Editing 3022: Making Tea

{{comic
| number    = 3022
| date      = December 9, 2024
| title     = Making Tea
| image     = making_tea_2x.png
| imagesize = 690x291px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = No, of course we don't microwave the mug WITH the teabag in it. We microwave the teabag separately.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Microwaved by a TEA-MAKING AUTOMATON - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Tea is exceptionally popular in the United Kingdom, to the point virtually every home has an electric tea kettle as a standard appliance. In contrast, tea is less commonplace in the United States of America (Randall's native country) and owning a separate appliance solely for tea is generally not needed. As a result, when Americans need a cup of boiled water &mdash; for tea or otherwise &mdash; it's considered normal to put the water in a microwave oven.

British people are stereotyped as taking genuine offense to microwaved water, believing it to be an objectively incorrect way to make tea. Randall mocks this stereotype through exaggeration, saying British people would be less offended by the theft of the {{w|Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom}} than they would be by a cup of microwaved water.

===Methods mentioned===
;Making it in a kettle
:Perhaps an intentional misnomer. Water may be ''boiled'' in a kettle, but the tea itself is made in a separate {{w|teapot}}, with loose or bagged tea-leaves, ready for pouring into {{w|teacup}}s, {{w|mug}}s or {{w|vacuum flask|thermos flask}} as required.

;Boiling water in a pot, steeping in a mug
:The reverse misnomer, as the boiling water from the ''kettle'', as well as being used to fill any (tea)pot, can be poured straight into a mug. Either with a teabag already waiting in it (typical for "{{w|Builder's tea}}", where it may remain for a long while, ''perhaps'  until being fished out by a spoon just before drinking) or into which the teabag will now be dipped (at the personal discretion of the recipient, to taste, thus fine-tuning the time it infuses).

;Making it in a chalice and ampulla stolen from the Crown Jewels
:The most un-British thing about this is the stealing. Though many may have considered it, and occasionally {{w|Thomas Blood#Theft of the Crown Jewels|attempted it}}, it would not be taken kindly by many others. And to do so to make tea would be just {{wiktionary|not cricket}}. The stone challice and gold ampulla are also doubtful as being of suitable materials for British tea-making (as opposed to silver-plated steel, robust ceramics, etc) and there'd definitely be some complaints that it does not taste like a proper cuppa.

;Microwaving a mug
:Apparently common in the US, possibly because standard US home power supplies (~120V) is less suitable than an eletric kettle such as the British might use (with ~240V). This method of heating water is widely mistrusted in the UK, with warnings about generating superheated water that explodes in your face the moment it is disturbed. In general, one doesn't put 'just water' in a microwave; the closest analogue would be something like soup (from a can but now in a microwave-safe bowl), and keeping an eye on it/applying a loose lid to prevent it sputtering and overboiling.
:The title text continues with this theme, by reassuring us that the microwaved mug doesn't have a teabag in it (analogous to the 'boiling tea-kettle' version). Instead, it is separately microwaved. As tealeaves (and bag) should normally be dry and receive little to no heating from its own stint in the microwave, the wrongheadedness this invokes does little to dissuade the skeptic's doubts about how utterly perverse this colonial variation on tea-making has become.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A chart is shown with four labeled tick marks. The first two are close together on the far left side of the graph, the third is approximately in the center, and the fourth is on the far right side of the graph. Above the chart are, from top to bottom, a heading, a subheading, and a labeled arrow pointing right.]

:<big>Ways of making tea</big>
:By how angry British people get when Americans do them

:More angry

:Making it in a kettle

:Boiling water in a pot, steeping in a mug

:Making it in a chalice and ampulla stolen from the Crown Jewels

:Microwaving a mug
{{comic discussion}}