Scientists in England have discovered the key to making the perfect cup of tea.

An issue of great national concern has been resolved thanks to the University of Northumbria’s School of Life Sciences. Here’s a hint: Lionel Richie has everything to do with it.

Per The Telegraph, scientists clocked in more than 180 hours of testing and made more than 285 cups, thus determining that the optimum cup of tea should be brewed for exactly six minutes before drinking, a little more than the length of this stimulating video.

Moreover, it must be served at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees C) to allow the flavors to flood out without scalding the tongue.

Tea left beyond 17 minutes and 30 seconds is absolute rubbish and should, therefore, be defenestrated or otherwise. I pity the fool who drinks his tea lukewarm.

This and the Lionel Richie mug above are handcrafted by LennyMud.

To make the perfect cup, add boiling water to a mug (with tea bag) and leave it for exactly two minutes. Then remove the bag, add the milk and leave for six minutes until it reaches the ideal temperature of 60C.

Should the temperature drop below 45C, all is lost, thus destroying the “all round sensory experience.”

The research, commissioned by British milk company Cravendale, flies in the face of earlier findings by Loughborough University’s Dr. Andrew Stapley, who has lectured on the topic of tea for the better part of a decade. He surmises that pouring milk into a cup after the boiling hot water has been added “denatures” the milk proteins, producing a most unpleasant stale taste.

Being American, I have no clue which scientist is in his or her right mind. Luckily, I have the good fortune of being married to an Englishman who makes me copious amounts of tea. Coming from a formidable tea drinking culture wherein 165 million cups of tea per day are consumed (my theory is that the English use tea to fill in awkward conversation gaps and mark time before a guest leaves), he is my resident expert.

“Let me ask you a question,” he said. “What makes the tea brew?”

Um, the hot water? I guess.

“That’s right. If you put the milk in first and then add the hot water, are you not lowering the temperature of the water? The fallacy that you should add milk first is preposterous! The science doesn’t add up.”

His words to a (cough) “t.”

He also informed me that we employ the method of halving our brew time by doubling the bags. Another consideration in our household is the width of the mug. If it’s a fat mug you have to preheat the cup as a wide mug runs the risk of producing an inferior tea if left at room temperature.

An innovative way to double, even triple, bag. By Monica Tsang via designboom.

Interesting.

Ian Brown, senior lecturer at the University of Northumbria, relayed to The Telegraph that the complex taste of tea is what makes it so delectable. “When enjoying a cup of tea, our palette requires a balance between bitterness and sweetness. You might not expect to find toffee flavour in black tea, but by adding milk, toffee and vanilla flavours are intensified while the wood and grassy notes are reduced.”

That is why 98 per cent of Brits prefer milk with their tea, exactly 10 ml for every 200ml of water.

Proper dunking of biscuits, meanwhile, is still up for debate.

The FaceMug, available for purchase at Uncommon Goods.

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In anticipation of Halloween, we found 13 of the best accessories and bits of furniture from the House of Frankenstein.

The design world has been fascinated with anatomy for a while now. Our obsession is a bit more seasonal. With Halloween creeping up on our calendars, and the encroaching Día de los Muertos not far behind, we’ve got skulls on the brain. And brains all over the carpet (see the footstool below).

Time’s a wasting, or so we are reminded by tattoo artist Scott Campbell’s upholstered chair (above) and a monobloc plastic seat titled Souviens Toi Que Tu Vas Mourir from Benjamin Le Du of Pool. That French bit means, “Remember that you are going to die.”

For something a bit more heart-warming, consider the Cuore Sacro lamp by Tania da Cruz.

Liviana Osti’s own Cuore features two carafes assembled in the form of a human heart.

Porcelain sculptures from Parisian studio Perception Park, part of Celia Nkala’s Ossements collection, were inspired by a human hip-bone she found in a flea market in Brussels. She sculpted the shape in porcelain along with a few others modeled upon a human skeleton she borrowed from the anatomy department of a local medical school.

The Lilac Bone.

The Sacrum.

And stackable vertebra candle-holders.

The Ventricle in cherry turquoise is a hand blown sculptural vase designed by Eva Milinkovic.

Wallpaper Number One by Shannon Wright takes the urinary tract and turns it into retro wallpaper.

Finally, brains on the carpet. Or rather a skull chair and brain footstool from the Vanitas Collection, accented with the “Something Dead” floor lamp, each sold separately by Vladi Rapaport.

These should set your teeth chattering before making you smile. The teeth brushes are handcrafted using traditional craft techniques by blind artisans at the former Home for the Blind in Berlin.

Shelve this under almost anatomically correct. By sculptural furniture maker Peter Rolfe, detachable torsos are available in his and hers.

Finally, antique anatomy slides cum refrigerator magnets to remind us to take good care of our bones so our scary Halloween costumes, aren’t something we can’t take off.

Images: Street Anatomy; Street Anatomy; Design Milk; Tsunami Glassworks; Shannon Wright; Mix And Chic; Voila; Street Anatomy; The Curiosity Shoppe; Street Anatomy; Kimico P.

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