We are provided with a free flow of English tea in the engineering department, between 10am to 4pm, daily. In the earlier hours of the day, free coffee is provided instead. This is nice but there’s something particular about tea drinking in the department that I’ve found fairly surprising.
Considering that we’re all a bunch of engineers, I would think that most people would’ve figured out how to make an efficient cup of tea, by now. But for some reason, nobody else seems to be making a cup of tea the way that I do, and introduce more waste as a result. Engineers are supposed to optimise processes.
So, for the benefit of everyone else, here is my method of making tea:
- Take an empty cup. It is essential to start with a dry, empty cup.
- Add in sugar to taste. Amount should be proportional to size of the cup.
- Pour in the hot tea. Pour in the tea at one side, directly onto the sugar.
- Pour in the milk. Pour in the milk from a slight height.
Notice anything missing? If you did not, please look through the list again and try imagining the steps involved. You will notice that there is an essential step missing: stirring the cup. With this four step method, there is no need to stir the mixture. As a result, you will save the use of a spoon, which either needs to be washed or recycled later. And for a large department like ours, it quickly adds up to a lot of spoons.
The key action in this is the pouring of the tea. The hot tea will naturally dissolve the sugar and if poured correctly, will automagically stir the cup. Ditto for the milk. The only catch is with the sugar. The amount of sugar added has to be proportional to the cup to avoid leaving any sugar, after the cup is filled. It’s also essential to start with a dry and empty cup to avoid the sugar from sticking.
I can assure you that this method works with a single teaspoon of sugar. I have never tried it with more because I don’t usually take sugar at all. Feel free to experiment with the amount of sugar and the pouring technique. The two are related.
If you can come up with an even more efficient method of making an efficient cup of tea, please leave it in the comments section!
PS: I can finally classify this under my new category: ecomental issues
Sybreon Ones Nought 
I’m not sure about EFFICIENT, but I’m afraid the SCIENTIFIC way to make a cup of tea has already been done.
The British Standards agency produced a 6 page report on the way to make tea, for which they got an Ig Nobel prize in 1999. I was trying to find the actual document, but I haven’t managed it. Newspaper articles on it abound in plenty though – http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1407565,00.html
I also have a book on the Ig Nobel prizes if you’re interested in having a laugh ^_^
Come to think of it, actually, it’s a very INefficient way of making a cup of tea. But it is very scientific.