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Anne Marie M
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Hi all!
It's my birthday, and my husband knows I want a teapot. . . so he said to go ahead and order one! I need suggestions. I have an old corningware teapot that doesn't hold enough. I'd like one big enough for at least 6 reasonably-sized mugs (maybe an 8-cup?). I also want to use loose tea. And I want one that's reasonable sturdy.
I found one at Plow & Hearth. Does anyone know - is this a good design? Is it really hard to clean? Any other recommendations?
Thanks so much!
Anne Marie in NM
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Rachel May
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For my wedding gift a friend took me to a second hand china shop where we picked a teapot and mismatching teacups (the pot was a pattern that had 4 matching cup patterns). I could check out the size and shape and pattern and I think she paid about $30.
There was also a removable strainer to put across the top when you pour the water into the pot I think (I didn't get it) which to me sounds easier to clean, but I don't know. Also, if you leave the leaves in the pot, doesn't it make the tea bitter after a while?
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juliecinci
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Anne Marie, funny you should mention the Plow and Hearth one. I just received one in the mail for my birthday from my family who mistakenly thought it was a genuine Brown Betty.
Honestly, it's perfectly adequate for most tea drinkers. The problem for me is that I've been spoiled. I like the REAL Brown Bettys (and this one is not). The ceramic is thinner and the style is just not "it." So I am not going to use it and am ordering a real Brown Betty instead. The Brown Bettys I'm used to are thick ceramic and a deep chocolate brown.
Here's one.
I like the six cup size which is perfect for a family teatime and works great for loose tea.
Enjoy! You can even find the creamer and sugar bowl online too. I saw one at Stash Tea.
Julie
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Anne Marie M
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| Posted: Nov 20 2005 at 11:59pm | IP Logged
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Ooooh, Julie, it looks nice!
Now for some dumb questions: Do you use a tea ball, or is there a strainer of some sort? Do you actually get six 8-ounce cups of tea, or fewer, from it? (We tend to use big mugs and not dainty teacups here. . .) We've got eight in our family; and while we don't often have everyone here, I'd like to be able to pour tea for six!
I'm trying to get a sense of size. How tall is the teapot?
Thanks,
Anne Marie
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Anne Marie M
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| Posted: Nov 21 2005 at 12:01am | IP Logged
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Rachel,
Thanks for your idea! I'm excited about getting a new teapot and actually making a pot of tea. . . it's just not the same using individual tea bags for everyone.
Anne Marie
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Kathryn UK
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I'm afraid we usually just slosh a teabag in a mug  , but when we make "proper" tea we use this Portmeirion teapot. I think it makes about 6 cups or 4 mugs. When using tea leaves we use a strainer like this. I'd never heard them called Brown Betties, but I remember teapots in that style being used by elderly aunts in my childhood. I also remember that in those days tea was always made with leaves and not strained. You just had to remember to stop drinking before you got to the dregs at the bottom of the cup. Getting a mouth full of tea leaves was not a pleasant experience  . And people always had a tea cosy to keep the pot warm - you don't see them so often now (probably because most people use tea bags in a mug!).
I'm curious as to why electric kettles aren't commonly used in the US? Here they are a household essential. A good friend of mine is an American who married an Englishman. One of her early cross-cultural learning experiences came when she automatically put the electric kettle on the stove to boil ... ooops!!!!
Only seven months to wait before I can have a nice cup of tea  . I can't tolerate it at all when I'm pregnant, but ...aahh!!!! that post-childbirth cup of tea is bliss 
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Kathryn UK
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I was going to add ... my favourite tea is Yorkshire Tea; dh's favourite is Twining's English Breakfast.
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Mary Chris
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I love my Adagio tea pot. I just ordered the larger size. It is a little bit delicate, mine has a small chip on the spout. I just don't let my kiddos wash it. It comes with an infuser.
Kathryn, I was just searching the web for a tea cosy last night.
If you have not tried Adagio, they have an offer where customers can send friends coupons for $5.00. I know there are a few people on the board that can send you one.
I just recieved an order with their chestnut tea, cranberry tea and vanilla rooibos. I love their foxtrot tea!
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Mary G
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Kathryn UK wrote:
| I was going to add ... my favourite tea is Yorkshire Tea; dh's favourite is Twining's English Breakfast. |
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Kathryn -- this is going to sound crazy but when we brought the Yorkshire tea home (my bro and his family were in Ripon for 3 years) -- it didn't taste the same here. It's something, we assum, with the water. When we brought it to Austria -- it was really good but that was clear, fresh spring water.
But I'm with your husband on the Twining's English Breakfast -- and they finally sell that down here in the Southern regions.
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juliecinci
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More about tea and pots (my favorite subject). 
Anne Marie, with the size of your family, you probably will want the 8 cup. I have two sizes of pots because I don't like having a half full teapot (when we don't need as much tea). It gets cold too quickly in the big pot and the tea doesn't seem to steep as nicely unless full.
I don't care for glass pots or mugs or teacups either (or Corelle). They get cold really fast. Mugs are good. Anything ceramic. Heat the pot and the mug with a rinse of boiling water first to ensure warmth.
We don't use loose tea. I used to in Morocco (we got our British tea from specialty shops). We would use a strainer before pouring out. I don't like tea balls. The tea needs room to float around and breathe! Smells so good!!
But now, since tea is a daily part of my routine, I use PG Tips pyramid bags (they are funnily shaped tea-bags that are hard to describe). Easier and cheaper. PG Tips is a British brand. You don't want to buy any British tea in a supermarket since the quality is poor (I'm convinced they send the bad tea to Americans since we "don't know the difference"). Even the right brand name is not the same tea in a supermarket.
Instead, if you can get to a tea shop or British store (they do exist in most cities), you can buy real British tea. I like PG Tips but Typhoo is good too. Yorkshire is divine! (More expensive)
We have a tea cosy and I use it religiously. My family gets "in trouble" if I find my teapot uncovered.
About electric kettles: Americans just don't drink enough tea. We have coffee makers. I ought to have an electric kettle because I do drink as much tea as the Brits. But somehow I can't give up the counter space in my tiny kitchen for it.
Maybe some day.
Fun conversation!
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Bookswithtea
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LOL
My mum is British and swears by Electric kettles. She also thinks its weird that they are hard to find and unpopular here, but then my mum also thinks a cuppa is lovely in 110 degree weather (we used to live in So. CA) ! 
My mum only uses china cups and always looks at me funny for using mugs. One of these days, I want to go to a few thrift stores and pick up some pretty ones that don't match. That way I won't freak out when they break.
I swear by PG Tips pyramid bags, and we also heat our pots ahead of time and use a tea cosy here (my mum brought one back for me the last time she was in England). Tea cosy's work really really well.
edited to add...I just called my mum to ask about the Brown Betty. She says none of her relatives ever owned one growing up, but she did say they are great for large families who want to have a big pot of tea on the dinner table. She says good porcelain holds the heat best...
I wonder if its a regional thing, to some degree? Or maybe we will never know whether porcelain or clay is best? Or maybe my mum is just a goof! 
~Books
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Mary G. wrote:
| Kathryn -- this is going to sound crazy but when we brought the Yorkshire tea home (my bro and his family were in Ripon for 3 years) -- it didn't taste the same here. It's something, we assum, with the water. When we brought it to Austria -- it was really good but that was clear, fresh spring water. |
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Not crazy at all ... they actually make different teas for different water areas. We have very hard water (high mineral content, everything gets clogged up with limescale ) so the original Yorkshire tea isn't so good here either.
Books ... I think the clay / porcelain thing would probably have come down to cost. I imagine clay teapots would have been a lot cheaper to buy than china. One aspect of tea-making people tend to disagree on is whether milk should be put into cups before or after the tea. I read somewhere that this was originally a function of financial circumstances - poor people could only afford cheap pottery cups, which were liable to crack if hot tea was poured in first so they would start with milk; more affluent people could afford china cups which could take boiling water, so they would put the tea in first.
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Bookswithtea
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Kathryn UK wrote:
Not crazy at all ... they actually make different teas for different water areas. We have very hard water (high mineral content, everything gets clogged up with limescale ) so the original Yorkshire tea isn't so good here either.
Books ... I think the clay / porcelain thing would probably have come down to cost. I imagine clay teapots would have been a lot cheaper to buy than china. One aspect of tea-making people tend to disagree on is whether milk should be put into cups before or after the tea. I read somewhere that this was originally a function of financial circumstances - poor people could only afford cheap pottery cups, which were liable to crack if hot tea was poured in first so they would start with milk; more affluent people could afford china cups which could take boiling water, so they would put the tea in first. |
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How interesting about the water. This does explain how sometimes the same teabag tastes totally different to me at someone else's home! How would one know, then, which tea would taste good in their own home?
That's interesting about the milk, too. I was taught to put the milk in first because it'll curdle if its poured into the hot tea.
My mum came from a poor working class family, so I don't think her preference for china came from her background. Maybe its a "moving up the social scale" thing?
Who knew that tea could be the subject of so many different aspects?
~Books
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Here's a question I've had for a while. Is it true you should only brew one flavor of tea in the pot? I was told this by the same friend who bought my pot for me. She said that the flavors don't completely wash out so you can end up with funny tasting tea if you switch. I love Early Grey (only if it's Bigelow) or English Breakfast but the kid's like orange flavored tea. Then I got off tea competely when I moved to Hawaii and discovered Kona coffee. YUM! But I'm back on tea because it seems to agree with my pregnancy tummy better. It's sooooooo good. And milk after at my house.
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Elizabeth
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I love Adagio tea but prefer their IngenuiTEA pots to the glass ones. I've had two glass pots and three cups with five different infusers. Try as I might, this household just could not handle glass teaware. It all broke  . If I were to buy another large Adagio teapot, it would go in the china cabinet and I'd take it out about as often as the china. The Ingenuitea pot, in the large size, makes 32 ounces of tea from loose tea leaves. It's neat and easy, though not nearly as pretty as the glass pot. I make two batches, reserving the first in my stoneware teapot while I brew the second. Then I serve from the stoneware pot.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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amiefriedl
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Is this contraption sensible?
triniTea
Looks interesting to me...too complicated or gadgety?
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| How interesting about the water. This does explain how sometimes the same teabag tastes totally different to me at someone else's home! How would one know, then, which tea would taste good in their own home? |
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Trial and error!
Bookswithtea wrote:
| That's interesting about the milk, too. I was taught to put the milk in first because it'll curdle if its poured into the hot tea. |
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In my experience it only curdles if the milk is beginning to turn. I guess that might well go back to the days before refrigeration when milk would not last as long and would - I guess - often be drunk when a bit past its best.
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Elizabeth
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amiefriedl wrote:
Is this contraption sensible?
triniTea
Looks interesting to me...too complicated or gadgety? |
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I don't think it's any more complicated than a good coffee maker.The customer reviews are pretty impressive! The only downside I can see is that it only makes four cups of tea...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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saintanneshs
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What a wonderful thread for gathering ideas on purchasing my 1st teapot!
I was wondering (and please forgive me for a late arrival on this conversation) if there is a thread about tea for beginners. I tried searching some of the archives but couldn't find what I was looking for. I'd like to start a true tea tradition but am not sure where to start, coming from a household of coffee drinkers. My father drinks hot tea daily (my grandmother was English) but always with a tea bag since he's the only one. Unfortunately he remembers little other than the yummy scones of his childhood tea times, which doesn't help me and I'm ashamed to be of Engish ancestry and know so little about tea!
So, I'm looking for very slow steps to get me started. I have the teacups which the boys love to use, and have lots of boxes of the flavored grocery store decaf. tea bags in a pretty basket, including my herbal teas from the health food store, but am feeling like that falls a little short of the true "proper" tea experience.
In your opinion, how much of the tea experience is the simple quiet time around the table with fun snacks and good conversation and how much of it is the "properness" of manners and tradition?
Do any of you just put hot water into the teapot and use bags so everyone can choose their own flavors of tea? I think the choosing is what is keeping my boys interested, for now anyway (sometimes they'd rather have milk or hot cocoa or juice in their cups)...
Any good books at the library on tea time for beginners?
There are so many tea websites to choose from... which ones are best for beginners?
And, the most important question (ha ha) ..Do you use cloth napkins or disposables?
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Anne Marie M
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A very belated thank you to everyone for the great suggestions. I got the 8 cup Brown Betty teapot (thanks, Julie!) and an assortment of teas from both Adagio and the English Tea Store. I also got the IngenuiTEA for those times it's just me!
I rounded up the 5 kids who are at home and they indulged me by drinking tea (and not hot chocolate or hot apple juice). We had tea and Christmas cookies, and I tried not to notice how much sugar/honey they put in the tea! A fun time was had by all, and we'll add the read-alouds or poetry next time. Babysteps. . .
My tea-drinking oldest daughter is coming home from college tonight, and I'm ready!
Kristine, I was going to let the experts answer your questions - but I'll point you to Julie's Teatime info on bravewriter.com.
It's a bit chilly here. . . think I'll go make a cup of tea!
Anne Marie in NM
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Topic: teapot question
