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The amazing innovations in complex modern tea-baggery continue, with airline BA teaming up with tea specialist Twinings to develop a special blend that takes into account the variations in taste and temperatures experienced while scooting about 30,000 feet up in the sky.
There is actually some proper science behind it, too. The concept is to make a tea that manages to release more of its flavour at a low temperature, taking into account the fact that BA’s boilers only heat water to a mere 89 degrees rather than the full boiling point we obtain from our traditional terrestrial kettles, and the way our taste sensations are restricted by cabin pressure.
Twinings is supplying BA with special, massive bags designed to fit the three-pint pots it uses on flights, so, sadly, there won’t be any changes in brewing machinery. The British Airways signature blend tea launched throughout the airline on February 1st, so it ought to have been thoroughly beta tested by the time you jet off somewhere this summer. [The Economist]
Image credit: In-flight drinks from Shutterstock
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You do an article on tea… then stick an image of people enjoying soda/fizzy drinks!?
Your art director clearly needs firing.
or teabagging?
Surely things don’t taste as good because the air is so dry, not because you’re high up in the air as the plane is pressurized
A pressurized cabin isn’t the same as ground level.
It is pretty dry up there, and there’s a whole bunch less oxygen than on the ground.
I had a mile high tea bagging once, I didn’t really enjoy it.
BOOM BOOM tish
Heston done experiments on this a few months ago. Part of his results was that the pressurisation of the cabin did affect the way the human senses adapts to smells and tastes.
They used a pressure chamber and served normal aircraft meals with no pressure. They contained higher levels of salt and suger. This was picked up instantly. However they served the same meal when the pressure chamber was at 36,000 ft and they tasted normal.
The same went for straight coffee. It was a a lot more bitter when under no pressure.
I remember reading something when I lived in Germany about how tastebuds were affected by in-flight conditions. It went some way to explaining why Tomato Juice is ordered far more mid-flight than on land.
Try it next time you fly. Anecdotally it’s far more interesting in taste at 40,000ft than on good ol’ terra firma.
This made me think of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-MBwDTpvPA