Teapots

[Flatfish]

As an fan of loose leaf tea, I have a small number of teapots. But the design of the traditional teapot is very poor in my opinion.

So here is a list of some features that would be on my ideal teapot. A teapot that doesn't seem to exist.

- A large opening at the top. Big enough to get your hand in with the scouring pad to give it a good scrub (although some say never clean a teapot. I'm not one of those).

- No lip around the aforementioned large opening. So you can easily tip the pot upside down and the loose tea easily slides out without getting stuck on the lip.

- A spout that is either large, or better still has no top. (like a jug has no top to the spout generally). I find smaller grades of tea will all come out of the spout and land in my tea strainer. But larger leaves get stuck in the small spout. This really annoys me. Why do all teapots have such a small hole for the tea to come out of?


So basically my ideal teapot is a squat jug with a lid that holds one cup of tea.

Or I could use one of these (below). But I did have one of these. I lost the built in metal strainer a few years ago, and I broke the actual pot today whilst trying to enlarge the hole in the spout with a drill. (DIY is not my speciality)

Does anyone else have a teapot with a large opening spout?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's good to know what you want. I don't have a preference for t5ea pots, but I am a picky coffee carafe buyer. If a coffee maker has a metal carafe, I avoid them. We've gone through the expensive coffee makers, but always hate their carafes. Mr Coffee has the best carafes, so we just threw away our Smeg, Braun, and Cuisinarts and just keep buying Mr Coffee makers. They are cheap enough that when it comes time to clean it, we just throw it away and buy a new one.

 

[irishearl]

I never steep tea in a teapot. Rather, I have a 4 cup drip Mr. Coffee devoted just to tea and, of course, the loose tea remains in the coffee pot's basket. Makes a great cuppa but you need distilled water to make that happen.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Makes a great cuppa but you need distilled water to make that happen.

You use distilled water to make tea?

 

[Flatfish]

Distilled water? That is a strange ingredient in tea.

I am very lucky. I have an abundance of the finest Welsh water. A great deal of which fell from the sky today.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I just have never heard of anyone making something to consume with distilled water. It doesn't have any minerals in it, which is what most would attribute to good tasting water. Usually folks would say that it tastes flat or bland. But, maybe with tea, it's different. Just curious.

 

[SBC]

Sipping a loose leaf cinnamon green tea right now.

From your first line about the traditional teapot being a poor design, I was ready to fight you, Flatfish (not really, I love you). I'm a conservative soul, and no fan of johnny-come-lately criticisms of tradition. I use a Brown Betty from Stoke-on-Trent and am quite endeared to it.

But upon reading the rest of your post ... I have to admit, you're absolutely right on each of these points.
I think that it would be possible to maintain the traditional aesthetic while achieving these improvements. Let me know if you want a business partner ;-)

 

[jaingorenard]

I thought distilled water didn't extract stuff from coffee and tea very well. So not only would the water itself taste different, the resulting tea or coffee would have less flavour too. I thought some minerals were necessary for good extraction.

 

[Hillcrest]

Original Brown Betty is the best teapot in the world.

Genuine Brown Betty Teapots | On Sale Now!

<p>Celebrate British history by serving tea in our Genuine Brown Betty brand teapots from English Tea Store. This teapot first appeared near the end of the 17th century, fashioned of red clays found in the Bradell Woods in Stoke-on-Trend in Staffordshire, England. The Brown Betty teapots in a...

www.englishteastore.com

What you want is a Pfaltzgraff pot which is good if serving a party or gluttons :

Pfaltzgraff, Winterberry, Teapot & Lid, Tea Pot, Holly & Berry, Red, Green, NWT | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/333140282036

 

[Flatfish]

One of my ceramic teapots seems to pour at one of two speeds.
Just short of the cup. Just over the cup.

As you tip it up it doesn't increase flow gradually. It just suddenly steps up in flow suddenly and makes a mess.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Now I have that damned kindergarten song running through my head. Imma a little teapot, short and stout... ugggg

 

[JOHN72]

Now I have that damned kindergarten song running through my head. Imma a little teapot, short and stout... ugggg

 

[agnosticpipe]

I have two options for loose tea. Mostly I use my Bodum french press as it's the easiest. I also have my mothers old tea pot that is rather fancy and made in England, although I know nothing about it. But I'm always worried I'll somehow break it when using it.

 

[FLDRD]

I thought distilled water didn't extract stuff from coffee and tea very well. So not only would the water itself taste different, the resulting tea or coffee would have less flavour too. I thought some minerals were necessary for good extraction.

I thought I used to like reverse osmosis (RO) water because it was nice and "clean" and no chemical taste like tap water.
These days I don't like distilled, RO or tap.
Best tasting water I have is from my well through a classic Berkey filtration system.
FULL of minerals, but none of the bad stuff.
Tastes "full", "complete" & delicious to me.

 

[irishearl]

I thought distilled water didn't extract stuff from coffee and tea very well. So not only would the water itself taste different, the resulting tea or coffee would have less flavour too. I thought some minerals were necessary for good extraction.

If we use tap water in our coffee or tea pots, they get scummy. Have pretty hard water here. Stuff tastes well only with distilled.

 

[OzPiper]

I have loose leaf tea made in a teapot every day at work.
Get one with a wire tea leaf basket that sits inside the pot.
Easy-peasy

 

[autumnfog]

I like the wabi-sabi style.

 

[jaingorenard]

If we use tap water in our coffee or tea pots, they get scummy. Have pretty hard water here. Stuff tastes well only with distilled.

I think you can actually buy little sachets of minerals that you can add to distilled water to make it 'perfect' for tea and coffee. Can't remember what they're called, but I got given a free sachet once. Obviously that would be for the obsessives!

 

[Grovius]

Bore da!

Regarding teapots, I haven't used any since I tried the gong-fu method. I don't even use a gaiwan: I simply put a colander like the one pictured below in a cup which is slightly larger, put 5 grams of tea leaf in, then 100 to 150 ml of water, wait the time needed for that particular tea/steep and lift the colander with the leaves. This allows me to gongfu even broken leaf tea, such as many Indian teas. Strong and rich taste, no bitterness (if you do get bitterness, then you need to use less time or temperature in the next steep and presto! Mei Leaf has a handy guide.

Now, with water, soft water is great for tea (calcium makes it cloudy and a bit frothy because of the saponins in the tea), but for coffee you need a bit of calcium and magnesium to help extract the good flavours (and also smoothen a bit the acidity of light roasts). Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood has interesting talks on YouTube in that. It is a bit of a rabbit hole and you don't need to become a chemist, but I find it worth to use water from my well (granitic soil, very soft, a bit acidic) for my tea and slightly hard water for my coffee.

https://media.cooltea.es/product/filtro-inox-con-platotapa-800x800_gI6xhak.jpg

https://meileaf.com/resources/pdf/mei-leaf-tea-brewing-guide.pdf

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

lately I have switched using cast iron teapots from far east. the benefit is that your black brew keeps warm way longer. In order to get extra strong brew i mostly use granulated low-rate CTC type of leaf in these pots