I tried salt in hot drinks - and it was vile
Don't try this at home - no matter what the experts say!
Transcript
00:00 Hello, it's David from nationalworld.com.
00:02 Hope everyone is having a fantastic day.
00:05 You're joining me today in my kitchen
00:07 for a little bit of a science experiment.
00:09 Now what's happened is there is this doctor in America
00:12 who has come out and suggested that we start putting salt
00:16 into our hot drinks, specifically into tea.
00:19 Imagine that, an American telling Brits
00:20 how to drink their tea, outrageous.
00:23 But it gave me an idea.
00:25 Let's give it a whirl and see if it works out,
00:27 but let's also see how it fares
00:29 when it comes to coffee and hot chocolate.
00:31 Now I can't remember the name of the chap
00:33 where I believe he was on this morning,
00:35 also a coffee expert,
00:38 who said that if your coffee is too sour,
00:41 coffee's meant to be bitter,
00:42 but if it's sour, you add a little bit of salt in there
00:44 and it sort of balances it out
00:46 and makes it sort of palatable again.
00:48 So without further ado, I'm gonna boil the kettle,
00:50 I'm gonna pour myself three drinks,
00:52 and I'm gonna see how we get on.
00:54 (kettle boiling)
00:57 Okay, so our drinks are ready
01:05 and it's time for the taste test.
01:07 We've got one tea, one coffee, one hot chocolate.
01:10 In the interests of control
01:12 and in the interests of having a little bit of taste,
01:15 I've put one teaspoon of sugar in each one.
01:18 We have then done two cracks of salt.
01:23 And yeah, let's see how it goes.
01:24 We're gonna try the tea first
01:26 because that's what the doctor recommended, didn't he?
01:29 So let's give this a try.
01:30 You can actually see, well, you can't see,
01:33 but I can see there's actually a bit of scum
01:35 that's formed on the top as a result of the salt.
01:37 That's nice.
01:38 I'm not sure what to think about that one.
01:50 I'll be totally honest, I'm really not sure what to think.
01:53 You can taste a little bit of the salt,
01:55 but it's not as prominent as I thought it would be.
01:57 Whether I've done this wrong
01:58 and I haven't put enough salt in is anyone's guess.
02:00 If this doctor said put two teaspoons in,
02:02 then frankly, he knows where to stick that idea.
02:06 But it just feels wrong.
02:08 It just, it doesn't taste right, if you know what I mean.
02:11 We all know what tea tastes like.
02:12 We know what it's supposed to be and this isn't it.
02:15 So let's try the coffee now.
02:17 This was recommended if you've got incredibly sour coffee.
02:20 Apparently the trick is to put a little bit of salt into it.
02:22 So let's see how this fares.
02:24 Apparently this could make it taste really, really nice,
02:26 but I'll be the judge of that.
02:28 No, no, that doesn't work.
02:39 Again, you can taste the salt.
02:46 Oh, oh no, that's not right at all.
02:52 Which means that I have strong fears for the last one.
02:55 This final cup is actually hot chocolate,
03:00 which I've then poured salt into.
03:02 So let's give it a taste and see how we go.
03:04 You know what?
03:10 That kind of works.
03:14 Now I'm someone, I'm full of mission.
03:16 I'll have another sip actually.
03:22 Full of mission.
03:23 I'm someone who doesn't like mixing salty with sweet.
03:26 Savory should taste like savory,
03:28 dessert should taste like dessert.
03:30 For that reason, I'm not a fan of things
03:31 like salted caramel or sweet potato fries.
03:34 But that, the salt in the hot chocolate,
03:39 bizarrely works.
03:40 So the hot chocolate is very strong flavour.
03:43 It's a, well, you saw the brand,
03:45 I'm not gonna name it again.
03:46 We don't need to give them more popularity
03:49 than they already do have.
03:50 But the salt actually has brought up
03:53 the rest of the flavours.
03:55 It's not created a balance per se,
03:57 but I think that might have actually improved
04:00 the taste of the hot chocolate.
04:01 So there we have it.
04:02 The American doctors and the coffee experts,
04:05 honestly, as far as I can tell,
04:07 have no clue what they're on about.
04:08 Don't put your salt in tea.
04:10 Don't put salt in coffee.
04:12 Or, it's a terrible idea.
04:16 It just does not work as far as I can see.
04:18 However, if you wanna give your hot chocolate
04:21 a little bit of that salted caramel twist, so to speak,
04:25 then salt in hot chocolate is actually a good way to go.