American woman attempts to make tea in an electric kettle in hilarious TikTok video

An American woman has horrified British people with her attempt to make tea – by boiling the tea leaves in the kettle with the water.

Nikki Moustaki, an author and freelance writer who lives between Miami Beach and New York City, bought a new electric kettle but was shocked when it overflowed as it reached boiling point.

She posted a video of the Chefman Electric Glass Kettle on TikTok, claiming it had a ‘major flaw’ as she showed tea flowing out of the spout, asking fellow users: ‘Why does it do this?’

However, horrified Britons on TikTok pointed out that the fault was with her because she was boiling the kettle with the loose tea infuser in it, causing tea to spill everywhere.

She then posted a series of videos charting her attempts to make tea properly, but further horrified people by using decaf teabags and heated coconut milk, which she poured into the cup first.  

In her first hilarious video, which has over four million views, Nikki explained the situation, saying: ‘I have this amazing electric kettle. 

‘As you can see it’s filled up to the water line but it has a major flaw when I’m making my tea.

‘Let’s see if you can notice the major flaw that it has. It might be hard to notice… but here it comes.’

With the kettle positioned next to the sink she caught the moment on camera when boiling water began to rise and overflow out of the spout, pouring into the sink. 

Nikki said: ‘Um so, why would they make it like this? What is the purpose?’ 

The unique way of making tea sparked a fierce debate in the comment section, with Britons chiming in to teach her how to make a cup of tea. 

One TikTok user called Gabrielle pointed out her problem, writing: ‘Boil the water first, then put the tea in with the diffuser.’

Another joked: ‘American gets a kettle and this is what they do,’ while someone else wrote: ‘I can notice the MAJOR (sic) FLAW’: you don’t know how to use it’.

However, a user named Queenie wrote: Nothing unites the English more than an American not knowing how to use a kettle.’

In a follow up TikTok video, shared to her HappyGoLiving page, Nikki shared an update to reassure her fans that she had figured out how to use the kettle – by removing the tea infuser. 

In the caption, she wrote: ‘Okay it works now,’ as she admitted the ‘flaw’ was her own mistake.

She produced a ‘proper British tea’ in the form of a Twinings Assam bag, which she ‘got on the Queen Mary 2, the ocean liner, when I went from Brooklyn to Southampton a couple of years ago.’ 

Admitting that before she got the kettle, she would have put the bag in a cup of cold water and microwaved it, Nikki admitted there was a flaw. 

‘You only get one cup of tea. Follow my logic. You only get one cup of tea. If I put the teabag in here and I boil it – now I know not to do that – I get a whole giant thing of tea and I can fill up four mugs. Does it not make sense? 

‘What’s better, a medium amount of good tea or all you can eat amount of pretty good tea?’

After boiling the kettle, she steeped the single teabag but commenters were unhappy with how weak it was. 

In a further follow up video, she said that she’d now mastered making tea properly and had borrowed a teapot from her neighbour. 

However, things started to go downhill when she admitted she only had coconut milk, which she heated in the microwave and poured into the cup first. 

She then steeped three bags of decaf Twinings tea in the pot and declared it was the nicest she’d ever made. 

‘Have you ever read the direction on a packet of tea?’ one commenter asked. ‘Are you OK? Please read more.’

Another added: ‘Show me you’re American without telling me.’