I'm buying my first teapot. I just ordered four packages of tea from Upton Tea Imports. I've been researching teapots to buy on Amazon.com. Which one do you think I should get, a pyrex glass teapot or a japanese cast iron teapot? These are the two that I like:
Japanese cast iron teapot set with copper coin decorations $60 + $15 shipping
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Pyrex teapot $20 + $5 shipping
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The japanese one costs 3 times as much but it's so nice and I like the stainless steel strainer that goes inside the pot.
The glass one is cheaper and you can put it in the microwave. I'd probably pour the tea from this one through a stainless steel strainer rather than using the glass infuser it comes with.
Or maybe I should get both?
It's winter, so it's time to drink a lot of hot drinks.
Tetsubins are the worst kind. They look great and they feel very heavy and solid but they make absolutely atrocious tea. Stay away.
Glass pots are in fact my favourites. Second best would be a clay or porcelain pot that's glazed on the inside (it's very important that it is).
I prefer glass because you don't need to spend a lot of water to preheat it, with clay/porcelain pots, I notice that they "steal" enough heat from water that tea does not come out exactly as good. So, if I'm using moderately expensive spring water for brewing, I'd rather use very little of it to preheat my pot.
The most important things about pots:
it should not steal heat from water or you should preheat it
it should be glazed on the inside so that last tea does not impart flavour on the next (glass works best IMHO)
ideally leaves should expand in the full volume of pot or have infuser that fills almost all the volume
For those starting with tea, a glass infuser mug from Bodum is an excellent value because its infuser fills the whole volume so that leaves have all that room to expand properly (*very important*), and it's very cheap, around $6-7, and does not have to be preheated, and last tea won't affect the next.
I would say that the next step is to have two cheap pots, either both glass or one glass and one porcelain, so that you can brew in one and strain into the other. That's what I use for the most part.
But you have to also consider that it all depends on what type of teas you will end up drinking. I drink mostly whites, greens and darjeelings and less often, a couple of blacks. If you will go for mostly blacks, clay/porcelain pots may work just as well as glass ones. If you will get into oolongs and puerhs, you will have to use gaiwans and gong-fu pots to get most out of them.
Good luck and feel free to ask as often as you need!
Hi Rich, My advise: Ditch both. Get a Chatsford. SpecialTeas used to sell them and probably they still do. They are functional, solid, and reliable. Anything you can brew in a large style pot you can brew in them. They come in several sizes. I recommend the earthenware with the solid colors. Chatsford teapots have a wide deep infuser and they are indented at the pot rim so the infuser can sit in the pot allowing the pot lid to fit snug and secure. I think to brew tea, glass is an unhappy choice, and the Tetsubin is mostly to look at. Those are my considered opinions. Let us know what you come up with finally. Michael
The iron pot is not useful. The pyrex works well, but doesn't hold the heat in for very long without a cozy. Try one of the Chatsford teapots from Upton's.... they have a food service version made out of "vitrified hotelware" which looks fairly nice and is very functional. It stays warm, doesn't add funny tastes, doesn't drip, and you can drop it without shattering it.
That's the first teapot I considered but I didn't like the idea of using a plastic infuser. Seems like if you pour boiling hot water onto plastic you might get some plastic taste. I like to avoid plastic in my kitchen wares. Plastic seems so declasse. Why couldn't Chatsford simply put a stainless steel infuser into their teapot? I would have bought it then.
So buy it and use a stainless steel infuser with it. But realize that the plastic infuser works a lot better than any of the stainless ones I've seen, and it doesn't drop leaves into the tea.
I suppose someone could make a fine mesh stainless infuser... and it would have to be fine.... #30 or finer... but I don't know anyone who does, and I don't know anyone who would pay for it if it did. The plastic does not leave any off taste.
I got the glass teapot today and it was horrible. It was extremely thin and fragile and broke right away. A total waste of $20 + $5 shipping and waiting a week for delivery. Also it was impractically designed. Now I have to spend more money on something else and wait again.
Weird, I have a pyrex measuring cup and it's very sturdy. I also have had three glass pots, one for about 6 years, made by Jenaer, and two Bodum pots, for about 2 years, and the only breakage was the lid on the Jenaer by my roommate. They're all pretty solid. I did bump them around a bit and a few times so harshly that I would expect even a well manufactured glass to break, and yet they stood up well to my abuse. For the record, Jenaer looks to be about 1.5-2x thicker glass than Bodum pots, but the glass thinness makes Jenaers look somewhat nicer (more clear and transparent).
In the same time I owned these glass pots I broke one gong-fu pot (a really beautiful green clay one, even though it was very cheap), and one porcelain gaiwan.
Anyway, sorry to hear about your bad experience, it seems like you had a run of bad luck both with teas and your first pot.
Out of curiosity: did you drop the pot and if so, from what height and on what type of surface?
Any glass teapot +- a quart is too unwieldly or slippery to control. If you move down in size you find the pyrex glass teapots with plastic cradles and infuser. If you have access to a Chinatown you could get one today. I think the perfect compromise, any tea press in sizes from 100ml to liter. There is no infuser because the leaf is filtered by the plunger which is set at the top of the press if you follow my hack a plunger instructions.
Honestly think back to your beginnings, I'm sure it went similarly. My first reply almost nailed it before it happened because it is so common. But that is how you learn and we've all been there. To the OP try again with Uptons buying some samples in each category, and either a Chatsford teapot or a three piece mug and a regular kettle and have fun experimenting and exploring... it can only get better from here :) We all had humble beginnings.
Well, I got a Jenaer pot and a sampler of black teas from Upton, including a really great Keemun, a fairly good Yunnan and I don't remember the other teas but I think one might have been East Frisian blend. So the first experience was good, but then I did get a lousy black ceramic non-glazed teapot, and of course many bad teas over the years from Upton and Specialteas and china town supermarkets. But at first I was lucky to get Upton sampler because they included a very good Keemun and overall the selection was pretty good, and very soon after that I got a darjeeling, a ceylon and an assam from them. So, I did know all the good blacks from the very start, but I only found good greens and whites at IPOT a few years later.
One of the worst tea-related buys I had was a Zojirushi dispenser, it's very well constructed and well thought-out but it just can not make a good green or white because the water sits in the pot at hot temperature for a long time. Somehow that destroys the best flavours of greens and whites. And it was expensive, too. Cast iron teapot is almost as bad but at least it was cheap!!
Heh, well you did OK then. I know there was a lot of sunflower brand jasmine green tea, KAME "Chinese Restaurant tea", and assorted FooJoy and loose Asian market finds that were just terrible but because I didn't know better I thought they were OK. I was using mugs in the microwave and stainless strainer balls and clip things, and then a way too big yixing which I used solely for sunflower brand jasmine green (oof) and still use for jasmine pearls just because. I've tried pyrex teapots, and ingenuitea gimmicks, etc. Now, I use an electric kettle, either Bodum Yo Yos when time is pressed, a taiwanese tasting set, gaiwan, or a couple of small Yixing.
As for Zojirushi, I think you may have either an older one or a very basic model (yes even their basic is expensive) Their mid-range offers three water settings and do a very good job IMO. I have a large rice cooker of theirs I use almost daily and have for over 8 years with zero issues. They make great products, you just have to stick to the middle grade or higher... often it is only a few dollars more than the expensive base model.
Before upton, I did buy many tisanes from Celestial Seasonings, they're expensive and have a lousy taste. Before that I almost never drank tea for about ten years, and before that I would sometimes drink flavoured "Pickwick" tea, which was really great for a flavoured tea, it's strange that they don't sell them in the US at all (or any other flavored tea that'd be as good, although Twinnings may be even better).
I started with coffee home-roasting, then I figured that if there's good coffee out there, there might just be good tea, as well. Then I found this group and recommendations for Upton's! That was in about 2001.
No, the one I got does have 3 water settings. It's called 'Djutto' or something like that. It is a mid-grade model or even high-end, it's sold by some good tea shops online, even. It is good for medium- grade blacks, but I've tried a zillion times to get a good green out of it, no luck. I think it might be that when it heats the water up slowly, it makes it lose more oxygen. Or by keeping it high-temp, it makes it lose oxygen. If you make tea right away, it does come out better, but never nearly as good as out of gas range kettle.
I feel bad for them because it is extremely well crafted and I have their thermos carafe and it's also well-built. They do make quality products, for a very decent price, stylishly designed, too. 95% of tea drinkers would be happy with that dispenser, but for high grade whites and greens, ay!!
The one I use is CD-FAC22 (Zutto) which is the smaller (74oz. I think) silver one. It has a 140degree setting which is good for some greens but it then ramps up too high from there. The other electric kettle I use is a cheap 1L (I think Proctor Silex) which has no settings but a toggle switch where I can turn it off early and have learned by sound and time how hot it is. Other than that it is up to a regular kettle. I've only recently revisited whites after a long hiatus so I'm sure that also makes it a different experience for you.
I am interested in a charcoal fired kettle and stand, but that is just a whim.
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