I don’t understand why the fuck anybody would use a microwave for anything, and I threw one away after discovering that I had no use for it. But tea has only two essential ingredients, one of them is water that has been brought to a boil, for which “even a microwave” will work.
That’s a weird, poorly designed tea bag. They should stay pretty well submerged.
The real advantage of a tea pot (or just a mug at a time) is that it’s really not possible to wash most electric kettles: there’s an exposed element. As long as all you ever do is boil water, it’s not a big deal. Making tea a cup at a time means you just wash your mug at the end of the day. I’ve had a cheap kettle (okay, a series of cheap kettles) in my classroom for well over a decade. It’s also useful to keep a water jug you can fill once a day or so.
In both Russia and the U.K. (the two countries I have lived in where tea is practically a religion), nearly everyone has an electric teakettle. As others have said, the kettle serves to boil the water. The tea (or teabag) goes in the teapot (or cup/mug).
I love my electric teakettle. I have had a number of them over the years, as the inexpensive ones I buy tend to quit working after a few years. Perhaps if I splurged on an expensive one, it would last longer.
You can see what happens most clearly by putting a single leaf of tea into a glass of hot water. You’ll see a coloured streamer come off and gradually work its way around the glass - this is a fun one to do with children.
Give the mug or pot a quick stir, then cover, and let steep for 3-4 minutes. The tea flavourings will gradually diffuse into the water. If the teabag has too much air trapped inside, it will float too high and you should gently squeeze the bag with a spoon to force some of the air out.
I found that tea bags are less likely to float if you put them into in the cup before pouring the tea.
Steeping in a cup doesn’t take up any more space than steeping in the (gaak) kettle. You need to pour it into a cup, anyway.
Tea filters allow you steep loose tea in a cup. Or you can get a tea infuser. I’m partial to the Teatanic.
I had a coworker from Bermuda who did exactly this with an electric kettle.
(for me) It’s not the room, it’s having to prepare the tea each time you want a cup. I understand the OP’s desire to make a full pot of tea and have it available to pour a cup whenever and have it be ready to go.
I would even venture to remove the word ‘nearly’. Not having a kettle would be like having a kitchen without a fridge, or a cooker. Unfathomable to the average Brit.
‘Put the kettle on’ is a phrase you’ll hear whenever someone steps through the door. Packing the kettle in the easiest-to-find removal box is the advice of all when you’re moving home (as, clearly, the first thing you’ll want in your new home is a cup of tea).
And I’ve never heard of anyone putting the teabags in the kettle. Kettle elements get clogged up with limescale (particularly in harder water areas) - and need regular cleaning as a result. That would be disgusting in tea.
Oh stop this. Stop it right now. You know as much about tea as 99.99% of English people. Shall I tell you how the vast majority of the English make tea?
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Get a mug. Probably a cracked and filthy mug, sticky with Marmite and shame
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Chuck a tea bag in it. Not Oolong, not Lady Grey, not Lapsang Souchong, just the cheapest bulk discount tea bag shoplifted from Lidl, filled with tea-factory floor sweepings
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Boil a limescale-encrusted kettle. Make sure the kettle is filled all the way to the top even though you’re just making one mug of tea
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Pour boiling water on tea bag. Wait a bit. While waiting, complain about the brown people moving in down the street, or strike one of your children
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Add milk and 5 teaspoons of white sugar
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Drink three quarters of it. Leave the remaining quarter to fester somewhere
That’s. IT.
I’m dyin’ here!
Yeah. I have long suspected that your Cult of Tea[sup]TM[/sup] is much like our Cult of Coffee[sup]TM[/sup]. That is, there are a few people who really care that much and invest in equipment and get out the thermometers, a bunch who appreciate a properly prepared cup if you hand it to them but don’t expend a lot of effort, and the vast majority don’t actually give a shit except that it’s brown and hot.
And yet, even in the UK, coffee consumption is greater than that of tea.
Oooh, controversial. It’s closer than it used to be, but the completely unbiased UK Tea and Fusions Association disagrees 
There is a simple solution: Pour slower.
You’re not in a race to fill the cup or pot. Pour the water slowly and the bag will absorb the water and let the air escape.
If you fill your cup in under two seconds the top of the bag absorbs water first, locking in the air, and giving you the floating teabag.
Christ, my mum used to do this. As she became frailer she could barely even lift the damn thing when it was full of boiling water. Elderly parents, eh? :rolleyes:
Or, indeed if a teabag floated it is likely the initial water wasn’t at boiling point.
Or there are fake Chinese teabags being made from sweepings and reconstituted newspapers.
I’m English, and we have a kettle with multiple heat settings, as have my parents and at least one of my friends, all of whom are also British. Ours is preset to heat to either 80°C or 100°C, but you can adjust in 5°C increments as well if you’re feeling fancy.
Of course, we normally just bung it on to boil, and pour it over a bag of brown stuff, but the option’s there.
My advice for good, easy tea at school:
[ul]
[li]Get a cordless electric kettle. I put down some thoughts on a kettle here.[/li][li]Use a vacuum-insulated mug (with a lid). You can make one large cup of tea early and sip it for the rest of the morning. Saves you from making multiple cups. I typically drink my cups of tea over hours.[/li][li]I recommend a good brewing basket. Put your (loose leaf) tea in the basket, place it in your mug, and pour in the hot water. When you’re done shake the tea leaves into the trash; it is hardly more work than a tea bag. You can rinse the basket afterwards but it’s not necessary.[/li][li]Use good loose-leaf tea. High-end tea is not that expensive ($20 for 100 grams of Darjeeling will last you 2-4 weeks). You can get good quality tea even cheaper. I get mine from UptonTea.com but there are plenty of others.[/li][/ul]
When you get your teapot, get a cozy for it too.
There are fabric handmade ones and fitted ones. I don’t think it matters which you get (although some teapots with fitted cozies are pretty pricy).
The cozy will however help keep your tea hot for a while. I inherited the pot with fitted cozy that I use, and it keeps the tea hot for most of an hour. Well, not super hot, but hot enough for my tastes.
I’ve ordered a glass one. I found it on sale for $6, which seemed so cheap that even if it is crap, I’ll just throw it away.