Why buy a cast iron teapot?

With Christmas season in session, I’ve been thinking about what I want for christmas (I’m still a teenager, so I still have luxuries with christmas :P) and I thought of the cast iron teapots that I’ve always wanted but never had the funds for.
The conflict comes in where I already have a yixing pot (it’s small and for my own individual use) and a ceramic teapot that’s 25 ounces that’s for when I have friends over.

So, is there any benefits to having the cast iron tea pot over the ceramic one besides the fact that it looks nicer and it’s bigger? Thanks :D

9 Replies

Bump. That got pushed back really fast

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One of the main qualities cast iron teapots have is that they can hold their heat for a lot longer than many other materials.

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CupofTree said

Now that I have a cast iron to compare with my ceramic one, I’d have to say they are both awesome for different reasons. I like my ceramic one better for most teas though because for some odd reason, the same tea sometimes tastes different in the cast iron, and usually not as good but I don’t know why. Maybe the extreme level of heat of the cast iron has something to do with it. But I do love my cast iron, especially when in bed and cuddling with it when I’m cold haha. Only after its been cooling for a while though, otherwise it’d burn my socks off. (if I wore socks)..
Worldmarket.com has amazing prices for cast iron, that’s where I got mine, the green bamboo one, and I love it. For the price it’s worth just trying it out!

Raritea said

I love the image of cuddling with a tea pot in bed. Sounds like something I would do… yes I love my tea THAT much!

sounds like me, haha! I often use a mason jar as a hot water bottle when I lose my actual hot water bottle, haha! I’d be too worried about the last dregs at the bottom of the pot getting dumped in my bed to use a teapot though :P

I may be behaving assuming-ly, but if you’re putting white and green teas in your cast iron teapot, you’re burning it all. The retaining heat in the pot is over-steeping your leaves and causing the liqueur to come out very bitter in little time. Also, white and green teas have a more desirable (to most people, as tea flavor desirability differs by person), at lower temperatures when drunk.

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It’s a matter of choice.
I like ceramic teapots better. The biggest disadvantage I find in a cast iron teapot is that it’s quite heavy.

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As to the original answer, it really depends on whether you’re thinking about a tetsubin or a cast iron more meant for a Westerner. The ones marketed and sold over here in America are lined and so do not have any effects besides retaining the heat of the water you put in, which can be desirable if you’d like to drink a darker tea over time. Tetsubins from Japan, on the other hand, are not lined with enamel. Their purpose is to boil water and cause a change in the water at the molecular level that causes the water to have a larger affinity to nutrients in the water. This causes the taste of the tea to increase greatly and last longer. However, these pots are far more rare and expensive, in the hundreds of dollars. I would argue that they are absolutely worth it, but that’s me.
Either way, all cast iron pots will likely last you much longer than any other kind, as long as you care for it properly when you use it.

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I love using cast-iron testsubin-like pots for multiply infusible teas—above all, green. I use a small pot without the associated filter basket (so that the leaves can fully expand to occupy the entire volume of water) and pour the brewed tea through a mini colander-like sieve. Then I return any collected leaves to the pot for a later infusion.

Since caffeine is water soluble, most of it comes out in the first infusion, so the leaves from early afternoon can be used to prepare a low or no-caffeine green tea later in the evening… I find green tea to be vastly more satisfying than most herbal blends, so naturally I am happy, thanks to this method, to be able to drink green tea even at night.

For one-infusion (black or herbal) teas, I generally use a Bodum glass canister (for loose), or a double-walled Bodum glass (for a filter bag or sachet).

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