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Oct 25th, '12, 00:56
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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by gingkoseto » Oct 25th, '12, 00:56

wyardley wrote: Some metal cans (whether pewter or stainless) seem to impart a bit more of a 'metallic' taste than others.
Yeah I think most copper and iron have some metal odor (and there is a famous Song dynasty poem blaming them :mrgreen: ). Even some "silver spoons" that are not made of pure silver, don't taste or smell very good. In this aspect, I feel stainless steel is always safe (and cheap).
I have an impression that green tea regions don't use pewter tea cans as much as oolong regions. This may have to do with tea properties. But I also wonder if it has to do with how popular pewter was in certain regions. The pewter/lead ware, when commonly used, was even more unhealthy in certain regions where water could wash off more lead - although lead content was always bad even in regions where water wouldn't wash off that much lead. I wonder if that caused different levels of popularity of pewter ware in different regions too.

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Oct 25th, '12, 03:06
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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by MarshalN » Oct 25th, '12, 03:06

Stainless has a taste/odor too. You're probably just used to it, but it's there.

I'm pretty sure the popularity of pewterware back in the day has very little, if anything, to do with lead content and everything to do with how much money they had. Tin was (and still sort of is) an expensive metal.

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Oct 25th, '12, 12:28
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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by gingkoseto » Oct 25th, '12, 12:28

MarshalN wrote:Stainless has a taste/odor too. You're probably just used to it, but it's there.

I'm pretty sure the popularity of pewterware back in the day has very little, if anything, to do with lead content and everything to do with how much money they had. Tin was (and still sort of is) an expensive metal.
I meant different levels of pewter popularity among regions of comparable economic standards.

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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by the_economist » Oct 25th, '12, 12:39

Are you suggesting that controlling for income levels of the region, the disparity in popularity is due to water quality and its interaction with lead in pewter?

I would agree with Marshal and guess that this would not be the main determinant. Probably the type of tea has a bigger role to play.

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Oct 25th, '12, 13:20
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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by gingkoseto » Oct 25th, '12, 13:20

the_economist wrote:Are you suggesting that controlling for income levels of the region, the disparity in popularity is due to water quality and its interaction with lead in pewter?

I would agree with Marshal and guess that this would not be the main determinant. Probably the type of tea has a bigger role to play.
No, I was wondering, not suggesting it. What I said about water and pewter was a question, not a statement. So far I haven't yet rule out the possibility that water may play a role there. But I don't have an answer.

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Re: Old pewter tea caddy question

by ethan » Oct 25th, '12, 18:30

MarshalN, I believe you are right about stainless steel effecting taste. For tea, I don't want any metal to be involved too much. After heating water in metal, most of us use pots & cups of ceramic, porcelain, or glass. I think for better taste, but also for the more benign feeling that we get from these "softer" materials versus "hard" metal.

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