Should You Put a Pinch of Salt in your Tea? The UK US Embassy Controversy

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As an old Chinese saying goes: “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are the seven necessities to begin a day." As one of these 7 necessities, salt is also one of the five flavours of traditional Chinese cuisine. But what about adding salt to tea? Is it worth it? Or is it just a blasphemy? With this blog post, we would like to explore the use of salt in tea throughout cultures, the benefits of drinking tea with salt, and whether it’s a do or don't.
Salt in tea: The UK / US embassy controversy

Some of you may remember the controversy that blew up last January surrounding the American professor Michelle Francl’s assertion in her book "Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea". She states that adding a pinch of salt to your tea, especially if prepared in the British way, should be a good idea as it would reduce the bitterness.
As you can expect, the British people didn't accept that statement wholeheartedly. Eventually, it involved into a heated discussion by the US embassy and the UK Cabinet Office on X (Twitter).
Consequently, several media, like BBC, covered this Salt-in-Tea controversy. Aside from this funny episode, there's a deeper cultural and historical connection between tea and salt that has lasted for many centuries.
Putting salt in tea: a new trend?
Despite the outrage felt by the British, tea and salt have a long relationship, lasting for centuries (but we can easily say for over a millennial). This practice indeed isn’t new: in China, during the Tang dynasty (618-907), it was already common for tea drinkers to add salt. In many parts of Asia, like some areas of India, among China’s Hakka and Tibetan minorities, in Mongolia and Bhutan, salt in tea is still common today.
In particular, the Hakka culture in southern China is famous for lei cha, or thunder tea, a hot soup made with green tea leaves, herbs, crispy rice, nuts, and salt. In India, Kashmiris and Bengalis commonly add salt to popular teas such as Noon Chai and Lebu Cha. The former is a mix of green tea, milk, salt, and baking soda, while the latter is a spicy infusion of black tea, lemon, rock salt, and spices.

Tibetan people often drink butter tea, a traditional recipe that requires tea (usually pu erh), yak butter, cheese, and salt. This beverage is so common that almost every Tibetan family owns a wooden churning tube for making butter tea. For more info about Tibetan tea habits, read this blog post: Tibetan tea drinking culture and customs.
Maimeicuo & Wendunba: The Story of Love & Salt
For those who enjoy love stories, the beautiful legend of Maimeicuo & Wendunba underlines the deep connection between tea and salt in Tibetan culture. According to the story, two enemy tribes, the Xia and the Nu, lived in a land divided by a river without communicating. Unfortunately, Maimeicuo, daughter of the Xia tribe's leader, and Wendunba, son of the Nu tribe's leader, fell in love while herding sheep on opposite river banks.
Their love affair was discovered and met with strong opposition from both tribes, leading to Wendunba's murder. Maimeicuo, distraught, committed suicide by jumping into the flames of Wendunba's cremation ceremony. Then, Wendunba’s spirit became salt in a lake in Tibet, while Maimeicuo became tea trees in Sichuan. Moved by their love, Buddha arranged for Tibetan merchants to bring tea and salt together, allowing the two lovers to reunite in the end.
Salty cheese foam in bubble tea

Salt in tea is thus an old tradition. Besides these deep cultural connections, there are new trends nowadays that involve tea and salt, taking place not only in Asia but also in other parts of the world. With the global popularity of bubble tea (or 'boba tea'), teas with a salty cheese foam topping has become a new must-try for boba tea lovers. This special foam topping is made from milk, whipping cream, cream cheese, and of course: salt.
Salt in tea benefits
Adding salt to tea has quite a few benefits. Here are some of them:
- Reduced bitterness: Over-steeping tea is a common mistake that can result in a bitter taste. Fortunately, adding a pinch of salt to your cup of tea can help neutralize the bitterness and salve your tea. This isn't something we would recommend though. A better solution would be to add a bit of hot water to the over-steeped tea.
- Enhanced flavor: Salt can enhance the flavor of tea, at least for some tea drinkers, making it more robust and enjoyable. Additionally, salt can help to highlight the natural sweetness of certain tea varieties. Our opinion is that while adding salt may improve flavour of stronger teas with added spices, milk and sugar, we generally don't think this will improve the flavour of pure teas.
- Improved hydration: Salt is a natural electrolyte that can help to replenish fluids and minerals lost through sweating and other activities. Adding salt to your tea can be a beneficial way to stay hydrated, especially during hot weather or after exercise.
- Boosted immunity: Research suggests that salt plays a vital role in supporting the immune system, which may help to prevent seasonal infections and throat ailments.
- Digestive aid: Salt can stimulate the production of digestive juices, which can aid in digestion. This can be particularly helpful after a heavy meal.
Is salt in tea harmful?
hile salt may boost immunity and digestion, in modern times, the majority of the people already consume too much salt. Moreover, adding salt to your plain cup of tea doesn't mean adding a full teaspoon because it would be harmful and undrinkable. To prevent any blood pressure, hypertension, and cardiovascular risk caused by high salt consumption, the World Health Organization recommends less than 5 g/day of salt intake, which is just under a teaspoon. Therefore, if you’d like to try adding some salt to your tea, be sure to add just a pinch of salt. You shouldn't be able to taste the saltiness!
What's the best teas to add salt to?
There are many types of tea, and some are more suitable for salt addition than others. In particular, strong teas may pair quite well a pinch of salt, such as some black tea, pu erh and dark tea, but also dark roasted oolong such as Da Hong Pao. At last, for sweet Indian Chai milk tea, adding a bit of salt may nicely balance the sweetness.
We wouldn’t recommend adding salt to lightly tasting teas, such as most white teas, green teas, and oxidized oolong teas. Adding salt would overwhelm the delicate aroma of these teas.
In conclusion, should you put salt in tea?
Tea is a matter of taste and preference. There aren’t wrong ways to prepare it, but there are definitely some better practices for enhancing its aroma and flavours and avoiding ruining it.
Adding salt is a traditional habit for several communities and cultures, and it isn't blasphemy, as ironically described by some media on the occasion of the US-UK tea controversy. It may be interesting to try adding it and experimenting because the more you taste and drink, the more you'll be able to appreciate good tea.