Brexit, of course...

Erm, physics

Anyway, whose kitchen? My kettle can certainly manage 100°C, or as near as at 78m above sea level. Room temperature has nothing to with it, Vić, but atmospheric pressure falls with increasing altitude. What we call ‘boiling’ is the pressure of the vapour forming in the liquid exceeding the atmospheric pressure that’s keeping it there. So water boils at lower temperatures at higher altitudes.

I’ve made tea in Johannesburg, which is about 1,800m above sea level (coincidentally, giving roughly the equivalent atmospheric pressure to an airline cabin.) Didn’t bother again after the first attempt.

If your kettle is boiling water in Reading, that water will be at 99-point-something °C. The dial on your washing machine may be accurate or it may not; we have no way of knowing.

Flew Ryanair last Monday; passed on the tea/coffee but settled for a Heineken, which was just about cold enough to be palatable.

At least the flight wasn’t full, wasn’t delayed much, and the Mancunian staff were quite friendly.

Thing is, the drink I had, wasn’t totally unpleasant if taken in isolation. It really didn’t meet any reasonable expectations if one were to have compared it to a decent cup of tea though. It was at best, surprising. It performed the function of being a hot drink passably well, but was deeply disappointing if tea was its intended role or identity.
Perhaps they could have called it something else. Hot, mysteriously flavoured and creamy drink maybe.

Bubbles can start forming in water at 71°C, water simmers at 87°C assuming sea level, pure etc...

A kettle is for domestic use, even at 87°C you're not going to put that anywhere near human skin, tongue, mouth or whatever. Having a kettle that can make water hit 100°C means you need more water to begin with, consume more energy and still end up with something just hot enough to think mmm that's a nice cup of tea without removing layers of skin in your mouth.
Bit like having Bugatti Veyron to drive the half mile to the paper shop in the morning.

I’m not using the kettle to heat the baby’s bathwater! This one has automatic stops at 70, 80 and 90°C, which work well for different infusions. But black tea works best in the hottest water you can put on it, hence 100°C and Humph’s aerial disappointment.

By the time it’s brewed in a preheated teapot for three minutes and I’ve poured it into a little milk, it’s more like 75°C in the cup anyway.

Even coffee benefits from very hot water — unless it’s Starbucks Burned to Buggery blend, where a lower temperature dissolves less of the bitter, over-roasted crap. 95-98°C works well for light-roasted beans if you want the fruity flavours that make modern coffee fun. Again, that’s brewing temperature, not drinking temperature!

It’s only really green and white teas that prefer water in the 80s. Now it’s summer I’m into my annual three months of enjoying green tea with jasmine flowers, which is nice on a hot afternoon but feels a bit silly in the damp depths of an English winter.