Caring For Your Tea Pot
There's drinking tea and then there's collecting the various accoutrements that can make tea drinking an art form. And once you have those items – whether it's a tea pot or a cozy or unique collection of cups and saucers – it's important to know how to take care of them.
For starters, wash your tea pots. A lot of people assume that you can go with a few uses between washes, but that's not true. Accumulated dust and other particles can give your next cup of tea a bad aftertaste. Don't use a strong dish washing detergent. Instead, let it soak for ten minutes or so in hot water, then use a gentle soap and cloth to clean both the interior and the exterior.
In terms of use, don't let the tea pot rest on or come into prolonged contact with hot burners. Remember, tea pots are generally designed to allow your tea to steep. The water should be cooling down, not going up in temperature. You should also avoid pouring steaming hot water directly into the pot – instead, let it cool for a minute or so. This will improve the quality of the tea as well as extend the useful life of the tea pot.
If you are using the tea pot and related saucers and cups, then you can store the items on a shelf or counter where they remain visible. But if you expect to put it into hibernation for anywhere from a few days to a few months, consider wrapping it first in a soft cloth like flannel.
Unless you are dealing with cast iron tea pots, then your pot is subject to breakage. It's pretty much inevitable. If the break is in several pieces, it's okay to restore with a non-toxic glue and continue using it. But the more fragments you have to restore, the more likely your pot is going to have to serve merely as decoration.
