Not recommended.

[rivka]

I singed the hem of my sweater while making tea this morning.

As best as I can figure out, it slipped under the teakettle and into the flame while I was stretched up trying to extract a teabag from a box in the cabinet over the stove.

Fortunately, it didn't actually catch fire - it just browned, and smelled horrible. But it made for a pretty troubling mental image. (Sweater in flames! Burned baby! I've never used a fire extinguisher!)

This is why British folks use electric kettles, isn't it?

Comments

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

You could always get one of those electric kettles like Alton Brown has. I've been thinking about getting one when I can afford it.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I don't know Alton Brown, but I got an electric teakettle from cooking.com, and it's really nice. Four cups of water boiling in slightly over two minutes. How much over? I don't know... what I'll do is put my teapot in the microwave for two minutes while the water is heating, so I don't need to warm the pot and then measure the water, during which time the water is cooling.

But, I do know that it's generally less than eye-rolling, foot-tapping time, and definitely less than screaming "will you hurry up and boil already!" time... except when I'm in a really bad mood, and on days like that, the amount of energy required to boil my tea water quickly enough to satisfy me would probably vaporize a city block.

If you don't drink a quart of tea in the morning, then you'll have a significantly shorter wait. (Unless, of course, you drink more...)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I solve this problem by making a full pot and keeping it on the stövchen.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Damn. I was hoping that stövchen would translate to something more clear when I saw it here, rather than in the e-mail copy.

What is a stövchen?

I've actually considered doing what I heard some working class British folks do, putting tea in a thermos and letting it steep however long it wants to. I like my tea strong.

(Unless you like tannin, don't do this with green tea. Yick!)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Basically, it's a tea-warmer; a small stand that you place your teapot atop, with a tea light underneath. (I'm fairly sure that this is why they're called tea lights.) I had a devil of a time finding mine, but now I've seen them in specialty tea shops.