Im just after pouring myself a cup of tea in a standard mug that I've used many times before. After pouring the tea I sat down at my desk and heard a wierd sort of purring/croaking sounds, a search later made me realise it was coming from my cup of tea and it actually sounded like a little creature was in my cup of a metal ball or something was spinning around in it. What causes this noise? Is it just the cup in the heat of the tea? And why have i never heard this before?

On the vaporous surface of freshly brewed tea grows often a thin layer of scum. You will observe on the attached video that not only this layer appears to be crazed, but also that the mosaic formed by these cracks regenerates around every second in a new different mosaic, like a mosaic slideshow. This phenomenon may also be observed on very hot coffee. It looks like a chaotic phenomenon. The attached experience was made in a bowl with very hot plain water and green tea. The cracks suddenly propagate across the scum layer and produce a new mosaic. How to explain such a difference between the patterns ? What make the crack propagate ?

Ginseng oolong tea tastes like ordinary tea (a bit muddy to my palate) until you breathe in through your mouth, and then it feels sweet.  Or at least my sweetness sensors register something.  It's quite a different experience from drinking sweetened tea, which tastes sweet immediately.  Why is this?

I drink my tea strong with very little milk. I use the same mug all the time and I don't allow my wife to bleach it. The inside builds up a satisfying coating which resists washing up liquid and scouring.

My darling beloved's own tea is what I call children's tea - weak and milky. Her cup never gets stained.

What is the brown stuff ('tannins' will not count as an answer)? Does milk somehow neutralise it? How does it get out of the teabag if it's so insoluble? Does bleach remove it or just remove the colour? Is there a good way to get rid of it?

I am forever being told at the dinner table to turn my fork up the other way so the prongs are pointing down. Although I can see it looks better surely the point in the curve of the fork is to allow you to get food on it easier and to hold the food on? It seems pointless putting a bend in it if you're not going to use it!

I am forever being told at meal times to turn my fork around so the prongs point down. Although I can see it looks a bit better surely there is a curve in the fork to help the food stay on the fork better? Would it not make more sense to hold the fork the other way up?

I often fill the kettle from the hot water tap in the hope that perhaps this will save some energy; however, if any of my friends are around whilst I am filling the kettle in this way, I am promptly told that the water from the hot tap is dirty and they certainly do not want tea made with this water. I then argue that the water will be boiled in the kettle, and that the spout of the kettle has a filter, so any nasty things will be killed or filtered out. My friends argue against this. Could I be wrong?

In many parts of England, at least, it is customary to warm the teapot as the initial stage of making a fine cup of tea.  Now that tea made in the mug with a tea bag is pretty universal, am I the only one warming my mug before adding the bag and making the tea, and am I wasting my time?

Whenever I make a hot cup of tea I always blow the liquid for the first couple of mouthfuls. I was wondering how effective this actually is at cooling the liquid appreciably.