TeaChat

A friend of mine was given a pot designed for green tea and since she isn't into green tea she gave it to me. It is very similar to this tea pot:



It is made out of cast iron. Is that a good idea for green tea or health?

Is there some kind of liner I could buy to filter out the leaves when I pour?

Thanks in advance for all polite opinions.

Terrible for green tea. It will maintain too much heat. I have a few of those that I use to keep western brewed tea or water warm, but never brew in them.

+1, marketing ploy.

There are infuser baskets that come with them. You can buy replacements in Chinatown hardware stores, etc.

If you do brew green tea in it, use cooler water. Or use it as Ed does. They are nice aesthically, just not real practical in the real world.

EDIT: I guess we should ask, is it enameled and shiny on the inside or is it rough iron?

Rough iron.

Thanks for the information Ed. I'm glad I only made one serving in it so far. I have cash now so I think I will look for an earthen tea pot.

If it is not enameled on the inside, then it is fully exposed iron. Usually this is a kettle, not a teapot. Water is heated inside it, not brewing tea. Thus this is likely why it did not have an infuser.

An actual photo (maybe an interior and an exterior) of your piece would be helpful to help discern whether it is a kettle or a pot.

If it is a kettle, you probably should not be using it as a teapot.

I have a cast iron teapot from Teavana. Oh, how I remember the time I brewed their Gyokuro in it and how terrible it was. I brewed over a liter of it at one time. Needless to say, when I looked online and discovered how wrong I was for brewing Gyo this way, I was ashamed of myself and immediately went and bought a Houhin. I do still use the cast iron for the same reasons as above.

The lining does matter. I figured that the lack of infuser is just because it got lost. You can make tea in a kettle, but I wouldn't recommend it with any nice tea. However, you can't use a iron tea pot (with liner) as a kettle because the enamel on the inside and bottom will burn.

1, Make sure where is Cast Iron tea pot come from, the tea pot from China and Japan are big different in price and quality.

2, For green tea, my personal idea is using glass or thin ceramic tea ware to steep.

I have been thinking hard what I can do with my small enamel lined cast iron pots, except using them for decoration as in the past years. I use thermos for hot water, so don't need that function from cast iron either. But they are small and nice looking. So I guess I have no problem keeping them just for decoration.

Do cast iron teapots affect the taste of tea (because of metal oxidizing) in it?

Mooniac wrote:Do cast iron teapots affect the taste of tea (because of metal oxidizing) in it?

I've always found a little taste of iron in my tea appealing. But you shouldn't have too much of a problem with that if you're using a fully glazed pot.

I have seen pots that look exactly like that one in the picture. To my knowledge, they are fine for brewing tea directly in (as opposed to being a tea kettle), but I personally would echo the sentiments of others here and say I wouldn't put a green tea in it. Unless your water were quite cool, but I generally like to steep most greens hotter at first (170F) and let it immediately cool down within the 1-3 minutes I steep them. That pot might actually be nice for a Western-style brew of an oolong or something.

If the inside of the pot is lacquered there shouldn't be a problem with rusting. Just make sure the lacquer doesn't break.

Has anyone ever done a comparison brewing of tea in a cast iron pot versus their normal method? I've been wondering which teas the pot (allegedly, I'm still a bit skeptical) affects. I had tea (not high-quality) that was brewed in a cast iron pot once, but didn't notice much of a difference when I took a teaspoon home and brewed it grandpa-style a little later.