I'm a brit living in America. At my office there's no kettle, but we have a hot water dispenser. Today it's broken. When I lamented I can't make a cup of tea, a colleague suggested I microwave the water. Trump is not the only thing that makes this place a hellscape.
@fesshole Honest question: why not? The tea won't care how the water got hot.

@virbonus

I wondered the same. It can’t affect the taste. Is it a principle thing? I boil a kettle on a stovetop every morning for coffee I make in a French press because that’s how I like to do it, but I’d microwave a cup of water for tea in a pinch.

Also don’t really trust the hot water from the tap. Idk why.

@fesshole

@dtm @virbonus @fesshole

It really _does_ affect the taste.

I suspect it's because boiling water in the microwave takes less time and doesn't induce convection currents so that the water retains more dissolved air than when boiled in a pot or a kettle, but that's just my personal theory.

(Re-heating a cold cup of tea in the microwave is fine.)

@skjeggtroll @dtm @fesshole Sincerely doubt that. Solubility of air in water is a direct function of temperature. Of course one should make sure the water has time to equalize the temp.

@virbonus @dtm @fesshole

Yes, but it takes time for the system to reach equilibrium. A bottle of soda doesn't immediately go flat when you open it, after all, but retains its fizz for some time afterwards.

@skjeggtroll @virbonus @fesshole

This is the most Fediverse convo. The scientific quandary of boiling water using microwaves and the existential crisis of physics on the aesthetics of tea.

Judd Apatow tells the story of his mother when he was young. She was having financial difficulties after her divorce but still she went out and bought a Mercedes. Why, Judd asked? Why not get a Honda and have money left over?

“Because I’m not an animal,” she said.