Green Tea Forum

Zero The Hero · Uh, Can I Add Sugar? Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

I have a porcelain teapot that I purchased from K-Mart.

http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_9990000069302011P?keyword=teapot&vName=For+the+Home&cName=Dishes%2C+Linens+%26+Tableware&sName=Dinnerware

Pretty nice teapot for 10 bucks. I am a very new to making and drinking tea in general. I have always drank coffee. I have stopped drinking coffee now with never looking back. I love experimenting with all differnet types of tea.

The question I have is that I am heating this porcelain teapot on a plate on top of a smoothtop stove. I am doing this just to keep the tea as hot as it was when I poured in the boiling water. Kind of the same concept as a coffee pot I guess. I have done this all day today with no problems at all. Keeps the tea hot and the plate or the teapot has showed no signs of damage or burning. I have the smooth top stove set just a little under medium. It gets the plate pretty darn hot and keeps the teapot as hot as when boiling water goes in. I need to know is there any danger of heating the teapot like this? Will the teapot eventually release toxins from the porcelain into the tea? Should I be worried about it cracking or blowing up?

Any answers is appreciated. Thank you.

Zero

Chip · Posted: Mar 08, 2008 7:34 am Post subject:

Welcome to the forum.

I would not do it...but maybe nothing would ever happen.

Teapots are designed to have hot water poured into them, not to be placed on heat sources.

A towel placed over top of the post will help to retain heat in a safer manner. Either that, or make less tea at a time.

Zero The Hero · Uh, Can I Add Sugar? Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

I now have been using this method to heat this teapot for a few days now and I see no signs of wear, burning, cracking, or anything else that worries me. The only thing I am worried about is the problems that will pop up later down the road.

Thank you for the quick response Chip. I know you or nobody else on here will probably tell me that it is a good idea to do this, but hopefully I will get a horror story or a good experience someone else had from doing this. Chip do you or anyone else know of a teapot that can be used safely to heat the tea on the stove after brewed. I have an electric kettle. I just need a vessel to keep it hot. I am wondering if I should just go down to my loca Walmart and buy a 6 dollar perculator, gut out the stem and filter, and just use it as a steel kettle. I just wonder if the tea would tast good out of something like that compaired to porcelain.

Any responces are appreciated.

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

There probably won't be any products, other than tea cozies, that do this. The reason: brewed tea tends to taste worse when reheated. It may not matter now, but if you start brewing really high quality tea, you will definitely notice the difference.

spacesamurai · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 204

Years ago I lost my first teapot like this, a twenty dollar Brown Betty. It cracked in half, 'cos it got too hot.