Food Science! Tea!

Last night we got to explore the science of tea, which was pretty interesting. The teens divided into groups and then tested oolong (which means bird dragon), green tea, and Earl Grey. To find out what the teens discovered and what experiments they did with  tea, read on!

The experiments consisted of testing the milk first or water first debate using oolong tea, the temperature of the water using green tea, and the steep (or how long the tea sits in the water) for Earl Grey. These teas were picked because they are actually considered tea (some tea that is called tea is not actually tea but rather an herbal infusion. To be considered tea, it must come from the Camellia sinensis plant.) This was a cool fact I got to share with the teens. As they also found out, these teas can taste quite bad if prepared the wrong way! 

Here is what was noted with putting the water in and then adding milk: "It mixed with the water" and what happened when milk was added first and then water "the milk stayed on top and did not seem to mix as well." These were interesting observations that may help indicate which way to add milk to your tea.  (It seems like from our research it is better to add milk secondly, but they thought milk and tea tasted gross.) They also noted the effects of water temperature on green tea by observing the color of the tea when the tea was added at different water temperatures. The cooler temperature actually produced green tea, while adding the tea at a hotter water temperature made the tea brown and yellow but not green. Lastly, and my favorite, they noted the effects of letting an Earl Grey tea bag steep too long, which allowed me to explain the release of tannin from the tea bag.  The best response to how the tea at different stages of steeping from shortest to longest is  the following: "Bad" then "horrible" and finally "deadly". This was a fun and easy set of experiments that only requires some hot water and different teas. 

Please email me for a supply list or a list of directions! dstates@yorklibraries.org

What is your favorite type of tea? Dawn states: Mine is green tea! Leave a comment!