My Gen Z son commits a hate crime every time he makes a cuppa… and he's not alone

Independent

7 days ago

One of the first things we do when my Irish mother-in-law comes over is, of course, put the kettle on. She is also the only person we get the teapot and tea cosy out for, but unfortunately this ritual seems to have bypassed my kids completely.
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.