Teapots & Teazer Tea Tumbler

Here are a few more interesting bits about tea - actually they're mostly about teaware and accessories - that I've run across lately. As noted in my last entry, TGS is on something like a brief hiatus while I wrap up a tea-related project.

Here's some information about teapot design from the Appalachian Center for Craft at Tennessee Technological University. It appears that they give a course in teapot design, but I'm not completely sure about that.

Speaking of teapots, here's an article from the International Herald Tribune called The Tale of a Teapot and Its Creator.

If you've ever struggled with the problem of how to have a decent cup of tea while traveling, the Teazer Tea Tumbler might be worth investigating. Here's a review of this nifty little gadget.

shop for tea books.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink

Teapot Makers & Yerba Mate Gourds

Product designer Joey Roth has a Web site, where you can check out his quite striking looking Sorapot, among other things. Espresso fanciers might also be interested in the Moka Pot.

If yerba mate is more your style, or if someone on your gift list has a taste for it, you might want to check out the impressive selection of mate gourds at Patagonia Gifts.

Image: Joey Roth

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, teapot, yerba mate

Shop For Gourmet Teas

Giant Tea Kettles & Teapots

From the TGS archives, here's some info about giant tea kettles and teapots.

Boing Boing posted a classic photo of a giant tea kettle a while back. See it here.

The original post, at Modern Mechanix, is located here.

Here's an article and photo from Reason magazine. It's about a Malaysian religious cult who believe, among other things, that their giant teapot has healing properties. As the article notes, the Malaysian government has cracked down on the teapot cult. They've gone into hiding and the teapot has been destroyed.

Here's a giant teapot that calls Zillah, Washington home. It's the Teapot Dome Gas Station, actually. Check out the photo at Roadside America.

Also from Roadside America, a photo (scroll down) of a giant tea kettle in the Boston area.

Here, courtesy of Weird Asia News, is yet another giant teapot photo. This one is located in Jiangsu province in eastern China.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, teapots, tea kettles

Shop for tea at Amazon.com

Turkey Shaped Teapots

It's that time of year. Here are a few teapots that seemed appropriate to the occasion.

The first (pictured) is currently up for grabs at Amazon. It's described as a "Turkey Thanksgiving Teapot Autumn Tea Pot Holiday Home Decor Kitchen Party Entertaining Gift." But I guess that goes without saying.

As one of the selling points notes, it's "perfect for table top, bedside table, or desk." Darn right it is.

Hurry up, though. Only $24.98 and just one left in stock.

From the Puzzle Museum, which describes itself as "home to the World's finest collection of Mechanical Puzzles," comes a photo of a turkey-shaped pot from Peru. Scroll to the bottom of the page to feast your eyes upon it and feel free to congratulate me on my clever play on words.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, turkey, Thanksgiving

Adagio Teas - Free Shipping with $75 Purchase

World's Largest Teapot

Earlier this week we passed along information about some unusually large teapots and kettles. But we missed one. Here's a gargantuan construction that's said to be the World's Largest Teapot. It's located in Chester, West Virginia, in the event that you'd like to plan a pilgrimage.

If you do get around to that part of the world you might as well drop down to Trenton, Tennessee and pay a visit. The council chambers of city hall there are host to a teapot collection - 525 in all - that's supposed to be the world's largest. Of course, the Sparta Teapot Museum also lays claim to that title. Trenton also holds a Teapot Festival every year. We made mention of it here.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, teapot

Shop for tea at Amazon.com

Teapot Purses & Filter Spoons

Here's a fashion accessory that's gives the words "tea bag" a whole new meaning. The aptly named Teapot Bag is available from the Sarut Group in black and silver and it'll only set you back 25 smackers.

Also from the Sarut Group, as mentioned in the Time article covered in our last post, are these clever filter/spoons. I haven't had a chance to try one out yet, but here's the lowdown from the Web site, "These soft, pliable teaspoons function as a spoon and a filter. Fill the spoon's compartment with tea, honey or sugar, stir and enjoy!"

Not the first gadget to attempt something along these lines, but this one seems to take a slightly different approach than the others.

Image: Sarut Group

tea, food, food and drink, teapot, purse, gadgets

Trenton Teapot Festival

That's right, teapot fans. The Jackson Sun reports that the Trenton Teapot Festival kicked off Friday and will run through Saturday, May 6. As the Jackson Sun is a Tennessee publication, I'm going to assume that they're not referring to the Trenton, New Jersey that we all know love. Check your local listings to be sure or read the article here and see if you can sort it out.

For more TGS postings on teapots, look here, here and here.

tea, food, food and drink, Teapot

More On Teapots

Some of our previous teapot-related articles here at TGS include this one, on teapot museums, and a piece on declining teapot sales in the U.K.

About a week and a half ago the Contra Costa Times ran an article that talked teapots, as well as providing a primer on tea. Check it out here.

As for teapot-related events you might want to make note of Time for Tea!: Selections of Teaware from the Winterthur Collection. It runs from now through July 9 at Wintethur, the Delaware estate of the late Henry Francis du Pont. More info here.

Also on the teapot calendar is Teatime: The Art of the Teapot, which opens May 12 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Read more about it in this article from the Grand Rapids Press.

tea, food, food and drink, teapot, teaware, Winterthur

Teapot Museums

If you get all worked up over teapots and the like you'll probably be happy to know about the Sparta Teapot Museum, in Sparta, North Carolina. The museum, which isn't open yet, is expected to show off thousands of teapots, including - presumably - the colorful one pictured here.

You can read about the museum in this article from World Magazine. The tone's not upbeat, since the article's about wasteful government spending, but it's informative nonetheless.

If one teapot museum isn't enough for you, then try the British Twining Teapot Gallery, which boasts more than 3,000 pots, or the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, located in Hong Kong.

tea, food, food and drink, Twining, teapot, museum

Tea Eggs & Easter Bunny Teapot

The subject of eggs has been on my mind today. I can't imagine why, but I'm just going to go with the flow.

Speaking of eggs, let me point out this recipe for Tea Eggs from About.com's Chinese Cuisine area.

Looking for something more pungent? See my earlier post on Century Eggs, a stinky Asian delicacy.

Oh, and here's the Easter Bunny teapot.

tea, food, food and drink, Easter, eggs

UK Teapot Sales In Steep Decline

Don't you love it when headline writers do that clever play on words thing with tea and the word steep?

As my ever so witty headline suggests, Brits are not buying many teapots nowadays. Today's Telegraph has the full story, but to sum it up it appears that youngsters over there feel that teapots and whatnot are "quaint, dainty and old-fashioned".

As for choice of tea, 96% of all sippers in the world's great tea drinking nation prefer to get their fix from teabags. Say it ain't so, Joe.

tea, food, food and drink, teapots

Teapot In A Cup

Not to be confused in any way with a tempest in a tea cup, or is that teapot? Anyway, here's a tea brewing apparatus/cup that's so nifty that I'd almost be tempted to use it - if it weren't for my ironclad rule about only drinking tea from glass cups or mugs.