[Closed] Settle an argument for Mrs and Me. (Coffee making content).

She is mad. Box of frogs level of madness. Especially the instant coffee admission.

Divorce lawyer or section 28 are the only options.

I think she's making it up. But then she is a lady and they're very strange people indeed.

There's a simple test you can do to prove whether she's right.

Make her a brew from a kettle with pre-boiled water in it and then lie about emptying it first, she if she says anything.

There is only one answer.. Yes dear...

The trouble with yes dear, is that by implication, you're agreeing that it makes sense and therefore subscribing to the process. Now you've got to empty the kettle before you can boil it.

Then she'll be telling you it's this cup for tea and this cup for coffee.

You have to use this spoon.

Cut the bread that way.

Not those biscuits! These biscuits!

And before you know it you've subscribed to a whole load of activities. Now this would be fine if there was any logic or sense behind it, but there isn't so you'll forget and then the arguments start.

The trouble with yes dear, is that by implication, you're agreeing that it makes sense and therefore subscribing to the process. Now you've got to empty the kettle before you can boil it.

Then she'll be telling you it's this cup for tea and this cup for coffee.

You have to use this spoon.

Cut the bread that way.

Not those biscuits! These biscuits!

And before you know it you've subscribed to a whole load of activities. Now this would be fine if there was any logic or sense behind it, but there isn't so you'll forget and then the arguments start.

I don't drink tea or coffee but I think my wife's going mad

too much caffine

why are you anywhere near the kettle in the first place?

Utter bilge. She's batshit crazy.

What's 'instant'?

I'm opening myself up to a raft of abuse it seems but I reckon I can tell the difference. Someone told it it's because of the oxygen levels in the water i.e. boiled water has less of it. Not sure why that should make a difference though!

If you boil it for coffee that's the mistake your wife has made. But I have heard boiling reduces the dissolved oxygen content which makes it taste funny (but I may have just heard that on the internet, so wrong).

Pedants suggest that tea and coffee should be brewed from fresh water as repeated boiling reduces the amount of oxygen in the water and impairs the taste.

Boil some water a few times, let it cool down and taste it.

If it's been there a good while, days, then yes it will otherwise no.

I agree with her - I can tell when water had been reboiled - it starts to taste like kettle. My girlfriend sometimes uses reboiled water and I can instantly tell if she has

I think it affects the water at the bottom of the kettle most - but then filling up a kettle with loads of water every-time is a waste of power

I think it affects the water at the bottom of the kettle most

dear god 🙁

as has been said reduced levels of oxygen within the previously boiled water impair the taste of your brew

or just say "yes dear" to SWMBO

As a coffee-drinking woman, I would like to add my observation: the flavour of the coffee is all to do with the colour of the mug you drink from! 😀

So the general consensus seems to be in favour of her being nuts which just confirmed what I've always thought. I'm going to try a "Pepsi Challenge" on her and see if the results back us up? God help me if she can tell the difference. She also hates it if I leave the spoon in it too long.

the flavour of the coffee is all to do with the colour of the mug you drink from!

🙂

Here at chez deadly, it appears to depend on the colour of the [i]inside[/i] of the mug. 😐

White mug insides only.

Deadlydarcy, that is also true about the colour of the inside of the mug! Although blue is my favourite colour, I don't like a mug that's blue inside- it doesn't look good with the brown coffee! 😆

Causes cancer, dunnit!

No, it prevents it!

there is less gas in boiled water because that's how the world works.
however, you are then boiling the water again soo...
are you increasingly degassing the water? are the gases being removed reacting (or just associating)with stuff in the coffee?
maybe the dissolved stuff is concentrated as water is lost through steam.
but that would effect the bulk solution and not just what wasn't used.
maybe the sitting water is reacting with stuff over time (in the kettle) and this is "flavouring" the water.

i'm going for mildly deluded, but... there just might be a paper if not a full PhD in it.

Maybe if you have hard water, and you use water that's been repeatedly boiled, you get concentrated minerals?

The instruction on box of tea bags I bought recently said do not re boil water. A bit of googling suggests its to do with reduced oxygen in the water.

I recently read the instructions on a box of tea bags (I was bored waiting for the kettle to boil) and it said to use fresh water to boil as re-boiled water would impair the taste.

HTH (or sets a cat amongst some pigeons)

Edit: ^^^ Beaten by an equally great mind!

Facts and real science are irrelevant, your wife has declared it so and that is it.

Ironically aa and his 'dear God' reply nearly made me spit my cup of tea everywhere (would have been better if I had been drinking coffee admittedly).

Sometimes timing is all you need.

anagallis_arvensis - Member
I think it affects the water at the bottom of the kettle most
dear god
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

It's not that outrageous a statement. Water starts tasting of plastic bottle if you leave it sitting around in a bike bottle, why wouldn't it start tasting like plastic and metal if it sits around in the bottom of my kettle?

dingabell - Member

I don't drink tea or coffee but I think my wife's going mad. She says that if you've got a bit of water left in the kettle which has already been boiled, and you add some more and re-boil it, then make a cup of coffee, it tastes disgusting.

She's right, coffee is disgusting.

It's acceptable amongst foreigners and even Americans, but we don't have to stoop to their level, do we?

vickypea - Member

As a coffee-drinking woman, I would like to add my observation: the flavour of the coffee is all to do with the colour of the mug you drink from!

You're damn right.
Lots of studies done proving that we percieve the taste of food and drink differently depending on the colour of our crockery. 🙂

I think it affects the water at the bottom of the kettle most

Leaving the excess water in the top of kettle could alleviate this.

there is water in my kettle from 2009 as I never empty it and always just top it up, tastes fine!

Personally i always use fresh water when i boil the Kettle for a pot of tea, coffee is made using the gaggia 😉 . Have you ever had tea made from a tea urn that constantly reboils water? - it tastes gopping, same thing when you constantly reboil water in the kettle - when you're making tea you should use freshly boiled water and heat the teapot and cup/mug up first then use tealeaves and apply freshly boiled water - don't use that sawdust crap that comes in perforated toilet paper bags.

Yep, i'm a certified coffee n' tea snob......

Strictly speaking you should only boil what you need anyway, as anything more is costing you money, using more energy and therefore destroying the planet..
.

As a coffee-drinking woman, I would like to add my observation: the flavour of the coffee is all to do with the colour of the mug you drink from

lol

in Scotland the water is slightly acidic. This promotes the ionisation of metals hence the metalic taste but also why lead pipes are particularly bad for us (IQ down the toilet). water from plastic bottles does taste manky. particularly the bio degradable ones (IMHO)

I always try and boil the minimum needed at a time, and always put fresh water in at the start of the day as water left overnight in a kettle tastes manky!

Meanwhile, there's a discussion on the chat forum about everyone on here being Geeks!

I will point them in this direction. 😀

Agreed though, fresh water is necessary, but its probably dependant upon your location as water in some areas tastes crap to begin with.

I like Liverpool water, even if its has a small percentage of Welsh wee in it. Well nicer than the stuff we get in Lancashire

why do you boil the water before putting it in the espresso machine?

The oxygen thing has to be rubbish - water at 100C has already boiled off all the oxygen ( http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-solubility-water-d_639.html ). So the oxygen has gone by the point the water reaches 100C the first time you boil it.

If you want to test it properly, you should do a number of samplings of it, see how she guesses and then use Fisher's Exact Test to detect the statistical likelihood of her being better than chance at guessing which is which. It was developed specifically for such small sample size beverage related statistical challenges (to test if someone could tell the difference between milk in first vs tea in first)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishe r's_exact_test

Having said that, the obvious solution is to stop being an idiot and boiling tons of water just for a single mug. Then you remove that argument, because there isn't any spare water. Kettles have numbers on the side that show you how much they have in, it just takes a minute to pour in cups and see which numbers correspond to a single mug, two mugs, or however many mugs you're making, then forever after, you can just fill up to the right number. Or if you're just making one mug, just fill up a mug with water and bung it in the kettle.

Isn't there some chemical reaction to do with the hard water minerals once you boil and then cool water? I remember hearing that it's when boiled water cools that the soluble minerals become insoluble, that's why you should run cold water through your shower head after a shower to prevent it scaling up...... maybe..

As a student, I used to put teabags directly in the kettle- saving me precious stirring time. Until the kettle broke.

As for your original question- have the Mrs sectioned.

RE OP
Yes, Your wife is correct!
Never boil water more than once when making any hot drink!

Drain kettle, run cold tap for a few seconds, No stale pipe water please!
Boil water, leave for 30 seconds, add to cafetiere/mug.

Something to do with oxygen levels, I can always tell.

run cold tap for a few seconds, No stale pipe water please!

Unless your on a private supply, that pipe is miles long.
Even on the private supply at work there is still 250m pipe between the tap and the header tank.

Unless your on a private supply, that pipe is miles long.
Even on the private supply at work there is still 250m pipe between the tap and the header tank.

The further the pipe goes back, I'd assume the more often the pipe gets used, water gets used on many taps, washing machines, toilets?

I may be barking up the wrong tree?

she'll have changed her mind by this time tomorrow.

The instruction on box of tea bags I bought recently said do not re boil water. A bit of googling suggests its to do with reduced oxygen in the water.

I've always been properly unconvinced by this argument. True, the hotter water is, the less soluble oxygen (and carbon dioxide, and other gasses) are in it.

But this is a fixed amount, if you're bringing it to 100oC again, gasses aren't less soluble the second time around.

Maybe if you have hard water, and you use water that's been repeatedly boiled, you get concentrated minerals?

Similarly unconvinced by this, at least in an electric kettle with an auto-cut-off.
For the amount of water that's lost as steam, I can't imagine that there'd be any discernable increase in concentration.

I could possibly believe that if your kettle is dirty, then re-boiling, or leaving water to sit in it for a long time would affect the taste noticably.

Get your wife to google "[i]how instant coffee is made[/i]". After that she shouldn't be quite so worried about whether you reboiled the water or not 😉

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll agree with the ones that think she's a crazy bint. And on a similar note...WTF does it matter if the water or milk go in first? And don't give me that burnt coffee bobbins!!

That tends to be an argument that tea drinkers make - and that it scalds the milk.
Which is fine. If you're making tea in a tea pot.

If she's drinking instant coffee-flavoured-drink, though, absolutely hot water in first, or it doesn't dissolve properly.