Is it possible to brew good tea on a mountain?
As I understand it, it is due to the relative atmospheric pressure that water boils at lower temperature further above sea level: 70C at the top of Mt Everest, for example.
Surely, then, the water could not get hot enough (and remain liquid) to brew a cup of tea? Or is that the water be boiling the important property, rather than temperature?
Best Answer
Tea brewed under different conditions will taste slightly differently. So no, on a high mountain, you cannot get absolutely the same taste as when brewing at sea level.
So no, it is not the boiling state of the water which determines the exact taste of the tea, it is the combination of all parameters, including temperature. And by the way, this is not simply a matter of altitude - if you use a different teapot or make a different amount of tea at the same altitude, you´ll also get temperature differences.
Of course, not that many people will notice the difference in taste when changing the brewing temperature slightly. And among the ones who notice, there is no telling whether they will like the 100 Celsius brewed tea more or less than the tea brewed at lower temperatures.
So, it is entirely possible to make good tea on a mountain, unless your personal definition is "there is exactly one type of good tea in the world, and it is the one brewed by my favorite process, and that process requires 100 degrees".
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Can you make tea at high altitude?
Teas grown at higher altitudes are slower growing, allowing essential oils and character to build in the leaves. This slower growth rate gives enough time for any volatilities in the leaf to mature before it is picked, processed and packaged.Why is it difficult to brew tea on top of a high mountain?
This is something that mountaineers know about. They have always found that it is difficult to make a decent cup of tea up Mount Everest. This is because, up there, water boils at 72\xb0C rather than 100\xb0C. And this isn't hot enough to make tea (that tastes nice!).Can you make tea on Everest?
So no, on a high mountain, you cannot get absolutely the same taste as when brewing at sea level. So no, it is not the boiling state of the water which determines the exact taste of the tea, it is the combination of all parameters, including temperature.Is there a right way to make tea?
INSTRUCTIONSHow you've been making tea WRONG your entire life - BBC
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Answer 2
Boiling point decreases with altitude:
Optimum temperature for brewing black tea is 100C (sea level). However, optimum temperature for green tea is 80C which corresponds to 6000m.
If you use a pressure cooker you can raise water's boiling point up to 120*C. In theory, you could make perfectly good tea in an unpressurized spaceship. How you would drink it through your space helmet is another problem.
So the answer to your question is "yes".
Answer 3
Given that you can make tea at room temperature with adequate time, not so much of a problem, really.
If you are the sort of person that will now proceed to go off on a rant about "that not being tea" you might not be a good choice to climb high mountains, at a guess...or if you do, you should only drink powdered tea mix.
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Images: Angela Roma, Tatiana Syrikova, Ryutaro Tsukata, Tatiana Syrikova