Heating water in an electric kettle versus on the gas stove

I have a cup of Darjeeling tea every morning. I make it by heating water in an electric kettle and then pouring it into a bowl which has the tea leaves and let it brew for five minutes before I pour it out into a cup and add sugar.

For the past few weeks, there is a power cut in our area every morning from 6 to 7:30 which means that the electric kettle cannot be used. I have started heating the water on the gas stove in the kitchen instead.

There is one startling difference in using this method to heat the water. When I used the electric kettle to heat the water and poured the water into the tea leaves, at the end of five minutes the tea leaves would still mostly be at the bottom of the bowl. However. when I heat the water using the gas stove, after pouring the water into the tea leaves, at the end of five minutes, the tea leaves are all over the water - right from the top of the water to the bottom!

I am very surprised. The water is the same, the tea leaves are the same. The water is taken to a boil in both cases. Only the method used to raise the temperature of the water is different. While it is electricity in one case, it is LPG fuel in the other.

Why then this difference in behavior?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is it Electrical (coil gets heated, i.e. thermal heating) or Induction(magnetically heating)?
Vishal
Kamal D Shah said…
Electrical coil that gets heated.
Madras Hash said…
You should bring the water close to a boil, without letting it boil, to get the best out of the tea leaves. The kettle probably over boils the water getting rid of the dissolved oxygen.

See http://coffeetea.about.com/od/teaandtisanebasics/a/TeaBrewingTemperatures.htm
&
http://www.teadiscussion.com/various/how-to-brew-tea.php
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