Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: andyoxon on 21 December, 2012, 07:26:15 am

Title: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: andyoxon on 21 December, 2012, 07:26:15 am

How acidic do you reckon 'lemon' flavoured green (teabag) tea is?  mrs ao has problems with cracked tooth enamel and I was just wondering about acidity of the Clipper tea she usually drinks.

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 December, 2012, 10:07:20 am

Tea in itself seems to be quite good for teeth, it contains fluoride for a start...
http://www.agd.org/support/articles/?ArtID=3494

Possibly worth checking the ingredients for citric acid, though it's probably a sight better that the crap most people drink these days!

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: andyoxon on 21 December, 2012, 10:55:53 am

Thanks Mrs P.  It's this:  http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Clipper-Green-Tea-with-Lemon/38241011

Ingredients suggest it may be OK...   Green Tea, Natural Lemon Flavour, Lemon Peel (1%).

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: anotherdeadhero on 21 December, 2012, 12:03:02 pm

I recommend Litmus paper off that there eBay.

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: PeteB99 on 21 December, 2012, 12:06:32 pm

As a bored student I did some experimenting with the products of the Chemistry block vending machine and discovered that the Lemon tea dissolved some of the polystyrene cup.  :o

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 21 December, 2012, 12:21:32 pm

Citric acid probably counts as 'natural lemon flavour', given that it's natural and comes from lemons though :)

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 21 December, 2012, 01:27:23 pm

If she drinks it through a straw it'll take the tea behind her teeth and avoid the problem.

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: Kim on 21 December, 2012, 01:58:05 pm

Quote from: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 21 December, 2012, 01:27:23 pm

If she drinks it through a straw it'll take the tea behind her teeth and avoid the problem.

I thought that one had been disproved by ^_SCIENCE?

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: Ham on 21 December, 2012, 02:05:42 pm

The clipper lemon green tea is very low in acid, imo, with a faint lemon flavour not emanating from the juice.

Title: Re: Acidity of lemon tea?
Post by: hellymedic on 21 December, 2012, 05:33:20 pm

pH is a logarithmic scale, so very small amounts of unbuffered citric acid could be harmful for the teeth.
Sodium citrate is used as a buffer, which means a pH can be controlled within a narrow range.
However all solutions of citrate are acidic.
I have no idea what the pH of this lemon tea is.
Lemon oil will impart a lemony flavour without being acidic.