A Research to Determine the Energy Efficiency of Tea Brewing

Tea is an extremely special beverage in Turkey, served casually in every household and workplace, and consumed at least twice a day by the entire Turkish population. Regardless of wealth, gender, age, formality, or location, everyone drinks tea everywhere. Since tea is consumed at a very high rate in the country, the energy used for brewing tea is proportionally high compared to other food and drink activities. Therefore, this study investigates the energy cost of brewing Turkish tea. The study was conducted experimentally by brewing tea on different burners of a standard stove with different natural gas settings. Using data obtained from repeated experiments, the energy cost and efficiency of brewing tea were calculated according to the First Law of Thermodynamics. The results of the study revealed that the efficiency of tea brewing ranged from 40% to 60%.