sit in the water for 1 minute, and you’ve got a perfect cup of tea! He claims that this method activates more caffeine than any other method as well as improves the flavor. Many agree with Vuong’s method. Some, who were inspired to the method for the first time, were instantaneously converted. The rest of the Internet? Appalled.

For several months after Dr. Vuong asserted his findings, articles pertaining to microwaved tea rose to the top of Google searches and circulated throughout websites like Pinterest and Tumblr. However, this wasn’t because people were excited by the discovery of Dr. Vuong’s microwave method. Rather, readers wanted to voice their staunch opposition to the concept of sticking tea in a microwave. Tea traditionalists had a lot to say about Dr. Vuong’s findings, and many of them were not very pleasant!

Admittedly, our gut reaction is to say that tea and microwaves just don’t belong together, but we decided to give the microwave-method a fair try. While the tea wasn’t undrinkable, the spread of temperature was uneven, and the flavor left much to be desired. I think we’ll be sticking to the kettle.

If you try the microwave-method for yourself, be sure to tell us what you think!