Brown Betty and Infuser

[Johnny Canuck]

Hello group, My first post

I normally just boil water and throw a teabag into a coffee cup and drink it! I am an old man now and thought I would like to become more sophisticated in my tea preparation and drink.

Question #1

I was thinking of a Brown Betty teapot two-cup with a Finum Brewing Basket and a BB tea-mug. Am I on the right track or should I be going in a different direction?

Question #2

Who makes the best Brown Betty teapot these days? Dishwasher friendly is a must!

Question #3

What brand and type of tea does Queen Elizabeth II drink? Is it Twinings Earl Grey?

Thank you in advance for your responses

Cordially

JC

[Bef]

Isn't she drinking Lipton tea?

[javi_sanchez]

Do you have a source for unglazed brown betty pots? Everything I've seen labelled brown betty is glazed on the inside.

[mcrdotcom]

Rather strange question about the Queen! Haha! But as Twinings has a royal warrant Id imagine it's the tea of choice in the Windsor family.

[.m.]

The rumour is that she likes keemun (qimen) tea.
http://www.art-of-tea.net/a-century-of- ... k-tea.html

[Johnny Canuck]

Do you have a source for unglazed brown betty pots? Everything I've seen labelled brown betty is glazed on the inside.

Hi, why do you prefer unglazed? What is wrong with glazed

Thanks

JC

[JRS22]

I thought that the point of using a Brown Betty was the clay and the shape. The originals were unglazed inside, although maybe modern ones aren't. Unglazed inside would mean not dishwasher safe. And the shape was designed to allow the loose tea to float and infuse fully. So using an infuser basket inside the pot, even a large basket, would constrain the tea.

The Brown Betty shape is a functional classic. My new Kim Eung Chul pot has a similar shape while different in size and material.

So if the basket and dishwasher aspects are primary you're looking at a different category of pots.

[Johnny Canuck]

Hi, what would you recommend for me?

[debunix]

Why 'dishwasher safe' for the teapot? I'm quite curious because I rarely wash even my dishwasher-safe pieces in the dishwasher, unless I've used them for something other than tea (e.g., cups used for hot chocolate or a pitcher used for a sauce). A rinse with hot water and a wipe of any drips before they have a chance to stain is usually all that's needed when the teaware is used for nothing but tea.

[tingjunkie]

Wouldn't a better question to ask be, "What type of tea did Churchill drink?"

Well, as long as you don't emulate Prince Charles: "There is Prince Charles's range of organic Duchy Originals, though when you see how much HRH's oat cakes, jam and herbal tea cost, what you feel mostly is the need to run in the direction of Lidl."

[tingjunkie]

...and it seems Churchill is out after all.

“Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.”

[rdl]

...and it seems Churchill is out after all.
"...no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone."

He MUST be refering to Latin, no?

[entropyembrace]

Hello group, My first post

I normally just boil water and throw a teabag into a coffee cup and drink it! I am an old man now and thought I would like to become more sophisticated in my tea preparation and drink.

Question #1

I was thinking of a Brown Betty teapot two-cup with a Finum Brewing Basket and a BB tea-mug. Am I on the right track or should I be going in a different direction?

Question #2

Who makes the best Brown Betty teapot these days? Dishwasher friendly is a must!

Question #3

What brand and type of tea does Queen Elizabeth II drink? Is it Twinings Earl Grey?

Thank you in advance for your responses

Cordially

JC

Hi Johnny,

A lot of people here are more focused on Chinese or Japanese styles of tea brewing including myself, but I got started with English tea and still enjoy it

About brown betty they're supposedly not very good quality anymore and you should probably avoid them...

what you might appreciate is a bone china set something like this :

I think it's the best style of teaware for English tea I don't have specific recommendations for new sets, I use heirlooms from my grandmother. There are many old and new available on ebay.

I do see some are labeled as dishwasher safe but I'd still suggest hand washing. The dishwasher is a rough treatment for fine teaware. Also handwashing is easy, they just need rinsed with hot water and gently wiped clean.

You shouldn't use an infuser basket because they keep the leaves from opening up when you use high quality teas that aren't just dust. If there's too much leaf debris coming through the spout pour through a strainer held above your tea cup.

About Queen Elizabeth II her former chef says she drinks unspecified Darjeeling: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... iches.html

Twinings does have a Darjeeling blend but its far from the best.

If you go to Thunderbolt tea http://www.thunderbolttea.com/ you can order from some of the best lots of Darjeeling tea that are available and have them shipped to your door from Darjeeling

edit- Twinings does have some nice looking Darjeelings on their UK site, but I've never seen these in Canada. I bet the Queen drinks them

[javi_sanchez]

Do you have a source for unglazed brown betty pots? Everything I've seen labelled brown betty is glazed on the inside.

Hi, why do you prefer unglazed? What is wrong with glazed

Thanks

JC

Supposedly the unglazed clay "seasons" over time similar to the way other unglazed pots season over time(Yixing, ChaoZhou, Nixing etc). Of course this means that over time you end up using one kind of tea in it but that's exactly what I'd like a nice unglazed brown better for... Assam teas

[rdl]

About brown betty they're supposedly not very good quality anymore and you should probably avoid them...

entropyembrace.
For years I've seen nothing written about the Brown Betty so I am curious, although not surprised, about your comment and wonder where that information comes from. It seems the trend is for traditional British companies to manufacture in Asia, but if the BB can hold on that would be a plus for traditionalists. If there is anything to read I would appreciate to know.
Sorry to go off thread a bit....