I currently have a glass tea pot but wanted to upgrade to a stainless steel one by Alessi “18/10!”.
But I also heard that stainless steel isn’t 100% stainless but merely stain resistant, and that steel is reactive towards other things and can impart a taste.
So will my poor self be safe if I get a stainless steel teapot? Or should I stick with trusty non-reactive glass?
I wouldn’t use metal, it would possibly give the liquid a metallic taste [tea is an acid and may react with the metal slightly.] Would you like to spend the money and risk it?
I personally prefer my brown english clay teapot. Good, sturdy, holds heat nicely.
Stainless steel has a pretty doggone good rep as being … well, stainless. I’d consider it to be essentially a non-reactive metal. Glass, of course, even less non-reactive.
Stay away from aluminum. Acid reacts with aluminum nicely, and aluminum has a notorious (albeit slight) link to Alzheimer’s.
Pewter can leach lead into container contents.
And that nifty ceramic pot could have nasties in the glazing which could leach in an acidic environment.
~VOW
I’d be more concerned about the heat loss from a metal pot than any nasty chemicals.
I vote stainless. It’s pretty nonreactive, except with chlorides, which you won’t have much of in tapwater. It even does fairly well around seawater. I bet you could never sense the aesthetic or health issues with stainless. Glass is nice, too, though.
Lots and lots of equipment and surfaces for commercial/industrial food processing are made of stainless steel, for good reason - I wouldn’t worry about it being unsafe at all.
But, as lisiate said, I don’t think a vessel of relatively thin metal has the thermal properties you want in a teapot.
I’m fairly certain the OP is confusing a tea pot with a tea kettle. Unless the OP is also brewing and serving tea in the vessel for boiling water, heat retention shouldn’t matter.
Stainless steel WILL gain tea stains over time, if tea is brewed in it and not washed out. What’s “stainless” about it is that stains can be rubbed out. Stainless sinks (tables, counters) can develop a patina if not scrubbed out periodically. But I imagine the OP is not brewing tea in the water vessel.
Those tea kettles by Alessi are neat. I would get one.
Hmmm. Color me confused. I see Alessi does make steel teapots, as well.
I still stand by what I said earlier - the stainless will develop a tea-colored patina just like anything else that tea is brewed in, unless washed out (if no soap, at least rubbed with a sponge - some kind of manual rubbing). If a patina still develops, it can be scrubbed out by using a more robust method. I think “stainless” is a misnomer of sorts, it’s referring to not developing rust or tarnish. At any rate, if I’m not even more wrong, isn’t that patina inside what a lot of tea-brewers are after? I never use soap inside my glazed pottery pot, barely use a sponge and I thought that the tannin buildup in there was sought-after. Maybe I’m just a dirty girl, I don’t know!
Stainless isn’t reactive, I think it’s mentioned upthread somewhere, that’s aluminum or copper.
Anyway, as far as heat retention goes, I’m not convinced steel would be any worse than glass. I think that’s why I’m confused. I’m not imagining using anything other than pottery or iron as a teapot!
The tea pots by Alessi that are made to compliment the kettles are also neat. I would probably stick with pottery in a complimentary color, myself.
Over a few months he inside of the pot develops a coating from a buildup of (possibly) tannins from the tea. This should not be cleaned off as it prevents leaching of any metal into the tea.
As far as heat loss goes - that’s why you use a tea cosy.
Stainless steel is great for tea pots.
This is false. There are elevated levels of aluminum in Alzheimer’s patients, but it’s a symptom not a cause. As for the pot itself, stainless steel won’t impart any flavors to the tea.
Modern pewter doesn’t contain lead.
I fill up the SS teapot and add a tablespoon of bleach and leave it overnight.
Failing that, a few light swipes of steel wool does the trick.
I currently have this bad boy by Henley:
and it’s fantastic. No metal taste, no other problems. The outside of the pot gets hot when there’s tea in it, but that’s true for pretty well every pot.
ETA: Here are more details if you’re keen:
