AIBU to think this tea is stewed?

[ThisTeaIsBad]

Hopefully there is a picture attached or this won't make any sense.

DH declares this tea to be perfect. I say it is stewed.

YABU - it is indeed perfect
YANBU - it is stewed

I leave the teabag in and it doesn't look like that!!

Use a teapot, anything else is an abomination! 😱

Doesn't look stewed but whatever is floating on top is gross

My tea regularly looks like this, and I descale it frequently. It’s crappy London hard water. But I’m now really intrigued by these filter kettles people are talking about… any recommendations??

I got the glass Britta one. A pod last me about a month.

Which reminds me I need to buy more!

You don’t need to overfill the kettle - just a bit more than one mug’s worth so you don’t tip in any scaly bits, and then tip the dregs away before you refill.
Also, as a Londoner I recommend citric acid as your friend for kettles, taps, toilets, everything.
Limescale is a pain, but the only tapwater I’ve ever had that tasted properly unpleasant to me was the very soft water in north east Wales. I guess it’s what you are used to.

Does he re-boil any water left in the kettle?
If he does then each time he re-boils the water the limescale(calcium carbonate) precipitates out of solution every time the temperature gets above 60°c. (that's the science bit).
Empty the kettle of the dregs and use freshly drawn water from the tap.
TBH you would cook with the freshest ingredients available, so water should be fresh too.
Ex water quality advisor here.

This is what a proper cup of tea should look like. This is using bottled watered only cos I still have loads left from work yesterday, but I do usually use tap water (hard water area) and it still looks like this

🤮

That's the colour of coffee, not tea, mate!

It’s neither of those things. It is the hard water. It shows up with extra tannin staining it maybe? It’s there anyway. The scum doesn’t suggest stewed or not stewed. The taste will. But some people like it like that. There is no right way.
It’s definitely wrong to allow your water to do that to it though. Get a filter.

Tea shouldn’t look like that. I’m not talking about the depth of colour but the nature. Tea should be amber, nit what my aunts would have referred to as ‘navy brown’ when discussing too strong, under milked coffee.

I diagnose a nice cup of tea, that has been forgotten, and reheated in the microwave. So probably not stewed, but microwaved.

Buy a new kettle. Looks the pits

It takes all sorts, but that looks disgusting. 'Stewed' is kind.

No, not microwaved.

Thanks @K0OLA1D
I’ve just bought a Brita one. I will look forward to much improved tea!

I often microwave my not quite hot enough now tea and it's never looked like that cesspool. I don't live in a hard water area though. I'm shocked that you could even call that a cup of tea🤢

You have hard water and your tea is stewed. Mine occasionally goes like that if I leave the teabag in and forget about it.

For comparison, this is microwaved (I make it in a tea pot and drink it over several hours, it's fine and less effort).

Slightly less milk than I like but CBA going to top it up. Note no scum, that's Yorkshire water for you.

I've never descaled anything in my life either or bought salt or other descaling products. We even used the dishwasher with standard detergent only tablets and no salt for a few months once with no ill effects because I bought that kind by mistake.

By contrast, every time I visit a friend who lives in SE England, one of them seems to be on their hands and knees chipping scale off the inside of the dishwasher. I couldn't live like that.

Our water is very hard and tea can come out like this whether the teabag sits for 30 seconds or 3 minutes.

I've shared the thread with DH. After he recovered from the coughing fit brought on by laughing so hard, he read it through and now thinks we need to use the teapot 🫖

He agrees with me though, the nasty floaty stuff only appears when it is left with the teabag too long before adding the milk.

Thank you for all the responses. It has definitely some ideas on how we can improve our tea.

Normal for a hardwater area and dunking the bag in the cup like a chav. Our tap water is liquid rock and we get this, minimised by using a proper teapot.

It's your kettle. I live in a soft water area and I could leave my teabag in for an hour and it wouldn't look like that. Stewed tea looks darker coloured than your picture.

Add the milk first.
Then tea bag, then boiling water and stir like mad.

Try it and report back.

Reason number 17 why I could never live in London.

You didn't actually drink that did you OP?