In the cup or in the pot

I think dishwasher detergent may be to blame for some of the staining inside the cup or mug. They are often quite abrasive and can damage the surface glaze. We always make tea in a pot but our mugs are slowly becoming stained. It's pale but you can see it.

Wot no Tea? who didn't put it on the list when they'd used the last packet then? Not me! It was 'im indoors

Definitely in a pot for me please. I remember as I child waiting by the wall mounted tea dispenser so I could press the button!!!

Denby ' brown betty ' teapots pour properly. We bought ours from the factory shop sale and got 2 for £10! They keep the tea warm too.

Does anyone know the tea house opposite the Cathedral in Manchester? A rarity these days in the age of coffee shops. I went there on my one and only visit to the city and was amused by the care they gave to making a cup of tea. I was even given a timer which would indicate when it was ready to drink. It was lovely.

I also have a bucket under my chair so I don't have to move at all!

I have one of those keep hot jugs for my tea. I brew up in it and it does about 3 full mugs and I can pour however much I want at a time and it's still hot. A bit strong by the end of it but it does save me keep going and brewing up, especially on a bad health day. I also have a jug of water to hand and use my cafetiere for my coffee. Lovely jubbly.

Haha tea snobbery when I leave for work in the morning I just about have time to toss a teabag in a mug maybe one day I will be a lady of leisure and buy myself a teapot.

I have one of those teapots that sits on top of the cup
I had tea served like that in a cafe today and thought I must buy myself one. Except DH will want one as well so I may as well sling the teabag into the cups as usual and use the big teapot when we have visitors.

Well, the only way to drink tea is this......use loose leaf tea, a really good one, and use a bone china teapot to brew it in.When ready, use a tea strainer into a delicate bone china teacup, then milk or lemon.
Or, do as I do, and chuck a teabag into a mug, pour boiling water on it and then walk off and forget about it.

Earl Grey teabag in a mug. No milk or sugar, very weak. It probably does taste better made in a pot with proper tea leaves but it's a faff! and it gets too strong for a second cup..

Do any other weak tea lovers reuse the teabag? My mother used to and it drove me mad having soggy teabags lying around when she stayed with me. My DP tried to inaugurate it for my tea but I think it takes economy too far. I just threw out the once used teabags when I found them. He didn't persist

OTH, I love teapots as decorative objects; if I didn't restrain myself I'd have a large collection..

Another reason I use a teapot is that I like the milk put in first before pouring the tea.

At home it is always a teabag straight in the cup but if I go to a cafe for a cuppa I feel hard done by if I'm offered a teabag in a cup. I love the little one cup teapots and a small jug of milk and if I can squeeze two cups out of it all the better.

When my children were younger and all lived at home it was much easier to make a teapot of tea with there being so many of us. Now I just stick a teabag in a mug.

Always a teapot. Hate having to fish around for the teabag in a mug. Always a China mug or cup. A real tea lover.?

I still have my old hall teaset. A wedding present in 1967

Ceylon tea for breakfast in my one-woman filter teapot which has just the same capacity as my outsize mug; Earl Grey in the afternoon also made in a pot. Otherwise, redbush bags in a mug.
NB 'outsize mug' does not refer to the size of my mouth!

I also use Old Hall s.s. tea pots - one from 1963. I think, unfortunately, that Old Hall went out of business and so cannot be bought any more. Lovely pots though.

What a lovely post! Love reading all the replies, and I am inspired to go out and buy a teapot since I haven't had one in years.....yes I'm a bagger/mugger...... I once went on a bus tour of the countryside around Adelaide, Australia. At a stop off in a eucalyptus forest the guide made "bush tea" in a large cast iron pot over a fire. There were twigs, tea leaves etc floating around in the brew (milk already added). He stirred it with another larger twig, and we were served in tin mugs. Maybe because we were thirsty -that was the best cup of tea I have ever had!

Teapot, China mugs. I am trying to replace my large China breakfast cups with no success. Everything is too thick. Tea needs to be drunk out of fine china. After reading all these posts I am thinking of going back to tea leaves instead of bags. I do have many teacups but none big enough for the amount of tea I get through.

I also have an Old Hall s.s. teapot from 1964, which doesn't dribble and keeps the tea warm for the second cup.. Always use this at breakfast, but use a mug otherwise. China, of course! I have favourite mugs for different times of the day. How sad?! Teabags every time.

tea bag in mug first thing in the morning because my legs haven't got going and I cannot stand long. Enjoy a pot of Ceylon tea in the afternoon just a splash of milk put in afterwards. Otherwise herbal teas, Twinings. My late husband always brought me tea in bed every morning. Coffee mid morning. Always use freshly boiled filtered water.

i have an Old Hall stainless steel teapot that pours beautifully. It was a wedding present for first wedding in 1970, I wouldn't be without it. I do have a surplus of silver teapots - about six! Somehow managed to inherit them all, with accompanying bits and pieces. They get used infrequently but look lovely and rarely need polishing due to very low levels of air pollution in this backwater. Some china ones too.

I loved tasting all the different teas on my business travels around India and Sri Lank. To me Darjeeling is the champagne of teas. I went on a tea plantation tour once near Kandy. They told us the tea dust on the factory floors went into tea bags!

Always a teapot, I have several sizes. In a large mug that is not too thick. Yorkshire tea mainly bags but do love leaves.
I always find in making it in a cup/mug leaves a sort of scum on top and by the time the milk is put in the tea is almost cold.

Teapot every time, and bone china usually a mug as cups are too small!
Loose tea if I remember but cannot always remember a strainer UGH!