Teapot for Life

I was watching "Queen of Versaille" yesterday- a strangely absorbing documentary about a billionaire couple trying to build the largest private residence in America.  Despite their somewhat disgusting levels of overblown materialism, I couldn't help feeling that none of us are innocent. All of us have too much of one thing or another.

Behold the dreadful Wedgwood teapot that fills me with consumerist regret. Hektor asked me to reveal this pot a few posts back.  Five years ago, I wanted the minimalist unadorned basalt Wedgwood teapot with a rectangular handle but somehow ended up with this fussy matron of a teapot replete with a neo-classic cherub, toga toting goddesses and a smoke-filled greek sacrifice.  I cringe when I look at it but can't quite bring myself to sell it back on ebay out of sheer laziness. I have brewed tea in it once five years ago and have a dim memory of it being altogether an inconvenient experience.

My china cabinet is filled with such useless space eaters- even worse, more than half of the teapots are chipped or cracked and I can't bear to throw them out. I decided a solution to simplify my life would be to find an unbreakable teapot- with such a teapot I can hit a burglar over the head in a pinch and still brew tea the very next morning. Most importantly- if there ever was the "Big One" and my house was flattened, I would still most likely be able to brew delicious tea in this unbreakable teapot if I could only shovel it out from the earthquake debris.

Unbreakable probably means stainless steel. I'm aware stainless steel brewing is not optimum for delicate teas. But I'm tired of being broken hearted every time the inevitable happens with ceramic and glass teapots. My aesthetic choices for stainless are quite limited.  There's the dumpy but sturdy German Frielings.

There's an even dumpier but overpriced Italian Ufficio Tecnico Alessi Teapot.

None of them even remotely captures my heart and the thought of having to use them for the rest of my life fills me with sighs.  I may have to retreat on this lifetime teapot concept...