Tea in a pot with a teacosy anyone? (lighthearted thread)

Tea bags in a pot and a cup and saucer here. I find getting rid of tealeaves a pain.

I know you may be appalled, but when I am on my own I just put a large teaspoon of tea leaves into the tea strainer. Then pour boiling water through into my mug. I leave the wet leaves in the strainer and re-use about three times during the day.

For visitors I get out my teapot and knitted tea cosy.

I shall strike a blow for the use of teabags and mugs here!
They are very useful, quick and easy, and if you use china mugs rather than pottery types, they retain the heat well.
I once heard a tea taster on radio four say that making a cuppa in a china mug, and leaving it to brew for approx 2 mins then squeezing the teabag on the side of the mug with a teaspoon before taking it out is almost as good as brewed tea in a teapot, and avoids the ‘stewed’ tea taste that using a teapot often brings.
I only drink Earl Grey tea, and now and then do use a loose leaf tea bought from a shop in Broadway, which being more expensive I do use a small teapot, but that’s only a couple of times a week usually.

I was recently given a kg of loose tea brought from Assam by a retired tea planter. I opened it, when I'd run out of teabags and find it makes a world of difference!

It's delicious. I hope I can get more.
I have a handmade ceramic teapot with built in strainer and don't bother with a cosy.

I use loose leaf, I’ve got an insulated tea pot, my posh sister had one which I admired, it was expensive, my daughter bought it me for Christmas one year, it has a removable strainer so once the tea has brewed you can remove the strainer and leaves, it stays hot for ages, long enough for a second and third cup.

The tea leaves go in the food waste caddy.

Always use loose tea leaves and always have . I will not ruin your lunch by saying what small brown soggy teabags remind me of.

I buy loose tea in Waitrose. They have four or five (if not more) one country blends.

When I a somewhere with no composting facilities. I just pour all excess tea/water out of the pot and then shake the leaves into the rubbish tin and only swill the odd tealeves left in the pot down the drain. Far from clearing waste pipes, tea leaves can block the U trap of the water flow is not strong enough to wash them all round the bend of the trap.

Not an old fogey giulia

My son has just had his 42nd birthday and was very pleased to receive a teapot, loose tea and a bread maker!

I drink only redbush tea and have never seen a loose leaf version, but my lovely Spode Copeland ‘Italian’ teapot, the only one I possess, is only ever pressed into service when my DiL - a big tea drinker - is here and she likes loose leaf Earl Grey. I don’t have a tea cosy though. Perhaps I should unravel the problematic jumper I started to knit two years ago and use the wool to make one ?!

I follow the George Orwell School of Tea Brewing. I disagree on point six in that freshly drawn & freshly boiling water does make a difference to the taste. www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/201910/medium-282969-d3d7b72f-c3bf-43c6-a51c-f17ab834c77e.jpeg%3C/span%3E https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/201910/medium-288483-7ef3e283-a1a3-4799-a523-503053008765.jpeg%3C/span%3E

We have a metal teapot, with a built in strainer, and have tea in a teapot always, unless it's just me and I fancy a Red Bush, which I make in a mug.
Our teapot is covered in a tea cosy, that, like 'Marydoll*, I made a cover for, albeit a loose cover.
The other tea pot is a china one, and I recently knitted a cosy for that, but it mostly lived in the cupboard.
Comes out for guests.

My MIL often uses a teapot with a cosy and there’s something very comforting about having tea that way.

OTOH she has also bought one of those one cup boiler things which are not so nice.

I’ve just switched back to loose leaf tea after a few years using tea bags. I don’t, however, use cups and saucers- perhaps I should! What to do with the tea leaves, though? I live in an apartment, with no facilities for composting. I think I read somewhere that emptying used tea leaves into the sink helps clear the waste pipes.

Loose leaf Ceylon tea for breakfast, brewed in a small teapot with a stainless steel filter fitting below the lid, so can't tell my fortune in tea leaves . During the day, I drink red-bush from tea bags. I tried it as loose leaf but the leaves were tiny and messy, so sadly I resorted to bags.

My late H and I loved a cup of Earl Grey for a long time and I used to experiment with a lot of different teas. We weren't keen on Lapsang as to me it was like drinking kipper juice with its smokey flavour.

It was a few years until we introduced ourselves to teabags and the teapots then became redundant. I don't know where they all got to but I do know that D has one that I know of.

I use two tea bags for a good strong " brew ".I like to taste the tea.

I find that tea is too cool after being in a pot. I do agree that we should stop using tea bags, though. I put loose tea leaves in a strainer then put that in the cup and pour boiling water on. That's OK for one or two but I resort to tea bags when there's a crowd here. I don't know how you can reheat it. Surely, it tastes 'stewed'?

I'm not happy with drinking (even more) plastic particles:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49845940

This thread has reminded me I've been meaning to treat myself to a new teapot for ages. The last one broke because I dropped it in our Belfast sink!!

I might even consider a return to loose leaf tea because I've just checked and the strainer is still in the drawer of Mum's old Welsh dresser. I gave up knitting years ago so I'll have to search for a trendy cosy in our local craft market (otherwise known as eBay)

Time to browse.

I always use a tea pot, I think it tastes better than putting a tea bag in a cup.
But so many variations used here when the family are round.
Decaf tea in a lot for DH and me, ordinary tea made in mugs for both SiLs , fruit tea for one daughter made in cup although when at home she uses a tea pot for her fruit tea and finally hot chocolate for the other DD.

I have a Picquot teapot which keeps hot for ages. DH still puts on the cosy, knitted by me, but it isn't really necessary. I am trying to use loose tea but DH is resisting. (He mostly makes the tea.) I dry the tea bags a bit, then open them out to put the tea on the compost heap. I'm afraid the tea bags go in the bin, which eventually go to an incinerator, (as does all our refuse in Cornwall).

Ha, what a lovely thread on a miserable Sunday morning here in north Nottinghamshire.

We have a sturdy 'pot for life ' with a cozy knitted by my next door neighbour. We love our Northumberland Blend loose leaf , courtesy of Gary the Ringtons Man.

Does anyone else get the Ringtons van coming round? Not sure if it's a Midlands/northern thing.

I ve never in all my life used a teapot my Nana used one maybe my Mum in her early married days but she always used teabags in my memory and I ve only ever used teabags in a mug but then we were working class
I have very up to date grandkids but none of them would use a tea pot or probably know what is, still considered very olde worlde in this part of the country might be trendy in the big cities though

I admit I use tea bags as I like my tea really weak and milky and it gets stewed in a pot which I dislike.
However, I'm not keen on mugs and use a large tea cup with a saucer which marks me out as odd amongst my friends as I'm in a minority.

I don't drink tea

I use a teapot at breakfast time (but use teabags, shock horror), and a cup rather than a mug - that way, I can sit there drinking until the pot is empty, and I get three cupfuls from one teabag.

The rest of the day, it's mugs!

This year, there was a class in the crafts section of our village show for a tea cosy - mine was the only entry! (A croched fairy house for a teapot that I won in one of the competitions here on Gransnet)
I put that down to how few people use a teapot nowadays.

I use a tea pot and tea bags (I know, not good for the environment. , ) but I hate the feel of tea leaves in my mouth. A strainer never seems to get rid of them all.

I always use a tea cosy, to match my kitchen. Years ago, I had to throw a tea cosy out, as I had re-covered it so many times, the tea pot wouldn't fit.

When I had to refrain from drinking tea the other day before my hospital procedure, I was getting such a craving for a cuppa!! The first thing I asked for in the ward, was a cup of tea!

When we were young, our friends always laughed at us for using a teapot, but of course it’s quite appropriate now!
One of my daughters always uses a teapot.