I will lay my cards on the table right from the start. There is one correct answer to the question and one, very undeniably, wrong answer.The answer is so stomach-churningly wrong it really shouldn't even be up for debate. But sadly it is. That is because how low society has fallen in recent years.The question up for debate — should you put salt in your cup of tea? The latest brainwave coming from, you guessed it, an American.Now should you think this isn't really a matter of great import, let me stop you right there in your coffee-stained tracks.This debate has gone to the highest corridors of power in Whitehall and directly into the West Wing, where normally the most important question of the day is, "has anyone seen Joe?'It has sparked a flurry of high-level cables between the two governments that has put tensions at the highest level, dare I say it, since the Boston Tea Party of 1773. In Great Britain, there is anger not seen since the days a jumped-up junta jokester tried to turn the Falkland Islands into the Malvinas. But forgive and forget as they say. And I do rather like the new Argentinian leader as long as his eyes do not wander offshore. (Forgiving the Germans is another matter.)I am a Brit. Born in Yorkshire — the heart of the country's tea drinking culture — in 1966. My parents immigrated to Canada and I have been fortunate to be molded from the best of both worlds. I have a Maple Leaf flag on my calf filled with the colours of the Union Jack. My son has the same tat and has had the benefit of an Oxford education. He got the brains in the family.So tea is part of my daily life. One cup in the morning and one in the early afternoon. Coffee? Can't stomach the stuff and it keeps me awake at my desk. It's all part of British upbringing, 'stiff upper lip, mate, have a nice cuppa with three sugars. What, what! Will do tha' a world of good.' 100 million cups of tea are sipped every day in the UK, far surpassing the population. Two billion cups a day around the world.But this week, some Yank upstart by the name of Michelle Francl, a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, argues that the sodium in salt counteracts the chemical process that makes tea taste bitter.Now I don't know about you, but I have never heard of Bryn Mawr College. Sounds like a few vowels short of a full title to me. It's situated in Pennsylvania and not really part of the Ivy League.“A scientist from the country where you can find tea being made with lukewarm water from the tap claims to have found the recipe for a perfect cuppa,” The Guardian newspaper haughtily wrote this week.The US Embassy in London tried to cool the controversy.“Today’s media reports of an American professor’s recipe for the ‘perfect’ cup of tea has landed our special bond with the United Kingdom in hot water,” the embassy said.“Tea is the elixir of camaraderie, a sacred bond that unites our nations. We cannot stand idly by as such an outrageous proposal threatens the very foundation of our Special Relationship,” it continued.The embassy added that it “will continue to make tea in the proper way — by microwaving it.”Animals.Sadly the microwave debate is not new, first rearing its tasteless head in 2020. "The resulting debate was so heated that both Britain’s and the United States’ respective ambassadors were moved to trade tips on making the perfect hot beverage," NBC reported.Francl, who ironically also seems to be a vowel short herself, outlines her theory in a book called Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea.Now listen here, Frankie, the proper way to make a cup of tea is as follows, assuming you're not using a teapot. Take two teabags in a cup. You want it strong and add in two teaspoons full of sweetener. Boiling water goes in and the tea steeps for five minutes. A splash of milk, served preferably in a Pyrex cup to keep hot, and voilia, you have it.Perfection.Just make sure you hold your cup with pinkie finger extended.Dave Naylor is the Western Standard's Vice President, News Editor and connoisseur of Tetley Tea
