Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Mad Hatter Strikes

So, after I had a nice pot of tea with the new Chinese, maybe, pot yesterday, I noticed that the tea tastes different from different pots, same tea, same procedures,flavor varies. Then I realized that I have yet another pot.  This is a lovely little clay one, which I'd had on the shelf for so many years just as a nice little artwork that I completely forgot it was a teapot.

So I tried it today, and found it makes a very good cup of tea.  And pours differently from the others.  This one rewards boldness, sending out a lovely arc right into your cup if you do it right.  Or all over the table if you approach it timidly on the grounds that it's full of boiling water.  Ask me how I know this.

The bamboo handle one pours very nicely, no challenges there, but the tea tastes sort of softer, less edgy and bright (note the technical terms, which I just made up).  And the other, blue and white Chinese one, authentic, from the Asian grocery, the start of all the trouble, both pours well and makes a good cup.

But I now realize I seem to have inadvertently stumbled into collecting teapots.  Me, the anti collector, the getter rid of things so adept that I do it for three different neighbors as well as Handsome Son.  Me, evidently in the throes  I believe that one pot is functional, two pots give you options and three pots form the nucleus of a collection which will take over every corner if I don't watch it.

You can tell that I'm losing this one, since I'm already worried about whether teapots are like elephants. I mean when people collect little elephants, figurines, that is,I don't know any collectors of the actual animals, at least not in this development, though my neighbors are no doubt very familiar with them back in Injah, where was I, oh yes, you're supposed to point all their little trunks to the nearest window so that they protect you, or keep the good luck in the house or something. 

Like hanging horseshoes up with the opening at the top, so the luck doesn't fall out.  Odd mixture of fantasy and literal mindedness in these beliefs, but anyway, I do need to know how these pots need to be organized for best household outcome, if any blogistas happen to know.

And I've just remembered that somewhere I believe I have a pewter teapot, part of a wedding gift, whose bamboo covered handle wore away with use, and rendered it difficult to use without third degree burns, but it's beautiful, and I bet I can lay hands on it if I try.  Oh dear.  Four pots is definitely a handbasket.

But I need to know about the spouts.

5 comments:

  1. Beware! I ended up becoming a 'collector' of teddy bears, simply because I fell in like with one little furry fellow and brought him home. It was like it became a beacon for all homeless teddy bears everywhere and I was showered with them. I finally cried uncle and actually sent all but my original cutie to the thrift store. Now I have a horror of getting ANYTHING that could possibly be construed as the beginnings of a 'collection'. Watch out - the Association For Extreme Collectors of Teapots' has their eye on you!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have absolutely not recommendation regarding the teapots and said spouts but I would be very careful about speaking about collections within earshot of the Dollivers. You may regret your folly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I, too, have a teapot collection. Far too many to fess up to, but there are days when one particular pot is "just right" for the season/weather/whatever. And bowls, though I did not realize I had a collection til one day it occurred to me I had far more than I would go through in anyone's lifetime. Teapots and bowls figure in my childhood, at other people's tables, warm fuzzy memories, so that must explain it. There are worse things a woman could collect. - J in Cowtown

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reply to Magpie's Mumblings - I had a friend who brought home a teddy bear for a child but kept it for herself. Then another one happened to find its way into her life. Before she knew it, she was making them!!! Moveable limbs, amazing outfits, and she sold them for profit, but, as she admitted, only after ascertaining they were going to good homes. - Jean in Cowtown

    ReplyDelete
  5. Let's pretend teapot protocol is the same as Elephants and point the spouts inwards to bring in good chai !

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for commenting. I really appreciate your taking the time, and taking part. Please read the comments and see if your question is already answered!