Brown Betty

Oh and I forgot to ask if anyone knew where I could find these in Canada via mail order or online. Or if bought locally, a brick and mortar store in Montreal. Thanks!

HK

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 21:24:10 -0500, "Henry" tripped the light fantastic, then quipped:

A "cup" of tea is usually 6 ounces, not 8 ounces. "Standard" is a subjective term, really...how many people will you be serving tea? A standard pot for home use by one person will, most likely, be different than the standard pot used in a tea room. As for being authentic, a "Brown Betty" is more of a generic name for the particular shaped earthenware teapot made of reddish clay. As long as you keep those things in mind, you shouldn't have any trouble picking out a nice teapot. Welcome to the wonderful world of proper tea. ;)

Tee

Remove -no-spam- to email me.

Brown Betty is a classic style as much as anything else, so outside of some seriously pedantic, likely highly debatable historical points, any of quality manufacture is as authentic as any other. The size thing....somewhere along the line a decision was made that a "cup" of hot beverage, be it tea or coffee was six ounces which likely as not had to do with the size of cups in fancy china services, since the coffee cups I'm used to in the US and recall from living in the UK were generally 8-10 ounces for the regular size and what is the limit for the "large" mugs. The

24 ounce was the most common I recall seeing in shops in England if that's important to you. What I would do is consider how you will be using it. If you never expect to serve company and will only be taking a couple cups before it has a chance to go cold even with a tea-cosey, a 2-3 cupper will likely be sufficient. If a guest/companion/whatever is in the mix then adapt accordingly and if it's a bit large for everyday needs and only one pot is in your budget at the moment, then there's nothing that says you have to make a whole pot every time you use it.

Tea-pots are marvelous little things. They only require care when you use them and they can be a joy to look at even when you don't. One of them is likely sufficient, but another one can be a welcome addition....and maybe just one more.... and even though I really don't need any more, there was this one I happened to see at Whole Foods today.....

-Doc

"Henry" wrote in news:grZSb.46880$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com:

I've seen brown betty teapots at

I've never ordered a pot from them. I've placed several orders for tea and such. Usually they're pretty good, though if they're out of stock on something you might have to wait for a while. One more place to shop, anyway.

There are plenty of Brown Betty knockoffs. I'm in a store the other day and see a tea cozy wrapped around what I presumed was a Brown Betty. Curious I had the clerk take off the cozy and on the bottom was a Made in Japan sticker. An authentic Brown Betty comes from Stoke-on-Trent and is made from the distinctive red terra cotta clay with the Rockingham glaze. If you can get one stamped by Arthur Woods because the 250 year old business closed it doors a couple of months ago. You'll find websites if you plug in the keywords I just mentioned. Another trademark is Pristine which you can find in CostPlus stores in the US.

Jim

Canadian Tire? :) :)

Arthur Woods is gone?! Thats a pity. I have a very pretty white tea pot with blackberry decorations & gold trim from them that I bought in Bermuda a bazillion years ago. Its my 'we have company' tea pot which seldom sees use because we seldom have tea drinking company. Maybe it will be worth something someday!

As a follow up, I couldn't find the Brown Betty anywhere in Canada except for

. Some supposetly "high end" tea stores here didn't even know what a brown betty was....anyway...FYI

have you tried simpson and vail's website ,or

or the following 2 websites in Montreal www.camelli-sinensis,

I will be going to a normal English market tomorrow & I will make a note of the teapots on sale. These days all us English tea addicts do tend to use teabags or leaves in a Mug rather than the traditional teapot with cups & saucers. I am afraid that we only tend to revert to tradition at funerals & weddings. Dave Croft

HenryhcdUb.15226$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com2/4/04

16:09nospamhenry snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca

Perhaps a reflection on the "'high end' tea stores," perhaps on the...you know.

Michael

Been looking for a nice BB for years. Found a couple exactly matching my wants in the UK, but they weren't for sale. Been using one formerly owned by a late uncle, must be nearly a century old, chipped and well-mired with tannins. That was fine for me, but I needed a bigger one for parties.

Just ordered an Arthur Wood via the web (from Blue Moon). The pot came quickly, and is well-formed with the proper glaze. But the base clay is not red stoneware - it seems to be porcelain. Hardly the authentic item, thinks I - anyone know more about this?

Thanks-

DM

Is Arthur Wood impressed on the bottom? Porcelain 'chips' or 'flakes' and clay 'fractures' or 'radiates' horizontally. You'll have to damage it to be sure. My AW is completely sealed with glaze so it could be stainless steel for all I know.

Jim

Interestingly, there's no AW marking. The Blue Moon web site says that they're porcelain, and the cardboard box has AW promo writing on it. But now I'm wondering...

In my quest to find a brown betty, this is what I gathered. The only company making somewhat genuine brown betty's is Caledonia Pottery. The Arthur Wood ones, which were made under the name Pristine or vice versa......are made with porcelain and not the red clay traditional brown betty's are. Unfortunately, the name brown betty only goes as far as describing the shape, and color of the teapot and not the true material.

I say somewhat genuine for the Caledonia Pottery Brown Betty because they use terracotta red clay from Stoke on Trent, and was told the true true ones weren't terra cota clay but a different red clay.....also the new ones are slip casted and not jolleyed like the originals. However, I think this will be the closest you'll get to an authentic Brown Betty, short of finding one in an antique store, flea market etc.....

Hope this helps.

Latest: AW apparently changed mould designs more or less at random. Importer says that name-stamping, presence/absence of a built-in strainer, etc. were randomly variable.

Colour of the glaze backed by porcelain isn't quite as rich, to my eye, as with the old red clay. I must say, though, that the finish quality of these end-of-the-line brown teapots is as perfect as any commercial ware I've ever seen. And the porcelain weighs about half as much, not a trivial point on the 10-cup pot. I might just pick up a couple more for future gift needs.

-DM

My AW BB is the biggest brutish most massive teapot I have. If I was going to break it I'd use a sledgehammer. Porcelain is denser and heavier and in this case you would need a fork lift if it wasn't clay because of surface volume and thickness. I have a Chinese teapot about the same proportions which is clay and they weigh about the same. At some point in the process there is a law of deminishing returns for porcelain price versus clay size. It's been awhile but I think my huge (10 cup?) BB was $25 a couple of years ago. If it was porcelain it would be much more expensive. You're simply not going to find a porcelain teapot that big from anyone that cheap. If it doesn't have the makers trademark send it back. You can find other knockoffs probably cheaper although not Biggie Sized which I think is the characteristic signature of a BB. It belongs on a breakfast table. English teapots never come with infusers. You always use a strainer. All leaves are emptied through the spout. I spent years verifying that English tidbit. Since there is nothing new under the sun someone else could have told you that but they prefer to remain part of the anonymous masses who drink tea so I beat them too it.

Jim