Category Archives: Tea Preparation

Electric Kettle Selection – Maximize Flexibility & Keep Everyone Happy

Our First Exposure to an Electric Kettle

Our recent posts have focused on the wide variety of options one could choose from in selecting the perfect teapot. In the midst of writing these posts we received a note from one of our readers (thanks Gerry) asking if we had any thoughts to share on electric kettles. So this week we are going to do just that.

Having evolved ourselves, over the years, from teapot on the stove to water boilers and electric kettles, its probably about time for this post. Our first experience with electric kettles came on a trip to France. During a stay at Les Quatre Puits (near Bordeaux), we found using an electric kettle to be so much faster and easier that we bought one right away on returning home and haven’t looked back since.

History of the Electric Kettle

Kettles have been around for thousands of years, though of course electric kettles are relatively new on the scene needing, well…. electricity. The late 1800’s saw the first electric kettle, though initial designs weren’t very efficient, nor safe, as they had no way to shut off when the water boiled or even if they boiled dry. It was Russell Hobbs which developed the first fully automatic electric kettle in 1955. The expertly named (we’re kidding) K1 proved safer and more convenient than boiling water on the stove. It was a radical new design, with a thermostat to automatically turn off the kettle upon boil, greatly reducing the chance of boiling the kettle dry and causing a fire.

Choosing an Electric Kettle

Electric kettles have come a long way since the 1950’s. They have several new safety options, are made from various materials, and some even have options to address various temperatures at which you might want to steep your tea. The following table outlines some of the common features, though a quick Amazon search for tea kettles yields well over 1,000 options so we’ve surely missed some.

Feature	Our Take	Comments

Primary Material	Metal Preferred	The jury on plastic may still be out in some minds and not in others. Seems better to be on the safe side and use something with the least amount of plastic possible. And while glass or porcelain are attractive its something else to worry about breaking.

Auto-Shutoff	Mandatory	This is both a safety and energy usage issue.

Boil-Dry Prevention	Optional	In theory this is a safety issue, but we can’t see how we would ever put an empty kettle or one with very low water on. The good news is most kettles come with this anyhow.

Cord Concealment	Optional	This is a safety issue, and in our house with children around this is mandatory for us. For other family situations this will be different. Similar to boil-dry prevention in that most come with this feature anyway.

Variable Temperature	Strongly Desired	We believe strongly that tea lovers should explore. That means not limiting yourself to one kind of tea. If you drink green, white, yellow, and some oolongs then you are going to need different water temperatures. Its either this, or get a thermometer and practice patience.

Concealed Heating Element	Optional	We’ve used both, and unless you are going to scrub the inside of your kettle, we aren’t sure this makes a difference. If you have hard water and have to descale appliances often, this might be an issue for you. However, if you have hard water, you would be better served looking at filtration systems.

Keep Warm	Strongly Desired	We can’t tell you how many times we got the water going, got distracted, and didn’t get back to the kettle right away. This is a must have if you have busy mornings.

Cordless Kettle	Mandatory	This is a no brainer. Having a kettle still attached to the wall is a safety issue and a major convenience/flexibility issue.

360° Swivel	Optional	We’ve used both, and frankly could care less either way. The 360° swivel can be a bit of a pain to land the kettle on. The less expensive Aroma model we used for years, without a swivel base, was actually easier to land the kettle on.

Audible Beeps	Strongly Desired	Without the beep, we can’t go far and know the water is done. Though if your kettle has a keep warm option this is less of an issue.

Light-Up Buttons or Water Fill Level	Optional	For the most part this is a weak way to differentiate a product and something else to break.

In Kettle Tea Basket	Optional	This is more gimmick than practical for us. More parts, more things to break, and unless everyone in the house agrees to the same tea then one person gets the kettle and the other boils water another way or waits, cleans the unit, and prepares their own later.

There is a wide variety of kettles up to and including full water boilers like the 4 Liter Zojirushi at left.

Just a quick note on plastic too. Most electric tea kettles today have some plastic, and while it may be BPA free that certainly doesn’t settle the debate of other chemicals leaching into the water from plastic. Like it or not, our take is that if you use a kettle there will be some contact with plastic though it may be quite small depending on model. We recently upgraded our kettle to Cuisinart CPK-17, which is primarily metal, though we’ve used an inexpensive plastic model for years. Both perform well, and neither give off flavors to the water produced. If you do end up with off flavors and you are sure its not your water then try boiling and discarding several post including a pot of white vinegar and water. If it still has off flavors then return it and don’t look back.

When it comes to our kettle upgrade, the big reason we switched to the Cuisinart CPK-17 was the ability to bring water to a specific temperature, and on-line reviews indicating it did indeed bring the water within 1-2 of the desired temp. We drink a wide variety of teas and that targeted temperature makes preparation easier.

One model that stands out is the Breville one-touch tea maker. This kettle is specifically focused on making tea and features an automated basket which is raised and lowered by the tea you are making. On the surface looks like a great solution, though it wasn’t right for us for several reasons. First, its expensive at 2 to 5 times the cost of most other kettles. Second, in our house we rarely agree on the type of tea we are going to drink on any given day so we need hot water and then we go our separate ways. If you make tea in the Breville they recommend washing the jug and basket before changing teas. That’s not going to work for us while heading off to work and juggling getting kids off to school. Finally, we are technology people (we even do some software programming), but feel that more tech equals more parts to break or things to go wrong.

All in all there are plenty of kettles at the low end of the price range. However, if you are open to exploration in the tea world then its well worth the upgrade to a model with variable temperature settings. There is such a thing as too many features, too gimmicky, and even impractical for families with multiple tea drinkers so take care before shelling out for the most expensive kettles. That said, if you want a simple, elegant kettle in touch with history, check out the beautifully simple Legacy Floral Kettle from Russell Hobbs.

The Perfect Teapot – Part I

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Teapot and Cups at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland Oregon – Photo © Dominion Tea 2015

Much like tea, there are many different tea pots on the market. So determining which one to use can be overwhelming. So to help you find the perfect teapot, we outline items that should be considered when making your purchase.

Here are the five things you should consider in purchasing the perfect teapot for you:

What type of tea do you wish to serve in the teapot.
Your willingness to clean your new teapot by hand.
How many servings you are hoping to have from a pot of tea.
How the teapot reflects your view of tea.
Your budget. (Yes, a teapot can be a budget buster.)

These considerations require more knowledge about the history of the tea and subsequently make for a rather long blog, so I am going to be breaking this up into two blogs and initially focus on matching your teapot to your tea and what it means for your future hand washing duties.

Matching Tea to The Perfect Teapot

Knowing what kind of tea you wish to drink from your teapot is the most important consideration. Yes, that implies that you may need more than one teapot if you are to drink your tea correctly. I don’t see a problem with that, especially once you learn the history of some of these teapots. They too have stories that rival those of the tea steeped inside. Below is a quick chart showing the traditional tea that goes with the teapot. This is not to say you cannot brew some other tea in the pot, just be aware that some of the features of the pot may not work well with other teas.

Teapot Type	Historical Tea	Care Needed

Ceramic Teapot, unglazed – Yixing (also known as I-Hsing)	All types of tea, but only one teapot per type since the flavor of the tea is absorbed by the clay	Leaves should be removed from the pot when done and the pot left out to dry. No soap should be used as it will be absorbed by the teapot and your next cup may have bubbles!

Ceramic Teapot, glazed – Kyusu	Gykoro and Sencha	More modern ones can go through the dishwasher on the top shelf. Older ones require hand washing as the glaze may be damaged.

Cast Iron Teapot – Tetsubin	Sencha	Like other cast iron cookware, the dishwasher is not allowed and soap will ruin it. Rinse lightly with water and towel dry.

Sterling Silver Teapot	All types, joints in the pot will stain over time.	Sterling silver is never put in the dishwasher, but it does require polishing. Dry the inside completely after rinsing with water to prevent permanent staining.

Porcelain Teapot, glazed	All types, the glaze allows for using of different types of teas with the same pot. However, black teas will most certainly stain the interior of the pot over time and heavily flavored teas may leave residual oils and flavors behind.	Some of these may be dishwasher safe, some not. It depends on the age and the thickness of the porcelain. Soap is easily usable on more modern teapots but may damage the glaze on older.

Glass Teapot	Flowering and balled teas. The glass allows the drinker to enjoy the unraveling of the leaves, and for the flowering teas the final work of art of the tied tea leaves. Watch the spouts on these, as they are wider so smaller leaf teas will pour right out of the pot.	Most glass teapots can be cleaned on the top shelf of the dishwasher (Experience suggests don’t put the top in the dishwasher, they are too fragile.)

Japanese Tetsubin – Photo by Flickr user Irene2005 – CC BY-2.0

The materials used in the creation of the teapot will affect the final taste of the tea. In the case of the metal and un-glazed ceramic, the effect is most pronounced. The Tetsubin, cast iron teapot, was supposedly created in response to Japanese tea drinkers not liking the flavor of the water coming from the traditional Japanese copper pots that were also used for boiling water for cooking. In the end there is really no right or wrong material for the perfect teapot, just one of personal preference.

In our next part, we will discuss size, budgets and how the shape and color of a teapot should influence your purchase. On to The Perfect Teapot – Part II…

Gongfu Style and the Yixing Teapot

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Significant Artistry in Yixing Teapot Production

In previous posts we’ve highlighted just a couple of the many tea pots and vessels used to prepare tea (mugs, infusers, and teabags aside). We’ve touched a bit on using a Japanese kyusu for preparation of green tea. We’ve also touched on how using a Chinese Gaiwan can enrich the enjoyment of tea as well as bring out more subtle flavors in teas like Bao Zhong Oolong. In this post we are going to look at another traditional Chinese vessel for preparing tea; the Yixing Teapot.

The Yixing Teapot

Yixing (pronounced ‘ee-shing’) teapots, also known as zisha or ‘purple sand’ teapots, have been around for at least 500 years. While they are normally associated with preparing oolong and pu’erh teas, they really can be used to prepare any kind of tea while adjusting for temperature. An authentic Yixing teapot comes from the town of the same name in Jiangsu province in Eastern China (near Shanghai). Pottery has been made in this area for thousands of years though the development of the Yixing teapot design is a much more recent development. They are believed to have been created as a better vessel for tea preparation at a time when preferences shifted from powdered tea to that of loose leaf.

The Yixing teapots are quite small, generally sized for 2-4 people, un-glazed and typically found in red, green, or black colors. Being un-glazed these teapots become seasoned with use taking the aroma and flavors of the teas prepared in them. For this reason it is best to use one type of Yixing teapot for each type of tea. Additionally, since they are un-glazed Yixing teapots do a great job wicking remaining liquid away from tea after steeping keeping the leaves fresh and ready for many subsequent infusions.

Yixing teapots come in many styles and colors though simple designs are better for making tea.

Yixing teapots are art in and of themselves. While some are highly decorated, the best and most valuable are typically quite plain in appearance. Highly prized, there are substantial fakes on the market which may be artificially colored, may not have the right density or porosity, and may have lids which don’t have the perfect fit known for this type of pottery. Knowing how to spot a fake is far beyond the scope of this post but do be careful if you are seeking to spend hundreds, thousands, or even more on one.

Gongfu Style Tea

Yixing teapots and the Gongfu style of tea preparation go hand in hand. Gongfu, aka Gong Fu or ‘Kung Fu’, actually means to do something with great skill, and represents a high investment in learning and practice. And while Kung Fu is often thought of in a martial arts concept, Gongfu style tea represents preparation of tea with great skill. Those who have studied Yixing teapots and practiced Gongfu style for many years are truly masters. They are able to quickly identify the best pots for a given tea. What’s more they have a feel for how long to steep, how to adjust steeping times between steepings, and ultimately how to extract the best taste and flavors from a tea.

Gongfu Style Tea is an Art Form

While the full ritual of preparing tea Gongfu style has many steps its loosely distilled into:

Rinse and heat the teapot and cups.
Add tea and rinse the tea briefly.
Steep the tea for 10-15 seconds and fully pour out the contents into a small pitcher.
Serve the tea in small cups.

In this manner more water can be added for multiple subsequent infusions, each of 10-15 seconds, repeating five to ten times ore more.

Expand Your Tea Horizons

We’ve barely scratched the surface of the experience you can have with a Yixing teapot and an exploration of Gongfu style tea. However, if you have become a fan of straight teas, find yourself drinking some of the many wonderful teas less known in the west, and/or have discovered Oolong or Pu’erh tea then an exploration of Yixing and Gongfu has got to be next on your list.

Kickstarter Projects with a Tea Theme

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A few weeks ago we discovered two great Kickstarter projects for ideas we love; MIITO and Imbue (Update: 4/12/2017 – The Imbue project ultimately released a product deemed unsafe and was shut down). These projects are to create products for boiling just the right amount of water for your next cup of tea and for the initial production run of a new tea infusing vessel. We’ll admit to jumping in and funding these early without looking around at other related projects or, frankly, reading up on Kickstarter generally. We had success with Bo and Yana (now Dash and Dot from Wonder Workshop) in the past and jumped right in. That said, we are curious and wanted to look a bit more at Kickstarter and tea themed projects.

What is Kickstarter?

There are many tea related projects on kickstarter.

Kickstarter provides a way to match ideas with backers to fund them.

In short, Kickstarter is a platform playing matchmaker between people with ideas (they may or may not be great) and people to would love to see the idea become a success. You may make the mistaken assumption that the platform is for funding new technologies, products, or businesses and these are certainly a large part. However, the platform is also used as a way to fund single events, art installations, books, and more. If you have an idea, want to test the waters, and see if its got legs then Kickstarter is a platform to do just that.

According to their FAQ, the company is only about 110 people and is located in New York City. In exchange for a small percentage of money pledged, the project owner gets an easy way to publicize their idea and collect funds from backers. In order to reduce risk to backers, the company claims to keep an eye out for suspect projects and they use an all or nothing funding model to ensure that if a project doesn’t meet funding goals nobody gets billed.

Kickstarter claims (as of May 31st, 2015) about a 38% success rate of projects successfully receiving funding by their goal date. But do note that not all projects get funded, and even funding is no future guarantee of future products or business (see some of the projects below).

Tea Themed or Inspired Projects

In addition to MIITO and Imbue, which initially got us looking for other tea related projects, we found quite a number of others. Everything from WINKpen, which is a refillable pen for writing with naturally staining liquids (Wine, Tea, etc), to no less than three different tea infusers, to Barons of Tea which is a tea themed board game. We wouldn’t necessarily back all these though we did find some more interesting than others.

WINKpen

Created by Jessica Chan, this unique pen was designed to solve the problem of disposable ink pens allowing the user to fill it with natural “inks”. This glass pen can be filled with wine (the name comes from wine as ink), cranberry juice, tea, or any other substance which naturally stains. Having settled on a design this project is to fund a large manufacturing run allowing the dream to be turned into reality for those who want a unique and environmentally friendly pen to write with. We would recommend using puerh or a black tea,if you where to fill the pen with tea.

HIYA

The premise behind HIYA is near instant cold brewed green tea. We love cold brewed tea (green tea or otherwise) and have blogged about it before. What HIYA was promising was essentially a tea bag with (we would imagine) very finely processed green tea. This project promised to bring green tea to those on the go with just a few seconds of shaking a water bottle containing the sealed and staple free tea bag. Despite having successful funding we aren’t quite sure if HIYA is still producing product as its been out of stock since at least November 2014 with limited Twitter or Facebook updates.

Tea Infusers

We found three different tea infuser projects on Kickstarter as of May 2015; VivaBoo, TeaDrop, and DunkFish. These projects all take their own unique spin on the tea infuser with DunkFish and VivaBoo being playful tea ball variations starring fish or platypus designs and offering built-in handles to remove them from water with reduced risk of burning your fingers. TeaDrop is slightly different with a combination infuser ball and built in timer to mechanically stop steeping when the timer stops. We haven’t tried any of these and hope they provide enough room for loose leaf tea to expand well, but they add both fun none the less.

Stock Certificate from The Long Dock Company

Is Kickstarter the replacement for issuing stock or soliciting venture capital?

Barons of Tea {The Board Game}

For those who are fans of board games and art, the Barons of Tea allows players to imagine they were alive during the time when England ruled the seas and competed to develop the tea trade world wide. This project was intended to fund the creation of a number of these board games envisioned by illustrator Gregory Snader. It was completed, and games were shipped back in 2012.

All in all Kickstarter does seem to be a great way for smaller ideas to get off the ground. In many respects it may even be a better way to prove a market exists than traditional market surveys or attracting venture capital investors. From a tea perspective, we love the creativity of the many ideas supported by the Kickstarter platform which may make our tea enjoyment just a little bit better. (And we can’t wait for our MIITO and Imbue products to arrive).

How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea

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We can’t tell you the number of times we’ve been asked how to brew loose leaf tea. Despite those who would tell you its complicated or exacting, brewing loose leaf tea is simple! At its most basic, making loose leaf tea only requires a bit of attention to water temperature, a working clock, and some way to separate the leaves from the water after steeping. Nothing complicated there.

How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea: Leaf Separation

How to brew loose leaf tea - use a modern infuser

A modern infuser will help brew a better cup of loose leaf tea.

It is extremely important to separate the tea leaves from the water after about 3-5 minutes unless you like bitter tea. This is no different when brewing loose leaf tea vs a tea bag. When brewing from loose leaf tea, removing the leaves requires a strainer of some kind and this is where you have several options.

Grandma’s Tea Ball – Perfectly acceptable but generally does not give the tea leaves enough room to move and expand which will affect the taste of the tea. Also, it may very well be real silver, which means it should not be going through the dishwasher. There are lots of updated designs which look fun but still provide little room for tea to breathe.
The Modern Infuser – Our recommendation in most cases is the modern day tea ball, aka an infuser. Designed to give tea leaves lots of room to move, absorb water, and release plenty of flavor, the modern infuser will fill a large portion of your mug. Most are metal and dishwasher safe and sit comfortably on the lips of an 8-14 oz. cup.
Single Use Tea Bag – If you find it more convenient to use a tea bag there are are several options available, though all generally provide ample room for the tea to move around and allow easy removal and disposal of the leaves. You can even pre-make several single-use tea bags in advance. Just be sure to store them in an airtight container away from other varieties of teas.
Kitchen Strainer – You don’t really need an infuser of course. You just need vessel to brew the tea in and you can then pour the liquid through a standard kitchen strainer or use a spoon to trap the tea leaves in the vessel as you pour off the liquid into your cup. You can also use a French press, just be careful if you have brewed coffee in it before, as it is highly likely your tea will come out tasting like coffee no matter how many times you try to clean it.

You will also need a teaspoon or tea scoop to measure the tea, and if you are one for precision a small kitchen scale you measure your tea by weight.

How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea: Time, Temperature & Amount

Typically you will want 3 grams of tea per 8 ounces of water. Knowing that most people don’t have a kitchen scale handy that weighs that small amount, 3 grams is approximately 1 teaspoon. Note that the 1 teaspoon rule does not work with light, very large leaf teas, like White Peony, Asian Pear & Spice White, or Cherry Blossom White, where you will want to use 1 tablespoon. Place the tea leaves in your choice of above infuser or add them to a small pot if you plan to pour the liquid off through a strainer. Hopefully your water has been coming up to a boil while you were measuring out your tea. A quick side note on water. Do not reboil water as it looses the oxygen and minerals causing the water to become flat. Always use fresh water and never distilled. The production of distilled water requires the water to be boiled and the steam from the boiling water is collected creating the distilled water. The steam has none of the minerals from the original water so the tea will be flat and lack flavor. So before you rule out a tea as not having a good flavor, double check your water. Once your water has reached a boil we need to put it in the cup. However, we need to know what kind of tea you are drinking before telling you whether or not to pour the boiling water on to the tea leaves. Take a look at the chart below for guidelines on how to introduce your tea leaves to the water and for how long they should stay there.

How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea: Time, Temp, and Amount
Type	Temp/Steep Time	Amount/8 oz. Water	Quick & Easy(From Boiling)
White Tea	170-185°F for 1-3 min	1 Tbsp.	Wait 2-5 minutes before putting tea leaves into the water

Green Tea	170-185°F for 3-5 min	1 tsp.	Wait 2-5 minutes before putting tea leaves into the water

Yellow Tea	160-170°F for 1-3 min	1 Tbsp.	Wait 5-7 minutes before putting tea leaves into the water

Black Tea	190-212°F for 3-5 min	1 tsp.	Pour boiling water immediately over the tea leaves

Oolong Tea	185-212°F for 3-5 min	1 tsp.	Pour boiling water immediately over the tea leaves

Rooibos, Tisane, Herbal Tea	180-212°F for 5-8 min	1 tsp.	Pour boiling water immediately over the tea leaves

Allowing the boiling water to cool slightly before putting the tea leaves into the water ensures a better cup of tea. White, green, and yellow teas take on a very bitter flavor if you pour boiling water on them. Now that you know how to brew loose leaf tea correctly, there are plenty of teas worth trying, so explore them all!