For a single mug microwaves are quicker in America. Potentially even for 2 mugs.

BUT in America kitchen appliances have a power limit (usually) of 1,500W. This is usually higher than a standard microwave (1,000W). And since an electric kettle in America is just a heat source in water, it's very efficient. So if you're regularly heating multiple mugs worth of water, or just boiling water for cooking often, an electric kettle is definitely better. They are also pretty cheap.

Now in Europe and the UK, electric kettles are faster since they can often be around 3,000W or higher. But that doesn't mean American kettles are useless. American kettles a way faster than heating water on the stove. And WAAAY faster than heating water on a gas stove.

Kettle is much more convenient. Microwave is overkill, while a kettle is both a simpler machine and turns itself off when the water boils with no guesswork. It's ergonomically designed for pouring into a cup.

The speed argument is irrelevant, they're both quick enough.

It picks up food smells from the walls of the microwave. Make it properly, gun monkey!

Meh my British kettle heats a cup of water to boiling in 30 seconds.

Faster than a microwave

It’s quicker if your electricity is a feeble 110v and not a mighty 240v.

Though it also has the potential to flash boil. https://youtu.be/0JOxuS0SBHc?si=BnKVZWw5xcjalQy_

So be careful out there.

I had a fucking chemistry teacher who told the class that microwaved water was different (and linked to cancer)

It's only faster because your half ass electrical system is only 120V Also the microwave makes the mug to hot to touch

There are very good reasons not to microwave tea, first of all:

• I usually find microwaving anything in a mug adds some unpleasant flavour from the mug. Using glass eliminates this, but worth noting.

• Microwaving the tea itself will break down some compounds and release more tannins, your tea will be worse.

But even if you're just microwaving the water, the kettle wins (depending on what tea you are brewing). Black tea should be brewed as close as possible to 100°C - when you have a kettle you should pour it just as it comes off the boil, around 90-95°C. By that point the water has actually been boiling for quite a while (at least the water around the element), allowing the rest of it to heat up. It's very difficult to achieve this in a microwave, and dangerous too since you can just end up spraying boiling water around your microwave.

The sun is free! 😎

Good luck getting your water to the right temp in a microwave without toeing the flashboil line, though.

But the molecules are wiggling in the wrong way!

Induction cooktop master race. Both 'merica and 240V, boils water fast as fuck.

I have an induction stove. The microwave isn't quicker.

I do not say it is chemically different. I'm saying the tee does not taste the same! You cannot reduce the whole gustative experience to simply chemically composition but there IS something different.

Joke's on you guys, I keep a red hot iron poker in my kitchen forge at all times. Just quench and cuppa.

I make my tea as the founding fathers intended. By firing a few hundred rounds of ammunition and using the heat from the gun barrel to heat the water.