Sunday, March 10, 2013

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...

8 comments:

  1. How about a tetsubin, e.g., from Hojo and a heatplate? I guess it's a bit easier to operate routinely than ceramic kettle on a stove.
    Best,
    Jakub

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    1. Dear Jakub,

      I am not the kind of person to be trusted with an iron pot. Rusting and ruin is just inevitable.

      H

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  2. Don't you just want to crush that $162 teapot? I think I have come around to the fact (and you have helped me with this) that for a klutz like me, teaware has to be viewed as expendable. I just cracked another gaiwan yesterday filling it with boiling water when it was too cold. But it was a cheap one. Not that I haven't blown cash on lovely, fragile stuff. But those days are most likely over. Of the teapots you have above, I like the german one the best. That should last you a long while. I wonder how the tea will be?

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  3. When I read the amazon reviews a little more carefully, the Frieling has a few complaints of drippy spout and flawed heat distribution. Sigh. I made a tactical error yesterday ordering yet again the wrong teapot. Curses.

    I thought stainless steel would be acceptable since I brewed aged oolong in my thermos acceptably.

    H

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    Replies
    1. 73 bucks for a drippy spout on something that looks like it was designed by an engineer. And a German company, to boot. How sad. I hope it serves you better than it did the Amazon reviewers. Maybe you have already canceled the order?

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    2. Oh Israel. I got something even worse than the Frieling and I cannot explain why I pushed the buy button except sheer mental fatigue. It's pathological. I'll post a picture once it arrives from Hong Kong.

      H

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  4. Your basalt teapot is not nearly as bad as some blue and white ones from Wedgwood still on sale online. An attempt to imitate ancient Greek vases, perhaps? The atavistic Victorian values, or what not...

    Yunnan Sourcing has some relatively cheap ~$40 Yixing, and given their generally good price/quality ratio...

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    Replies
    1. The pot that I so desired so long ago is on sale:
      http://www.ebay.com/itm/WEDGWOOD-BASALT-BLACK-TEAPOT-made-in-ENGLAND-/221160213179?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337e2d0abb

      No competition to the delicacy of even beginner yixing.

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