Hey there! My mom's birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I thought it would be a great gift idea to buy her a teapot, kettle, and loose teas. I need some help!
My knowledge on loose tea is pretty minimal. I have a Teavana 'Perfect Tea Maker' that I use on a regular basis, which I bought with a couple of random blends. Initially I was just going to go back to Teavana and shell out a couple hundred for one of those cast iron pots and some tins of tea for my mom, but after researching it I found that if anything that store seems like an undereducated rip off. Little did I know that there was a whole world full of more high quality and reputable sellers, so I'd rather explore my options.
So first of all, I desperately need some teapot suggestions. I want to buy a larger one, which will be able to hold a few cups (and by cups I don't mean the literal measurements, but you know... average size mugs). Something that is nice, attractive, and long lasting. I'm not really a fan of delicate glass or ceramic. I don't want to overspend either. Basically I want the perfect teapot, and I just don't know where to start. LOL.
I also like the idea of trivets or warmers... what are your thoughts on these??
As for kettles... I don't know the first thing. I've never even used one before (I know, I know). Where should I buy them?? What should I look for??
And finally, the tea. I would like to buy a nice variety to get her started. My questions are, what are your favorites? Favorite places to buy from? How much should I get? Personally, I'm a big fan of black and green teas. Neither of us like anything too crazy flavored, just some downright yummy tea.
All in all I don't want to spend a fortune, but I'm not on an extremely tight budget either... I just want the best value without going overboard.
If anyone can help thank you so much, I'm lost!!!!!!!!!! : ] Oh, and apologies if I made any posting mistakes... it's my first time on here!
well generally people don't brew tea in what they boil the water in... they are seperate operations..so theres the kettle and then a separate teapot.
for kettles you need to specify depending on the heat source. There are plug in ones, and then others for gas or electric stove. Generally these don't need to be that expensive.
This site sells a great plug in one and you can find a stovetop kettle on amazon...
there are much more complicated and expensive set ups but not really neccessary in the beginning. I heat my water in a plain old pot on the stove, then I pour it into a seperate ceramic jug with a therm. until it reaches the desired temp and then I pour the water into my kyusu which is a Japanese style teapot. I drink Japenese greens and this is the best teapot for them. If your going to brew different kinds of tea in the same pot then your pretty flexible in terms of style.
for kettles you need to specify depending on the heat source. There are plug in ones, and then others for gas or electric stove. Generally these don't need to be that expensive.
This site sells a great plug in one and you can find a stovetop kettle on amazon...
there are much more complicated and expensive set ups but not really neccessary in the beginning. I heat my water in a plain old pot on the stove, then I pour it into a seperate ceramic jug with a therm. until it reaches the desired temp and then I pour the water into my kyusu which is a Japanese style teapot. I drink Japenese greens and this is the best teapot for them. If your going to brew different kinds of tea in the same pot then your pretty flexible in terms of style.
Jul 10th, '09, 19:54
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
for a kettle..if you have a electric coil or gas stove then pretty much anything will do for water heating..I personally use a chantal kettle i've had for 12 years.
If you are looking for a simple starter teapot you can check out adagio, our hosts, website. I have heard good things from other members on the very clean and simple PersonaliTEA. Its also a good site to get some sample sizes of different teas so you can figure out what she likes best. then go for the more specialized sites like o-cha and yuuki-cha for japanese greens or floating leaves for oolongs or whatever.
If you are looking for a simple starter teapot you can check out adagio, our hosts, website. I have heard good things from other members on the very clean and simple PersonaliTEA. Its also a good site to get some sample sizes of different teas so you can figure out what she likes best. then go for the more specialized sites like o-cha and yuuki-cha for japanese greens or floating leaves for oolongs or whatever.
Woohoo! Thanks guys for your help. I think I've got it all sorted out-- I'm gonna go ahead and buy the utiliTEA kettle and the personaliTEA teapot... after reading all of the reviews that seems like a pretty safe choice! I might even get the larger version of ingenuiTEA, I love my little teamaker and a big one would be pretty handy. Now I just have to sort out which teas to buy... hmmmmm 
(I'm also thrilled that I will be getting all of this for less than the price of one teapot from Teavana HA!)
(I'm also thrilled that I will be getting all of this for less than the price of one teapot from Teavana HA!)
Jul 11th, '09, 01:20
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
you may want to check out a couple of the samples from adagio while you are ordering the teaware from there. they have a couple samplers of each style of tea..green, black, oolong.. probably cant go too wrong with any of those if you arent 100 percent sure what she will favor in the long run. like i was suggesting after you both figure out what she likes best then go look at the more specialized online shops for whichever teas you end up going after.
There is actually a thread on here regarding teavanna that may interest you
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... t=teavanna
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... t=teavanna
Great choices. I would just go nuts with adagio samples. Once you zoom in on a specific type you like you can start looking into specialty stores. You can get most the samples here for around $3 which lets you get a wide range of samples. I would suggest something as follows:tmk23 wrote:Woohoo! Thanks guys for your help. I think I've got it all sorted out-- I'm gonna go ahead and buy the utiliTEA kettle and the personaliTEA teapot... after reading all of the reviews that seems like a pretty safe choice! I might even get the larger version of ingenuiTEA, I love my little teamaker and a big one would be pretty handy. Now I just have to sort out which teas to buy... hmmmmm
(I'm also thrilled that I will be getting all of this for less than the price of one teapot from Teavana HA!)
black - earl grey bravo
oolong - wuyi ensemble, ali shan
green - genmaicha, sencha overture
rooibos - just plain rooibos
Get whatever sounds good to you, but the above list is only about $20. Good luck!
Jul 11th, '09, 09:51
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
i probably shoulda been more specific when i said "samples" what i meant was the samplers already built that have a lot of varieties in them..like the "black sampler" or the "black savant sampler" same for greens and oolongs.. for instance the regular black sampler has for 16 bucks:
assam melody - malty tea makes an ideal breakfast-time tea
ceylon sonata - smooth tea from the high plains of Sri Lanka
darjeeling #22 - muscatel summer tea from the Himalayas
golden monkey - robust morning brew from coastal China
keemun concerto - robust morning tea from inland China
yunnan jig - peppery tea from the Yunnan region of China
assam melody - malty tea makes an ideal breakfast-time tea
ceylon sonata - smooth tea from the high plains of Sri Lanka
darjeeling #22 - muscatel summer tea from the Himalayas
golden monkey - robust morning brew from coastal China
keemun concerto - robust morning tea from inland China
yunnan jig - peppery tea from the Yunnan region of China
One thing I don't like about IngenuiTea type of pots is that it's plastic. Just doesn't seem like it should be near boiling water.
Congratulations on not buying a few hundred dollar cast iron pot - they're absolutely terrible for most types of tea.
I think you should at least consider a glass pot, I've had one for ~8 years and another one for about 2-3 years and I've never broken a glass pot. They're fairly tough. Porcelain would work as well, in my opinion, although I don't have one.
The most important thing about brewing teas in a teapot is that leaves should have as much space as possible to float around, expand, and infuse. Ideally it should have the full volume of the pot for that purpose. If you brew without an infuser basket, you get the perfect tea, but that leaves the problem of how to stop infusion at the right point. I think one of the best compromises for a newbie is to use two pots, either both glass or both porcelain or one glass and one porcelain. I call it a compromise because you have to mess around with two pots instead of one, but I think it's a small price to pay for great-tasting tea.
Another option is a "mono filio" pot which has an infuser basket that takes up the whole volume. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive, over $100, and I never got around to buying one so I can't guarantee that it works as well as it would seem to.
As far as teas go, for a newbie I would recommend getting an assam, a darjeeling, a silver needles white, a yunnan gold, a keemun, a few different types of oolong, a long jing green, a bi luo chun green and a jasmine green. I would also recommend getting a good sencha if you don't mind making a separate order from a place like o-cha.com. The rest can be bought from adagio tea as others recommended.
I really don't like flavoured teas except an occasional jasmine green or real vanilla earl grey, but even these two are inferior to "real" teas.
Once you spend a half a year to a year playing with adagio teas you should try places that offer some of the more specialized and expensive teas like teaspring.com and houdeasianart.com.
For a teakettle I would recommend something that goes on gas range and is enameled on the inside, for example, a le creuset kettle. A kettle is not that critical, you may even use a stainless steel pan if you wish.
Make sure you try using spring water and compare it to filtered water for tea, depending on how good your tap water is, there may or may not be a large difference.
Have fun and ask away if you have questions.
Congratulations on not buying a few hundred dollar cast iron pot - they're absolutely terrible for most types of tea.
I think you should at least consider a glass pot, I've had one for ~8 years and another one for about 2-3 years and I've never broken a glass pot. They're fairly tough. Porcelain would work as well, in my opinion, although I don't have one.
The most important thing about brewing teas in a teapot is that leaves should have as much space as possible to float around, expand, and infuse. Ideally it should have the full volume of the pot for that purpose. If you brew without an infuser basket, you get the perfect tea, but that leaves the problem of how to stop infusion at the right point. I think one of the best compromises for a newbie is to use two pots, either both glass or both porcelain or one glass and one porcelain. I call it a compromise because you have to mess around with two pots instead of one, but I think it's a small price to pay for great-tasting tea.
Another option is a "mono filio" pot which has an infuser basket that takes up the whole volume. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive, over $100, and I never got around to buying one so I can't guarantee that it works as well as it would seem to.
As far as teas go, for a newbie I would recommend getting an assam, a darjeeling, a silver needles white, a yunnan gold, a keemun, a few different types of oolong, a long jing green, a bi luo chun green and a jasmine green. I would also recommend getting a good sencha if you don't mind making a separate order from a place like o-cha.com. The rest can be bought from adagio tea as others recommended.
I really don't like flavoured teas except an occasional jasmine green or real vanilla earl grey, but even these two are inferior to "real" teas.
Once you spend a half a year to a year playing with adagio teas you should try places that offer some of the more specialized and expensive teas like teaspring.com and houdeasianart.com.
For a teakettle I would recommend something that goes on gas range and is enameled on the inside, for example, a le creuset kettle. A kettle is not that critical, you may even use a stainless steel pan if you wish.
Make sure you try using spring water and compare it to filtered water for tea, depending on how good your tap water is, there may or may not be a large difference.
Have fun and ask away if you have questions.
Where in the world do you get this from? Cast iron teapots are a staple in tea ware, a time-tested material for long-lasting, functional, and beautiful teapots. They often have good heat retention, which allows for the tea to be steeped at a constant temperature as opposed to steeping in quickly cooling water. They are also, with proper care, MUCH more durable than other materials (clay, glass, ceramic). They last years and years...Congratulations on not buying a few hundred dollar cast iron pot - they're absolutely terrible for most types of tea.
Could you explain what you mean, then, that they are terrible for most types of tea?
The only thing I can think of is that you might be referring to tetsubins, not cast iron teapots. The tetsubin is unglazed, and therefore adds iron to the water. This might have an effect on the teas........ But the cast iron teapot is glazed and imparts no taste to the teas.
What are your thoughts Rainy-Day?
Jul 16th, '09, 23:15
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A bit confrontational? We try to be a friendly crowd around here. BTW, welcome to the forum.MisterPanda wrote:Where in the world do you get this from? Cast iron teapots are a staple in tea ware, a time-tested material for long-lasting, functional, and beautiful teapots. They often have good heat retention, which allows for the tea to be steeped at a constant temperature as opposed to steeping in quickly cooling water. They are also, with proper care, MUCH more durable than other materials (clay, glass, ceramic). They last years and years...Congratulations on not buying a few hundred dollar cast iron pot - they're absolutely terrible for most types of tea.
Could you explain what you mean, then, that they are terrible for most types of tea?
Lined ones are generally terrible for greens as a teapot. The heat retention really works against you.
Generally, I don't think lined tetsubins are very good for brewing tea, you have to use a basket infuser which restricts leaf expansion of many teas. Temp regulation is compounded by the heat retention, there are just better teapots for actually brewing great tea.
Unlined ones may make great kettles, but they are certainly not recommended for the uninitiated.
Why are lined cast iron not good for green tea? I think you implied that the temperature retention works against you..... If the temperature of your water is correct when you pour it into the pot, then the retention simply keeps the water at that proper temperature. The pot retaining heat cannot ADD heat to the infusion, so im not sure how that is bad for the green teas (so long as you put the water in the pot at the right temperature, which you should be doing anyways)...