Luticia (no url), recently left a comment here at Tea Party Girl I thought might be helpful to others:
Hello! Love your site - just found it today! My question is: can you brew your tea in the pot or kettle the water was boiled in? Or are they supposed to be only for boiling the water? I’ve just wondered if a teapot was always necessary. Thank you!
No, Luticia, a teapot is not always necessary. I currently use my Bodum Glass Stovetop Kettle to boil the water and brew my tea. I use T - Sac # 4 (100 filters) to hold my looseleaf tea so there’s plenty of room for the tea leaves to expand. It can be a little tricky because when I take the lid off after the water’s boiling I have to watch out for the hot steam. But it is easier to skip the teapot brewing step, though I do transfer the tea to my carafe to keep it hot once I’ve brewed it.
The teapot addition to a daily tea ritual or tea party mainly serves an aesthetic purpose, like all tableware. Serving tea from a tea kettle just wouldn’t be the same as pouring from a favorite teapot. But remember, the most important part of serving tea is making a plan to keep it hot, either with a tea warmer , cozy, or carafe. No teapot is beautiful enough for serving lukewarm tea.
Does that help? Anyone want to add a different perspective?
Last night I listened to a powerful speaker, Steve Chalke, and learned about Stop the Traffik; an organization committed to the abolishment of human trafficking, the second most lucrative crime worldwide.
Chalke reminded me that when people asked William Wilberforce what they could do to help move Parliament’s hand to abolish the slave trade in England, he told them to stop taking sugar in their tea. In other words, government listens when consumers affect the economic balances of our societies and in the early 1800s, the slaves worked on the sugar plantations. But if no one bought the sugar…they wouldn’t need the slaves.
Forty-three percent of the world’s chocolate comes from cocoa beans harvested in Cote D’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) of Africa. An estimated 12,000 children have been trafficked to harvest these cocoa beans. No candy bar is worth eating if I know one child has been separated from Mom and forced to work.
Thanks to the Internet and our access to information, we can make knowledgeable consumer decisions relatively easily. Websites and companies like Equal Exchange allow us to learn how to purchase our daily pleasures that are not grown in the United States–mainly coffee, tea, and chocolate. Some tea companies deal exclusively with fair trade teas such as Rishi and Fair Trade Teas. But many tea companies offer some fair trade teas in their selections, and it’s always worth asking.
It’s been said ignorance is bliss and I say, it’s true. Life is easier when I don’t know that the small decisions I’m making affect the lives of others in dramatic ways. But my bliss cannot be my goal. I sang, “Jesus loves the little children…All the children of the world” to my daughter tonight with new understanding. Her innocence and safety has been protected through deep sacrifices on my part. Does that mean my anthropology professors in college were right and I do this because I’m programmed to protect my genes? What a sad testimony to the human spirit that would be! No, I may not be able to take every child under my roof, but if by asking a few questions, spending some extra pennies, and sharing what I know I can help protect another child’s innocence and safety, I will.
If you could only afford to buy one looseleaf tea to have on hand, which would it be?
This year, I stopped purchasing tea to resell for a number of reasons, and my stash of black tea has dwindled down to my last few pots. This of course means I have to begin purchasing tea again at retail prices (!) and become a little more choosy about what I decide to drink. My mother brought Quangzhou Milk Oolong tea on vacation and I REALLY liked it, but would not have chosen it for myself, especially at $120 a pound. (Don’t forget, that still equals less than $1 per cup AND it can be infused more than once.) Like wine, the choices can be overwhelming and one can wonder, is the $40 bottle truly better than the $7 bottle and is it worth it?
So I would love to hear from you, Readers. What is your favorite looseleaf tea? What do you reach for again and again? How would you describe it to others? Please leave a comment this weekend and tell me what you know.
Measure out 3 scant tablespoons of looseleaf tea into large T-Sac Tea Filters.
Brew leaves for four minutes.
Remove leaves and pour hot tea over 4 cups of ice.
Add 1/4 cup of sugar. (optional)
Chill.
Friends, there is no reason to buy a powdered mix filled with chemicals or sweeteners. There is no reason to buy bottled iced tea (that’s expensive water and high fructose corn syrup you’re purchasing! Save your money to fill your gas tank.).I make a pitcher of blackberryor peach iced tea almost every day through the summer and my children love it. It costs pennies a pitcher and even though I sweeten it, it feels like a good mommy choice. And I have it ready to offer at a moment’s notice when people drop by on hot days. I get compliments on my iced tea all the time!
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Yes, in honor of this week’s theme of Tea the Beverage at Gracious Hospitality’s Blog-a-Thon, I threw this video together with my camera phone and 12-year old son in order to share with you my three favorite teas. It is far from professional, but I contribute it anyway. After all, the heart of blogging is to move away from the pretense and perfectionism of commercialism to hear from us average folk. So on that note, feel free to take a peek at the real deal; the video is only 3.5 minutes long.
The best-selling black tea that I mentioned, Snowflake, can be purchased through my aStore. So would you be interested in more video? What’s your preferred method of gathering info or feeling engaged with an author: through reading, listening, or watching? Leave a comment and let me know.
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