
My Gen Z son commits a hate crime every time he makes a cuppa… and he's not alone
My 16-year-old Gen Z son, Charlie, uses the microwave for everything, including – shock horror – making a cup of tea. And, according to a new survey, he is not alone.
Apparently, almost two-thirds of under-30s make tea in the microwave, a Uswitch poll of 2,000 Brits has shown. Why Gen Zs – that baffling and unknowable generation born between 1997 and 2012 – are kettle-dodgers who would rather pop a teabag in a mug of cold water and heat it in the mee-cro-wah-vey, as Nigella Lawson rechristened it, defeats me.
It's clearly not about saving time or effort. 'Microwave heating can produce uneven temperature,' says Dr Tim Bond from the Tea Advisory Panel. He also advises that 'heating a mug of water in a microwave takes about two minutes and 40 seconds – significantly longer than the 48 seconds required to boil the same volume in a kettle.' Even longer than that if, like my son, they use one of those hideous, oversized Sports Direct mugs.
And it's not a taste thing either: a microwaved brew is 'flat, with a stewed flavour,' says Dr Bond, and offers 'inconsistent extraction of tea bioactives, which are packed with health and wellness benefits '. So it's not better for you.
We've heard the debates about whether to put milk in first or last (last, obviously), but for Gen Z, the only question is how long to put it all in the microwave for.
My son says he worries that the kettle might become too hot to use and, in his words, 'overboil'. The microwave is, he thinks, a safer bet. I haven't the energy to tell him how microwaved water can become 'superheated' and bubble over the moment the cup is moved.
I can't help thinking that microwaving tea is less a TikTok craze (though American influencers went through a phase of filming themselves 'making an English cuppa' in this way) or another small act of Gen Z rebellion, and more a case of kettle-phobia.
When Charlie was eight, I left him and his siblings in the care of my Boomer dad. Charlie burned his hand on the hob and has been a bit wary around kitchen appliances, including the kettle, ever since. And yet he will quite happily blast the Nutribullet multiple times a day to make protein shakes…
I can certainly attest to how revolting a microwaved brew is. One Mother's Day, my kids sweetly offered to make me breakfast in bed. Alongside some charred toast with a great dollop of butter was a mug of what looked like taupe-coloured sludge, the teabag floating at the top. Yuck.
'Looks lovely, thanks, darlings,' I said before nipping discreetly to the loo to chuck it away.
I remember a time when I had three kids under five and rarely got to finish a hot cuppa, so would quite often use the microwave to reheat my tea – but only after I'd made it properly first. I once found a mug in the microwave which had obviously been festering there for several days.
Experts say the best way to make a cup of tea is to pour boiling water over a teabag and leave it to steep for three to five minutes without stirring, before adding a splash of milk.
I hope that, in time, my kids will see sense and that they will never subject my mother-in-law to a microwaved brew. I can only imagine how horrified she would be. She would probably spit it right out of her china cup.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Coroner's ambulance concerns after Margate drug death
A coroner has highlighted concerns over a private ambulance provider's staff training and vehicle equipment after a 17-year-old girl died from a drugs overdose at an event in Stokes died in hospital after attending the Worried About Henry day festival at the Dreamland amusement park in Margate on 29 June inquest found Emily died from MDMA to the coroner's concerns, Kent Central Ambulance Service (KCAS) said in its own report: "The findings of the coroner have been taken with the utmost seriousness." 'Little experience' The report published following the inquest called on KCAS to take action to prevent future to the report, Emily's friends said she had possibly taken MDMA not long before she entered the festival, but she was also seen taking a tablet shortly after getting was taken to a medical tent at the event at around 15:20 BST and left the site in an ambulance an hour teenager arrived at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital around five minutes later, where she suffered a cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead shortly after 18: Wood, assistant coroner for north-east Kent, said training of the KCAS staff involved was "minimal" and they had "little experience or training in relation to management of patients having taken drugs"."More training should have been provided to assist the staff in how to safely manage those under the influence of illicit substances," the coroner Wood also raised concerns that the ambulance was not as equipped as an NHS vehicle would have been. The coroner further criticised the fact that the hospital was not called ahead of the crew arriving there with Emily."There was a lack of clarity regarding who had responsibility for making a pre-alert call to the hospital and given this young girl was significantly unwell this should have been done," Ms Wood added."This, in part, may have been due to the lack of recognition of the seriousness of her symptoms and, therefore, potentially linked with training of staff.A KCAS spokesperson said: "As a healthcare provider, we are committed to continuous learning, service improvement and ensuring the highest standards of patient safety, comfort and care."Crews sent to cover such events will now receive training covering recognition of drug and alcohol intoxication, according to the added that on-site paramedics directed on the day of the incident that a pre-alert call to the hospital was not needed, but internal protocols have now been clarified to say "crews are now explicitly empowered to pre-alert independently if in doubt". Additional reporting by PA Media.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Is the NHS gearing up for a new winter of discontent?
More bad news for the government's attempts to reduce waiting times in the NHS and end the incessant strikes that have troubled the service for some years. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is holding a consultative ballot on the independent pay review board's recommended pay rise of 3.6 per cent. It obviously comes during the five-day resident doctors' strike, and there are also signs of unrest developing elsewhere in the NHS. Some difficult times lie ahead... When are the nurses going on strike? Not soon. The present RCN vote is 'consultative' or 'indicative', and is aimed at strengthening their bargaining hand – there's no commitment to withdraw labour. Union sources suggest there will be an overwhelming rejection of the offer, which is already barely sufficient to keep up with inflation – but this may, to some extent, be a bargaining ploy as they enter into negotiations. Even so, the chances are they'd go on strike again after a 'real' strike ballot, as they did so often in 2022 and 2023. It might happen towards the end of the year. Is it too soon to use the phrase 'winter of discontent'? Sort of. Nonetheless, it is perfectly possible to conceive of the nurses and doctors being on strike simultaneously towards the end of the year. The GMB union is making similar noises about industrial action. They represent many domestic and auxiliary staff, plus ambulance crews (a service still in some crisis). It might well feel a lot like when Rishi Sunak was running the country – 'chaos and confusion'. What could stop the strikes? More money, but that feels unlikely given the state of the public finances, and just how many people work in the NHS – the pay bill was around £82bn in 2023-24 for England and Wales, about a half of the NHS budget. So a 1 per cent uplift is the best part of £1bn. A more important factor, though its impact is less direct, is public opinion. Support for strike action is certainly subsiding in the case of the doctors. Maybe Wes Streeting, faced with by far the greatest challenge of his political career, will somehow persuade them to help him reform and save the NHS – which would, after all, be in their own long-term interests. What would be the effect on the NHS? Severe – though eventually, when the strikes are settled, as they'll have to be one day, the backlogs will eventually return to normal. The much more insidious damage will be to public confidence in the NHS as an institution. If neither the Conservatives nor Labour can fix the NHS, the question may be asked, who can? For some it might feel as though more radical changes are needed, and that the NHS should be effectively privatised. Such changes would not necessarily be in the best interests of the BMA, RCN, or Unison members. The nurses should thus worry about destroying the thing they profess to love most – the health service itself. What does the opposition say? Nigel Farage wants a 'French-style' insurance system – but that means hefty premiums for some, and presents a problem for those people who cannot afford them. Questions would remain about how to fund the kinds of long-term treatment that the private sector refuses to cover – for dementia, cancer, degenerative diseases. Under such a regime, some doctors and nurses in some disciplines might prosper, but others would be worse off. It would be driven more by market forces. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, wants to ban strikes by doctors: 'Doctors hold lives in their hands. No one should lose critical healthcare because of strikes, but that's what's happening now. That's why a Conservative government led by me would ban doctors' strikes, just like we do [in respect of] the army and police.' However, working to rule, and overtime bans, would not be outlawed, which could render the 'ban' ineffective given how much the NHS depends on people working beyond their contracted hours. The Conservatives might also reinstate 'minimum service' in hospitals and healthcare, now being abolished by Labour via the Employment Rights Bill. In short, some form of industrial action would remain an option.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Bedfordshire woman with ME criticises health plan for condition
A woman living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) said she has "lost faith" in receiving "meaningful support" after the government released a new support plan for the also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is a neurological disease which affects about 390,000 people in the UK. On 22 July the government launched a new delivery plan to improve education around the illness, as well as increase funding, research and medical training for health practitioners. Maddie Walker, 51, from Bedfordshire, said she was "disappointed" in how the plan lacked any "real change to improve the quality of life for sufferers". Ms Walker said she was healthy and active before she developed severe ME and was now unable to leave the house without a wheelchair and has carers visit her multiple times a described living with the condition as "mind-numbing" and that she felt "despondent". The condition's symptoms include fatigue, muscle and joint weakness, cognitive dysfunction and post-exertional malaise. Misdiagnosis Ms Walker was initially diagnosed with fibromyalgia with fatigue, a condition causing muscular pain all over the body. As a result of the crossover in symptoms, Ms Walker's ME was not recognised initially, leading her to be recommended treatment that was not tailored to both conditions."Something I feel really strongly about is people being given the right information at the point of diagnosis because if I had known what I was doing was harmful, I might not be in this situation."Ms Walker said she has a "terrible, really poor quality of life" and that "hundreds of thousands of people have once again been let down" by the new delivery plan. "We just aren't important enough," she said. The ME Association (MEA) said the government must go "much further" to improve medical care and funding for "much needed" biomedical research. It added that currently most research studies for ME/CFS are funded by the charity added there were numerous strengths to the plan, including the approach to broaden education about the illness in the NHS and in schools. Dr Charles Shepherd, a medical adviser with the MEA, said the plan does not align with the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, which suggested making referral services more accessible in hospitals. Ashley Dalton, the MP for West Lancashire and minister for public health and prevention, said: "[The] plan will help tackle the stigma and lack of awareness of this condition through improved training for NHS staff." A spokesperson of Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: "We acknowledge there is more to be done and will continue to build on the foundations of these actions well beyond the publication of this plan."There was a "clear commitment" to achieving "meaningful change" for the ME/CFS community, it using neighbourhood health services, the DHSC said it will ensure patients can access quality care closer to home. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.