Thursday, September 07, 2006

Teapots and tea-cosys

I found the photo of the tin of beans on the (American) English Tea Store site. It's an imported tin so that is probably why the label looks slightly wrong. Anyway as I was there, a bit of browsing was in order.

And this is what I read. "Teapots are used to brew tea, not to heat water. Use an electric kettle to boil water."

Do people really have to be told what teapots are for? Or kettles?

Then further on it again recommends using a kettle to boil water. "Tea tastes much better when made with freshly boiled water, compared to water heated in a microwave."

It made me wonder: do Americans have kettles have as a general rule? Go into any home in Britain and you may be offered coffee but chances are the kettle will be used to boil the water to pour on the instant coffee granules. Is this the real diffference between Britain and America? Every home in Britain has a kettle; every home in America has a coffee-pot.

And, of course, when the tea is made it needs to brew, to allow the bitter tannins to dissolve, and to keep it warm while brewing you need a tea-cosy. Which provides my link in a Woganesque way.

Harvey has a bad case of the moults. Losing hair at the end of summer? That's global warming for you. He is shedding enough for me to knit a cosy (like the cunning link?) for the Eiffel Tower. If I could knit.

2 comments:

Elsie said...

I have an English grandma and learned from a very young age the proper way to make a pot of tea. And I've seen some very interesting tea-cosys. I do, in fact, own a tea kettle. And I also collect teapots. We also have two coffee pots (one drip and one percolator). Electric kettles? The only place I've ever seen one is in Canada. Definitely not popular in this part of the U.S. And I'd probably be shot if I ever offered anyone instant coffee!

Liz Hinds said...

Now, isn't that amazing? An electric kettle is so much part of the household, it's strange to think of homes without them.