Ode to a Favorite Teapot
I was rinsing my ceramic teapot in the sink, thinking about what sort of tea I wanted to drink this evening, when the darn thing slipped out of my fingers and shattered into a couple dozen pieces. My poor teapot! I've had it since 2006. It was a simple white ceramic teapot from Adagio Teas - if you saw it sitting on a shelf in the store you'd probably walk right by it. But I loved that teapot. It was the one I bought when I first started to explore the tea beyond those awful Lipton teabags. The size was perfect - large enough to brew 2-3 cups at a time, but small enough that the teapot didn't become too heavy and the tea wouldn't get cold before I finished it. Plus, it had come with a mesh infuser at a time when they had not quite become common.
Over the years, it had gotten into pretty bad shape. It had never chipped or cracked (so I was quite startled that it broke so completely) but there were some permanent brown tea stains that no amount of scrubbing could get off. On the outside, something yellow had been permanently transferred onto the surface - it looked like a label or the logo to a box of cereal.
So after mournfully picking up the pieces and throwing them away, what did I do? I jumped online and went straight to Adagio's website to order another one! I was surprised and delighted to see that the personalitea teapot is now available in a wide rainbow of colors: red, black, brown, dark purple, spring green, orange, sky blue and white. After debating and asking my husband's opinion, I settled on the purple option. The darker color won't show the tea stains as obviously as the white one did, and it's such a lovely, deep color. I was even happier to notice that after all these years, the teapots are still quite inexpensive at only $14 each! I almost bought two so that I could enjoy two teas at once, or have a back-up in case I shattered another teapot, but I restrained myself. My husband is already driven half-mad by my tea collection.
I can't wait for my new teapot to arrive!
If you've never checked Adagio's store out, be sure to take a peek. At some point in the last couple of years, they started offering customers the chance to "blend" their own teas, and it has really taken off - there's a tea or ten for just about every fandom you can imagine now! I can e-mail you a $5 gift certificate if you see something you like - just ask!