If I make a large pot of tea, it cools down before I finish it. My friend made me a teacozy that works to a point, but I’d really like the tea to stay hot. Any thoughts on how to do this? The tea pots are crockery, so I can’t put them on the stove. I put one of the smaller ones in the microwave oven many years ago, and it’s finish ‘crackled’. (i.e., the glazing now has a cracked appearance. The pot itself is fine.) Since my big tea pot was something like $50, I’d rather not risk it in the microwave oven. Is it safe to put the teapot on the warmer of the coffee maker?
I use a vacuum carafe. I pour from the brewing pot into it through a strainer and it keeps four cups nice and hot for hours. Not sure of the brand, but I bought it at Target.
Update: And of course by transferring it to a different pot, I can get the tea leaves out and keep it from stewing.
It’s probably not worth the cost, but I’d imagine you could put the whole thing in your oven on low. Do you have your mind set on keeping it in the teapot? I’d suggest either a small glass lined airpot (we use them for coffee at work, even 8 hours later, the coffee is still hot enough to burn) or some other type of vacuum insulated thermos.
I sorta expected that Johnny would bypass that little pearl of wisdom and move on to something else, but concidering that electricity and water generally dont play well, I was surprised to see that in Bullit.
Even if you take it off the stove, since polished metal will radiate almost no heat. This is one of the principles used in the construction of a thermos.
Do you find that yours gives the tea a strange aftertaste? I got a really sweet thermos last Christmas from my mum (A Tim Horton’s one) that keeps tea warm nearly 8 hours. But after the first cup it tastes really…off.
No, but then I’m a completely uncultured heathen and have my tea with both milk and sugar (Splenda, actually), and according to some, may as well be drinking it through an old sock.
Seriously, tea changes flavor over time, and fresh brewed does taste better than reheated or tea that has been sitting around being kept warm. But not enough to forgo drinking it.
I’m a tea snob. I mean really a tea snob. I own five different kinds of teapots (for different kinds of tea) and drink tea morning noon and night.
I think the worst thing you can do to tea is to continually try to keep it hot (like with those candle-thingies). All that will do is concentrate the tannins and eventually give you extremely bitter tea.
If you want fresh tea that is hotter longer, there are two things you can do; make smaller and more-frequent pots and change the pot you are making it in. Personally, I highly recommend those Chinese cast iron pots. Linkety to pictures. I have three of these in different sizes but tend to use a smaller one when I am alone.
Because I drink so much tea, I am impatient to have water boil on the stove and so the only kitchen appliance on my counter other than a toaster oven is one of these hot-water dispensers. It dispenses boiling water with a touch of a button and I am therefore able to make smaller, fresher pots of tea more often with little or no inconvenience.
For larger parties, the other thing I use (which is harder to find and requires an eBay search), is an old-fashioned Japanese tea pot in an insulated basket cozy. Here is a picture of an example. I have had tea made in these stay VERY drinkable for several hours as the pot sites in a pre-formed, insulated nest inside the basket. Sometimes there is also a spot for the cups, sometimes not.
I ditto the votes for smaller pots of tea, more often… however…
If you could get your friend to make you a second tea cozy that contains a layer cut from one of those heat-reflective emergency blankets, that would make the most of the original heat.
I drink mine with sugar, as well, but just the same, my tea comes out really weird tasting. And I don’t exactly have the most refined palate. I’m told it’s the tradeoff for not using plastic that’s leaking odorless, flavorless death into my drinks.
