Is it safe to brew and drink tea in silver pots/cups?

I bought a silver pot from Yunnan Sourcing. They are in my understanding considered safe.

I have a silver cup from Crimson Lotus. I think it does impact the flavor. It makes things seem a little sharper around the edges. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. It has shown no signs of tarnish to this point.

I think it also depends on the quality of the silver. YS pots I think are billed as 99% pure silver. I did some brief looking around before buying the cup and what I found was that it is fine. Silverware did used to be real silver, after all. :) And there were silver pots and tea services so it’s not a new thing.

Silver is a noble metal, which means it is very non-reactive chemically, so you don’t need to worry about silver in your tea. However, silver is a much better thermal conductor than copper, so be careful you don’t burn yourself.

Here’s a good article on effects of silver on tea. http://teamasters.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-information-about-silver-teapot.html

I have heard its only safe to use .999 Fine silver to brew tea, but I haven’t yet found out why. (Don’t want to propagate myths, just wondering if anyone else knows.) My guess is that anything with less purity may have questionable other metals in it, and I guess in China you can never be too sure if there’s lead in it. But if its .999 silver that reduces possibility of contamination. There may be other reasons too. Also considering the solder used on joints (like the spout).

The inside of your teapot will most likely stain, if its fine silver it will be a pain to clean since its relatively soft. So I don’t worry about the interior unless I wanted to sell it, then I may clean it.

My silver teacups don’t tarnish because I use them often and clean them immediately, and they’re .999 silver not sterling. However, with teapots, the tea sits in them between steepings so it gets discolored easily which are stains, not tarnish. If you brew tea in the teapot, maybe remove out the leaves and rinse it immediately afterward to avoid discoloring, but its almost a self-defeating effort. It will stain inside.

To answer your question, I haven’t noticed tarnish affecting the taste. But if its .999 fine silver, it won’t really tarnish since tarnish is a chemical reaction with the other metals in silver, like the copper in sterling silver (92.5% silver). But there’s tarnish, then there’s patina. Two different things. Silver is soft metal, so every time its used tiny scratches and marks develop, and over time this gives silver a soft greyish hue. That’s not tarnish, its the patina, and its why people like antique silver.

If you’re on a budget, and want to try silver, you’re better off getting a silver teacup paired with a zisha or gaiwan.