Tea and Other Ramblings

I was watching a favorite TV show on travel and the host was talking about tea and how important it was in the particular country she was visiting. She was showing her TV audience how to make tea right and she said something to the effect of after boiling the water for tea, the person she was visiting always poured a tiny amount of the hot water into the teapot and swirled it around and then poured it out just before making the tea in it. And she said, “I don’t know why, but he always does!”

Here’s why. It’s boiling water. And he was pouring it into a glass teapot!!! If you have ever worked with glass, you know that you have to ease it into the heat. I have a feeling, from where she was, at the time that this occurred, that it was not very warm out. Having been in that general area, I know that the nights there are not warm and the days can be pretty nippy too. Which all makes the air temp inside a bit cooler. Which means that your teapot will probably be on the cooler side as well. And this applies to all kinds of teapots (except maybe the cast iron kind; I haven’t tested them yet). If you put something very hot into something cool, you’re going to run the risk of breakage. And if you’re using something very special, (ie: expensive, antique, a gift, souvenir, or in some other way, near and dear to your heart) you’re not going to want this to happen. Hence the hot water swish first. (Another thing that this does, by the way, is that it rinses out any loose particles of dust, soap, or whatever in the teapot.) Now you may say, “That’s not why we do it at all.” -or- “That has nothing to do with it.” Okay, you try making tea without doing that and see what happens. You may get lucky, then again, you may prove my point. Better to be safe than sorry.

There is however another way to do this. Simply fill the teapot with the hottest water from your faucet (providing it is more than just lukewarm and NOT boiling), put the lid on, and let it sit while you heat the water for tea. When your water is ready, turn off the burner (or whatever you’re using to heat it with), let the boiling water sit while you empty the teapot and put in your tea leaves or bags. Then pour in your hot water. Sometimes you will read that you should let the boiling water sit for a minute or two. That’s a good idea and essentially what you are doing.

Now here is something that goes right along with that. A lot of homes today are having granite or stone-like countertops put in. For some reason, they tend to be a bit cooler than the older formica kind. (Maybe because they are natural stone composites?) And since we especially like our hot tea or coffee or cider or hot chocolate when it’s cooler outside, then that means that yep, the air temp inside affects the counter temps as well. And don’t forget the teacups. Oh yeah. If you are using a teapot or coffee pot, you don’t have to worry about the teacups as much but sometimes we just make our brew directly in the cup. I have broken a few teacups because I poured the hot water directly into the cup that was sitting on a cool granite countertop. Here you have a nice crack-free teacup, solid, not flimsy at all, and as soon as you pour the hot water into it, there’s that little pop and your precious hot drink is flowing out from the bottom of this cup all over the counter……. and onto the floor. Mop, please.

Enter the hotpad. Yes, the hotpad, that lowly, essential, right-hand (and left) man (and woman) to every cook in the kitchen. The ones that selflessly give up their right to be clean at all times, that bear the marks of the burns received in their pursuit of duty; the ragged, stained…… Shall I go on? Okay. You know you have them like that. And you haven’t thrown them out yet because they still work and the next ones will look like that pretty quick anyway.

Look. You don’t put a hot dish right out of the oven on your good tabletop without using a trivet or a hotpad, do you? Well???? Right. Who wants that awful burn on there? Or that scalding mark?

But you don’t want the trivet for your cup because trivets are usually made of something hard. And we’re back to the cooler air temp, cooler hard surface thing again. Use a hotpad!!! Works for me!

Another tip. Coffee and tea stain. Badly. So if you do have nice hotpads that you keep for table use, don’t use those. Why? Have you ever met a coffee pot that doesn’t dribble? So here’s the solution:
1. Go to your friendly neighborhood discount store.
2. Pick out some of those thick terry dishcloths that come in about five or six to a pack, preferably white.
3. Buy them.

These are perfect. I keep one on my counter laid out nice and flat all the time. Then when I want a hot drink or a pot of tea, I put the pot or the cup or the bowl for my instant oatmeal on the cloth. It’s thick enough to be a insulating barrier between the cool counter and the pot or the cup or the bowl. If it gets stained, so what? There are more of them in a drawer right there. Use it to wash the dishes that you can’t put in the dishwasher. (Yes, they still make dishes that can’t go in there……even on the top rack.)

Then put out a clean one. Besides it’s always there to help clean up a drip or two . But do keep it clean. Don’t worry about the stains. You know what to do for that. Anyway, the thick terry cloth, by it’s very nature, is insulating and creates just what you need.

By the way, if your cup should still leak, you have an automatic sponge. Oh, yeah. Here’s something else. Don’t put the sugar for your drink in a cup (or bowl, etc, -especially a glass one) without something to mix with it (like milk) before you put in the hot liquid. It could explode. Literally. Really. It’s happened to me. Big mistake.

Another segue. I’m sure you’ve all heard that you have to be careful about spills on your ceramic stovetop. If you get sugar on that hot surface, it can crack it. No, I didn’t do that. But the manufacturer will tell you that and I’ve heard of it happening.

I think for right now we have exhausted that subject, so I'll let you go make that pot of wonderful, fragrant tea. I think I'm going to brew up some luscious strawberry tea or maybe blueberry, or maybe a good mango tea..........