Tea Time With My Friends

Below is part of one of my blog posts and the subsequent conversation between Coco and me, which we thought should be posted here instead because of the tea information. 

Red:  Bonavita Variable Temperature Gooseneck is the best tea kettle in the world. I’ve known to hand carry it (not because it's fragile but because I liked it too much to let it out of my sight) through hotel lobbies across the States and Canada so I would've had a cup of tea as soon as we checked in.

Coco:  So I’m looking at Amazon’s webpage for this pretty character and I have some questions, as I am the only American over the age of 8 who has NEVER bought anything on Amazon:

1. do you recommend a 1.0 L or 1.7 L? 

2. they apparently have used ones that are “from $20 ” cheaper for the 1.0 L.  Would you recommend a used one?

3. what are your thoughts on "Add a Protection Plan"?

Red:

1/ The 1.0 L is plenty big for you and several guests.

2/ I wouldn't buy a used one.  A new Bonavita kettle will last you a lifetime (it lasted me years before the foreign voltage blew its coil); don't buy someone else's mistake.

3/ I've spend tens of thousands of dollars on Amazon over the decades, never once purchased Protection Plan.  Amazon allows you to return a defective merchandise or a wrong merchandise for free (they pay the postage) within a certain time period, at least 30 days IIRC.  That's enough of a protection.  If your kettle doesn't give you any trouble when you use it daily for 30 days, I doubt it would act up on day 31.  Bonavita kettle is sturdy and the coil is a design that has been around for decades if not a century or so.  The only electronic part is the temperature setting, but that's as simple as a digital clock.

And a bonus answer to a question you didn't ask:

4/ Do not fill up the kettle, only draw enough water for a cup or a pot.  Dump the excess water instead of reboil it.  Reboiled water dulls the tea flavour.  That's the reason I don't recommend the larger kettle.

I like fresh mint so would probably like fresh mint tea.But mint flavoring? EEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYUCK.

I don't dump the water from my stove-top kettle (an ancient CorningWare that has been boiled dry several times but still works) I pour it into my drinking water glass or the slow cooker if I'm steeping chicken bones for bone broth. But I don't use tap water. I lug jugs of filtered water from the grocery store where I buy it from reverse osmosis filter machine. It's a do-it-yourself job, so not expensive like the pre-bottled water, but it's a chore and I don't like to waste any. Sometimes I don't feel like doing any of that and reboil the same water for my next cup of tea and can't really taste the difference. I just know you're supposed to boil it fresh every time.

I also re-steep my tea, whether in a teabag or loose in my little bamboo strainer. I don't like it too strong, so it works for me, even with tea that isn't supposed to be re-steeped. But I don't like to do it after the leaves have dried out. Sometimes, if I've only steeped once and don't want to waste what's left in it, I'll steep it in a small amount of water to save it, then add hot water the next day. I'm part of the "waste not want not" generation. Or maybe my mother was and passed it on to me. Any way, it stuck.

Speaking of not wanting to waste my "good" water, it's a big issue for me regarding boiling pasta. I don't like using tap water b/c of all the chlorine, fluoride and who-knows-what other chemicals are in it. But I don't like dumping out my good filtered water. Sometimes I filter some in a ZeroWater pitcher, but it takes more time and bother and then I don't want to throw it away, either. I've started experimenting with boiling the pasta right in the sauce or whatever I'm making. The trick is to use enough liquid and stir it. It's very starchy, but then there's no need to thicken a sauce, if it's one that would normally need it. I haven't done it too much yet and am still experimenting. I've also been experimenting with using bean or lentil pasta for at least part of it, so it's like learning from scratch. It's also tricky combining the bean or lentil pasta with my regular pasta (brown rice from Trader Joe's) b/c the cooking times differ. I do that mainly due to expense, to stretch it. I love the organic brown rice pasta from TJ's. They sell it for only $1.99/# (really good for an alternative pasta), and I think it tastes like regular wheat pasta, but not sure b/c it's been so many years since I've eaten some that I don't remember what it tastes like.

I got off course from talking about tea. Was going to say more, but not sure I remember what. Red, you said never to store tea in a glass jar. I'm assuming you mean b/c light can degrade it? Wouldn't it be ok if kept in a closed cupboard? I've done that but not sure I'd taste the difference.

I don't usually buy expensive tea, and lately have gotten into the habit of teabags most of the time. If I'm going away I'm rushing, so I boil the water and pour it into my travel mug with a teabag (after removing the paper tag if there is one) and let it steep on the way. Later in the day, if possible, I add more hot water to it. This would probably horrify Red, who is very precise about temps and steeping times. I guess my tea palate is not as refined. But I don't go away that often anymore, so I have time to steep loose tea more often.

I've been craving a good black tea, esp. a good Darjeeling. But I can't buy expensive teas. However, I decided to splurge when I saw these justea.com/product/kenyan-earl-grey-tin/ teas on sale. They didn't have a plain black so I bought the next best thing, Earl Grey. I don't know what I was thinking, though, b/c even on sale it was more than I should spend. Last year I had a delicious cup of Kenyan tea at the Afro Deli and I guess I was hoping it would be like that. It is good, but it's Earl Grey and the bergamot is a bit stronger than I'd like. But I'm getting used to it and it might not be that it's too strong, but just a better quality than I'm used to and therefor tastes a bit more prominent. I see that the company makes a plain black, and wish they'd had it at the store. Oh well. I think it was the cute little scoop that swayed me. Question: it says the scoop is not to be used for liquids, only dry. That made me hesitant to wash it, so I haven't even used it. Do you think it's ok to wash it before using the first time and then just use to scoop the dry tea? Actually my fingers work ok. I really like the idea of buying from projects like this that provide economic development for an otherwise impoverished community.

Now that I'm thinking about it and looking at the website, it seems that I bought some bulk loose tea from the co-op last year that turned out to be Kenyan. I totally forgot about that. It was good and I'll have to look for it again. Also, now that I'm thinking about it, the co-ops always sell their bulk tea in glass canisters, the same as all their herbs and spices. Is that all degraded?

Has anyone else had Kenyan tea?

Dirt girl, thanks. I'll try to remember to look for it next time I'm in a store that sells that brand. Feel free to remind me.

Me neither and I LOVE spicy things. Maybe it is the cloves. I like cloves in VERY small doses.

Don't really drink it myself but I was quite unaware of all the science behind tea. Wow.

Egg:  I was born and grew up in a country where tea was the everyday drink, more common than water, so I started drinking jasmine green tea daily around age 6 or 7.  When my father deemed I was old enough (age 9), he woke me up at 5:00 once or twice every week to watch him brewing his morning tea and to learn how to do it myself.  He built a small filtered rain catchment just to use the water for his tea (different from the rain catchment we used for cooking), and he boiled the precise amount of water for each small pot (which was slightly larger than a teacup) over a table-top tea stove.  Nothing about tea brewing technique has changed since then except the tea stove, although serious tea drinkers in China and Japan still use it to this day.