TeaLady441 said

New Glass Teapot - now what? :O

Hello!

I just received a lovely Simax glass teapot for Christmas (http://bit.ly/VjDWP7), but am a little nervous about how to use it. It feels thin and frail – I’m worried I’m going to break it, and a quick search on steepster shows me that glass teapots can crack.

-What’s the best way to take care of one?
-Also, what are the benefits of using a glass teapot? Obviously this will be brilliant for flowering teas, but are there any other advantages?
-Is there an advantage to only using certain types of teas in this pot (i.e., no black teas?)
-Anything else I should know? I’ve only used a ceramic pot before and it was a hand-me down that I’m not that fond of, so I just steeped in a tea ball.

Thanks everyone!

11 Replies
darky said

its tougher then it looks, thats for sure. I use always glass teapots and i’m using then for every kind off tea! Just make sure to clean em out after making tea…

Login or sign up to post a message.

Uniquity said

Glass isn’t likely to hold flavour or aromas so I just use mine for whatever I want and rinse it out afterward. They lose heat quickly but they are gorgeous!

Login or sign up to post a message.

Babble said

From my understanding, glass teapots are great for greens because they don’t hold heat as well, and thus are less likely to burn the tea.

Login or sign up to post a message.

TeaLady441 said

Thanks everyone.
Am I supposed to use it as a kettle too? (So that the temperature slowly goes up) Or can I just pour near boiling water in it?

darky said

i would just pour the boiling or not boiling water in it, using it as a kettle… don’t know if thats safe…

Very few glasses can be exposed to direct heat. I would use my kettle and prime the pot before use (add a bit of warm tap water or a bit of water from the kettle and swirl it around) to avoid cracking. If you’re really afraid, try steeping your teas at lower temperatures for longer? I.e: a green tea at 150C for 5 minutes instead of boiling for 2?

When I was in chemistry class the biggest thing I learned about glass is to try not to “shock” it, i.e.: exposing to heat and then immediate cold, low pressure to high pressure, etc. I recommend you attempt a sunbrew, I think that’d be really cool to see in a glass teapot. Enjoy!

TeaLady441 said

Thanks for the input. I’d be nervous about using it directly on the stove, but the box indicates that it’s safe, which is why I asked. I think the best thing would be to give it a quick rinse with warmer water so that I don’t shock the teapot with the boiled water.

What’s a sunbrew?

TeaLady441 said

It’s apparently safe from 30C to 300C, which is kind of amazing?

Sunbrewing is when you leave your tea in water exposed to the sun to slowly brew over the course of the day. I just can imagine watching the tea slowly brew over the course of the day to be enjoyed as a dinner treat. IDK if that is viable where ever you are; I’m in California.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Vortegne said

I’ve used mine both as a kettle and also pured boiling water in. It works good as a kettle, but it produces a great mess, if you are using fire, because the pot becomes black and stains everything around it. So I would recommend just pouring the water in, but boiling water in it can be an interesting experiment, not very useful though.

:)

Login or sign up to post a message.

Uniquity said

I just pour the water in it. Some are meant to be used on stovetop but they tend to make that pretty clear.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.