Kettles

I cannot put glass or ceramic on the induction because it has to be magnetic. I also avoid them on the gaz because they break easily if you heat quickly, and if you go slowly it's very long to obtain boiling water.

Personnally, I have never found that my water had a metallic after-taste.

I have always read/heard that boiling your water in a metallic kettle, especially black iron (like the tetsubin) was very good for the taste of water as it kinds of purify it. For your water, you want to suppress all the smell it may have. For your tea, the same effect would lesser the flavor.

In Chinese stores I have seen glass kettles that were used on braseros. They would feel them with hot water, but the brasero was there to rebring the water to near-boiling point each time that was necessary for gong fu cha. But they didn't seem to do that for the reason you said as in the same places, they also used metallic kettles.

Kuri

I've used a 6-cup Corning teapot to boil water on the stove and my stainless steel kettle is a lot faster, but now there are cordless electric glass kettles in addition to the metal and plastic ones and they aren't as slow as the stovetop.

FWIW, my metal teapot (Copco?) has some kind of coating on the inside which I think is to prevent that metallic tang of which you speak.

Steve

It occurs to me you may be making an excellent point; some teas might do better in water that had a slightly metallic flavor. In particular, when I read that, I was thinking some Pu-erhs might be interesting to experiment with. Still, I've had mostly a negative experience with metallic flavors. When I've noticed them, they have been overpowering and unpleasant.. Perhaps there is an interesting happy medium. Those that swear by cast-iron cookware sometimes speak of the transmittal of iron into the food they cook as a good thing for the flavor. Hmm..

Use a metal pot long enough and it will develop a mineral patina on the inside which is another reason I always boil water for making tea. I'm no chemist but I think the back pressure from the steam deposits the minerals. A good breakin method is to boil the kettle almost empty a few times.

Jim

Bluesea wrote:

obtaining

ceramic

Well, I pulled out my little 6-cup Corning and either got so annoyed with how much longer I had to wait for 2 cups to boil that it biased my taste buds or there isn't a difference when compared to water from my stainless steel kettle.

Will try again, later.