The Coffee-Tea Experiment A technical report done by guitarman, Aard#9886 Introduction Coffee and Tea have both been a part of the daily routine for most people. Moreover, there have been some debates about which is the better beverage. However, there is no doubt that both coffee and tea are delectable drinks. The scope of this report is to test if coffee and tea would be an acceptable combination. A disclaimer should be provided as this is an informal report – indicating that non-academic sources will be used and only a simplified version of IEEE citation formatting will be presented, as well as personal inputs from the researcher. Thus, this report will be using a variation of personal opinions mixed with data gathered online. Methodology The test has already been completed and this section will outline the methods used in the experiment. As to not give any early indication of what the results were, this section will mostly focus on how the control was prepared, as well as how the coffee-tea subject was prepared. Additionally, the brand used for the tea is Pickwick, and the brand used for the coffee is Douwe Egberts – both marketed by the same Dutch company; Douwe Egberts [1]. A total of 3 drinks were prepared: 1. Coffee – as the control for the “coffee aspect” of the coffee-tea subject. It was prepared by doing 3 full spoons of Douwe Egberts ground coffee in a filter, pouring in boiling water after it has been left for a minute to rest. The reason why “minute-rested boiled-water” is being used is because boiling water will burn the coffee upon contact, altering the intended taste of the brew [2]. This creates two optimal cups of coffee; one for the control, and one for the coffee-tea test subject. 2. Tea – as the control for the “tea aspect” of the coffee-tea subject. It was prepared in the same way by using the same “minute-rested boiled-water” from the coffee preparation. A total of 1 bag of Pickwick Sinaas Appel was used for a ‘citrusy’ flavour. The bag was then removed after 3 minutes in order to preserve the taste of the tea, not making it too strong. 3. Coffee-Tea Subject – as the main subject for the experiment, a bag of Pickwick Sinaas Appel was placed inside a cup of coffee. In the same way as the cup of tea, the bag was only placed for 3 minutes until its removal from the cup. It is imperative in this experiment that each drink would have been prepared at the same time, as to not lose the drink’s quality as it cools down. The optimal time, according to a study done at the University of Northumbria in 2011, is around 8 minutes [3]. However, this only applied to tea-related drinks. Nonetheless, to keep with the consistency of this report, each drink was allowed a total of 10 minutes to cool down before beginning the taste test. Evaluation In this section, it will be thoroughly explained with how the evaluation was achieved. Due to the fact that this is a taste test (with two beverages combined into one, nonetheless) it will be a qualitative evaluation instead of a quantitative one. This was a personal experiment, and so, the sample size will be limited to one person only. It is important to note that with each taste test, the palate of the tester was reset with room temperature water as to not influence the taste of the consecutive drinks. The ‘Coffee’ and ‘Tea’ drinks both tasted as the should taste like. Firstly, the coffee was at an optimal temperature to drink so its flavours were a strong, bitter, and rich taste. Secondly, the Tea was also at an optimal temperature to take a sip at, so its taste was a combination of smooth and citrusy due to the orange flavour of the tea bag used. Thirdly and lastly, it was time to take a sip out of the coffee-tea cup. At the first whiff of the cup, it already had a strong coffee aroma with a hint of orange. In this stage, it was already hypothesized that it would taste just like coffee with an after-taste of citrus. However, according to the first taste, neither the coffee nor tea were overpowering each other. Each flavour had its own distinct taste that combined into a drink that slightly resembled a drink called “Matcha Latte”. It was in no way close to how that drink tasted like – however, it was the first drink that came up to mind upon the first sip of the cup. Conclusion Finally, to end this report, I would like to offer some personal statements with the observation of this experiment. This was done impulsively with due to the conversation that Link and Gio had in the Singing Underground DiscordServer at the server-staff channel. I honestly did not think that I would have this much interest in writing a report about coffee and tea. Needless to say, I was very shocked at the results of this experiment. If I were to give a phrase to summarise this report as well as the taste of the coffee-tea fusion drink, I would say … “Not bad”. References: [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douwe_Egberts [2] https://blackbearcoffee.com/resources/87 [3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/news/brew-perfect-cup-tea-according-science/
