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The Problem with Microwaving Tea:
Typically, when a liquid is being warmed, the heating source — a stove, for example — heats the container from below. By a process called convection, as the liquid toward the bottom of the container warms up, it becomes less dense and moves to the top, allowing a cooler section of the liquid to contact the source. This ultimately results in a uniform temperature throughout the glass.
Inside a microwave, however, the electric field acting as the heating source exists everywhere. Because the entire glass itself is also warming up, the convection process does not occur, and the liquid at the top of the container ends up being much hotter than the liquid at the bottom.
A team of researchers from the University of Electronic Science & Technology of China studied this nonuniform heating behavior and presents a solution to this common problem in the journal AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing.
By designing a silver plating to go along the rim of a glass, the group was able to shield the effects of the microwave at the surface of the liquid. The silver acts as a guide for the waves, reducing the electric field at the top and effectively blocking the heating. This creates a convection process similar to traditional approaches, resulting in a more uniform temperature.
Placing silver in the microwave may seem like a dangerous idea, but similar metal structures with finely tuned geometry to avoid ignition have already been safely used for microwave steam pots and rice cookers.
Journal Reference:
Peiyang Zhao, Weiwei Gan, Chuanqi Feng, et al. Multiphysics analysis for unusual heat convection in microwave heating liquid [open], AIP Advances (DOI: 10.1063/5.0013295)
(Score: 3, Informative) by datapharmer on Thursday August 06 2020, @12:36AM (2 children)
No. Please no. Tea is filthy and if you leave it in the sun it gets to the perfect temperature for all the nasty microbes to grow like crazy. It is incredibly dangerous.
Consider cold brew tea instead!
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/06/did-you-know-iced-tea-safety/ [foodsafetynews.com]
https://livesmartohio.osu.edu/uncategorized/miller-59osu-edu/is-sun-tea-safe/ [osu.edu]
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/steep-risk/ [snopes.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday August 06 2020, @03:39AM
I use a half-gallon jar (about what I'll drink in a day) and a single teabag, and brew it overnight in the fridge. The flavor is much better than 'sun tea' (which always seems to taste muddy) and it's already cold for drinking, and has little chance to grow nasties.
Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast and Tetley English Tea both make excellent fridge tea. (For some reason it's best if the bag floats.) No need to find 'cold brew' tea.
I suppose if one wished to further mitigate risk, one could wet and microwave the tea bag just long enough to get it thoroughly hot before tossing it into the cold water.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Friday August 07 2020, @08:41AM
Mr. A sterilizes his apartment daily, washes hands twice before eating, eats only branded food wrapped in plastic, the first microorganism that gets past his body barriers does like Attila the hun in a monastery of Buddhist nuns.
Mr. B considers expiry date a challenge accepted, drinks room temperature tea and coffee, uses one disposable razor for months and when COVID 19 enters his body it finds a display and a sign: please pick a number.
Account abandoned.