Teavana tea pot
I am new here but need your help, as I know very little about this and hope to become an avid tea enthusiast along with my wife. I went to Teavana today to look at cast iron tea sets for my wife’s b-day and found that I needed to budget around $300 for the pot, warmer, trivet, set of 4 cups and saucers. She choked at the cost and looked at Amazon, where I found what looked to be an almost identical product for tons less ($130 vs. $38 for what looked to be almost identical). Same for the cups and everything else. So here’s my question – is there really a difference here that I’m missing, or does Teavana just enjoy marking their product up really high now that theyre owned by Starbucks? I’m willing to pay for it if it makes sense, but I would like to know why…can anyone help me?
Teavana charges A LOT more than necessary for their pots, and a bit much for their teas as well. The cast iron pots on Amazon are most likely a bit lower quality, but much more reasonable. Make sure to get one that’s enameled on the inside if you’re brewing tea in it.
That said, cast iron pots aren’t necessarily better than ceramic or glass, and some may develop rust over time. The main advantage to cast iron is that it retains the heat much longer, making it nice for brewing up a pot and sitting down to watch a movie or something of the sort. :)
Honestly, I think iron pots are highly overrated. They’re pretty to look at and they’d make a good self defense weapon, but I’d never want to make tea in one.
I’d recommend investing in a good porcelain/ceramic tea set instead. Cheaper by alot, you can still brew any tea you might desire, and spend the money you saved on more tea. Lol! Granted it might not necessarily hold heat as well as a cast iron pot, but you can either make/buy a cozy for it or get a pot warmer for it if you don’t/can’t drink a whole pot at once.
Hmmmm, I never thought I could use my tea pot as a weapon. More fun is that I have 2 cast iron tea pots – I can dual wield! MUUUUHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!
Awkward, that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw an iron pot. Not that I could actually use it to brew tea in. Lol!
There is something to be said about a ceramic teapot, which is cheaper and you don’t have to worry about rust. Mine was $7 at Ross and it’s been great! That being said, I love my cast iron teapots and have had them for a long time. So much of what we enjoy about tea comes from the experience, so if you know that’s what she wants, then I suggest EnjoyingTea.com – it’s incredibly less than Teavana and much more reliable than the Amazon set we were given as a wedding present.
If you want, you can read my notes about the sets we own here:
http://wordsabouttea.blogspot.com/p/my-favorite-things.html
I’ve been drinking tea for years and still see no need for cast iron pots. I use ceramic or glass pots most of the time and am perfectly happy with it. I drink my tea fast enough that heat retention isn’t an issue.
Yeah shop around. I got my cast iron teapots for $20 at World Trade Cost Plus. http://www.worldmarket.com/ I’m happy with mine, they do the job of crazy heat retention and look pretty.
I’ve seen the ones from world market, you can’t beat the price, so I’ve considered picking one up. Have you had yours long? I was curious how well they held up over time.
not too long, about 2 months at most? I’ve used them quite a bit and they work well. I got the turquoise and the plum one. I think I like the plum one more, though it’s a little too big for me, it fits a bigger filter than the squat one.
This!
World Market has cast iron for $20 that look just like the pots at Teavana.
I love and use ceramic/porcelain, too. I was close to buying a cast iron teapot, but I do drink it too fast to matter. More money for good tea!
I have all sorts of pots and like them all! I use my large cast iron pot when I am making a LOT of tea and want it to stay hot for a really long time, mostly when I have a tea that I want to sip on over the course of several hours. Mine came from Teavana but mostly because I loved the shape and design. I found it two other places and they were both charging more than Teavana.
Compare:
Teavana $69.95 http://www.teavana.com/tea-products/teapots-teapot-sets/cast-iron-teapots/p/dragonfly-cast-iron-teapot
World Market $19.99 http://www.worldmarket.com/product/green-cast-iron-teapot.do?&from=Search
Pick up a Breville one touch tea maker on the Ebay and skip all that other stuff ;) (aside from tea cups, if you so please). It is tremendously easier. However, it would only be suitable if your wife is wanting to get into tea for the taste and not the long drawn out “art process” of it (to which there is nothing wrong with).
Stay away from cast iron tea cups they sell at Teavana. A friend bought a set and they became too hot to hold when filled with hot tea. We had to wait more than 15 minutes for the iron cups to cool and the tea also cooled to a point of being lukewarm. Use ceramic, porcelain, or glass.
I agree. Haven’t used them but it makes sense. I have, and I love, my large dragonfly tetsubin from Teavana. You can also buy it from Zen Tea Life of Canada and I believe Mariage Freres. The tea stays so hot on the warmer that I can sip all morning long and still have adequately warm tea. The cups would be too much.
Cast iron tea cups do get extremely hot. But there really isn’t any need to touch them except for when you drink it. I find it works perfect with a cast iron saucer, grab it by the saucer bring it up to you and Tilt it by the saucer. I have a cast iron teapot set and absolutely love it. Teapot, teacups, trivet and cup saucers. Don’t have a problem. If you don’t have saucers, you pretty much can’t drink tea out of the cups. So I recommend saucers.
That’s great, Tea junkie! Saucers would definitely solve the heat problem. It probably feels a lot like drinking out of a gaiwan. I do love my cast iron pot and use it frequently even though it is the really big one, and I would love to get the smaller one someday.
It feels exactly like drinking out of a gaiwan, as I have two gaiwans myself as of right now and looking to get a few more. But it sure is nice to have tea out of your cast iron teapot with cast iron teacups but with the saucers of course. Otherwise, impossible to. I bought my set and saucers from enjoyingtea.com
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