Why is my tea scummy?

[SatsumasOrClementines]

Lately, every time I have a cup of tea I notice that it’s scummy!

It wasn’t always like this. Occasionally I’d get a scummy one if I’d left it to brew for too long, but now it seems to be every single time.

I live in a hard water area so I’ve tried descaling the kettle in case that was the problem. It’s absolutely spotless now. But my tea’s still scummy!

I just want a nice cup of tea 😫

Milk in first?! 🤢

Milk is a suspension of fats in water. If the milk is stopping a film on the top of your tea, then I'd guess it's helping to dissolve whatever is creating the film, and disperse it through your tea, ready for you to drink.

Drinking tea is a very important pursuit to me! We have a softener fitted to our water supply but, even then, the kettle scales up over time. I think it's hard to understand unless you live in a hard water area. Scummy tea is gross.

Not sure how strong you like your tea but, after adding the milk, you can leave the tea bag stewing if you like it strong. I am embarrassed enough to admit that it was several months before I interrogated my husband to find out why my tea was scummy and his perfect. I just encouraged him to make the teas.

@MangoBiscuit

Milk in first?! 🤢

Milk is a suspension of fats in water. If the milk is stopping a film on the top of your tea, then I'd guess it's helping to dissolve whatever is creating the film, and disperse it through your tea, ready for you to drink.

I'm sure this is absolutely true. The scum doesn't magically disappear as you say. But that dispersal makes the tea taste nice, rather than grim.

Buy bottled water instead of a brita filter. Much cheaper! Lidl do 2l of water for 19p or something like that.

Do you rinse your dishes if you hand wash them?

Buy bottled water instead of a brita filter. Much cheaper! Lidl do 2l of water for 19p or something like that.
Two tea drinkers drinking 4 cups each a day. If one cup = 250ml of water and 250mlx8 = 2litres we’d get through a minimum of 7 big plastic bottles per week.
a) I don’t want to contribute that much plastic waste to the world.
b) I don’t want to have to lug that much bottled water home from the shops every week and also find places to store it.
c) How do you manage the recycling @wheresmycrown ? Ours only gets taken every two weeks and is already overflowing by bin day. I don’t think I could physically fit in an extra 14+ 2l plastic bottles on top of everything else!

Also, surprisingly it’s not cheaper @wheresmycrown! (Unless my maths is wrong?)

One bottle a day at 19p x 365 days in a year = £69.35

One Brita at £20.80 + years supply of filters at £42 = £62.80

But it depends how much tea you drink. If there’s only one tea drinker in the house having fewer than 4cups a day it would be cheaper.

@SatsumasOrClementines

Also, surprisingly it’s not cheaper *@wheresmycrown*! (Unless my maths is wrong?)

One bottle a day at 19p x 365 days in a year = £69.35

One Brita at £20.80 + years supply of filters at £42 = £62.80

But it depends how much tea you drink. If there’s only one tea drinker in the house having fewer than 4cups a day it would be cheaper.

Well yes it would depend on how many cups of tea you drink 😁

Costco is another good option for bulk buying. Not sure about Lidl but aldi do click and collect these days.

Re recycling I put extra recycling in our neighbours bin as they hardly use it. 😂. I hadn't thought about alternatives altho you could ask the council for a bigger bin or maybe even a community recycling project. They have them where I live for all sorts of stuff.

Costco is another good option for bulk buying. Not sure about Lidl but aldi do click and collect these days.
I really don’t want to contribute 365 2litre plastic bottles to the world every year but thanks for the suggestions.

So I tried the milk first... and it worked! Felt like an absolute heathen though.

I have a filter jug on its way next week so hopefully that will help too.

I've only experienced this when on holiday in areas with different water to home but do you know that you can get special teabags for hard water?

Posted too soon - Yorkshire Teabags for Hard Water by Taylor's of Harrogate, for example.

I haven't had a scummy tea for months, that is until last weekend when I refilled the rinse aid tank on the dishwasher 🤔

@SatsumasOrClementines

So I tried the milk first... and it worked! Felt like an absolute heathen though.

I have a filter jug on its way next week so hopefully that will help too.

Another convert to the Dark Side