I thought I turned the kettle on and came back but it wasn’t hot water and I tried to steep my tea and it barely steeped at all. But when the water is boiling hot, it steeps instantly. Why is that?
In: 7
Heating the water makes the water molecules move more. A lot more. So they also break down water-soluble things faster.
Its the same thing with salt or sugar. If you put either in cold water it will dissolve less and slower than if you heat the water.
Steeping tea is dissolving and breaking down various things in the tea leaves. It will steep in cold water…. eventually. And unless the tea is intended for cold steeping its probably not going to be as strong either.
It takes energy for tea to steep (or anything to happen really). Heat is just a measure of energy. The warmer the water is the more energy is in that system, so the faster things happen in the water.
There’s a rule of thumb in chemistry: for every 10 degrees Celsius reaction rates double. It’s not precisely true but it’s in the right ballpark for most things. It also applies to physical changes like dissolution. So going from ~20°c to 100°c would be 8 doublings or ~256x faster.
As to why it’s because the water molecules are moving faster. The stuff that dissolves is moved away from the tea leafs faster which lets more dissolve.
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