There’s been lots of attention to decorating, dressing like, and cooking like Middle Earthlings, but there seems to be a lack of information on tea.

Some people on that visit this site don’t have a very extensive knowledge on what it takes to create and enjoy a good cup of tea (to the dismay of many, I’m sure), so I thought I’d pass on what information I knew as someone who has learned to appreciate a cup of tea in recent years.

There are countless different kinds of kettles, different designs, colors, materials they’re made out of. Below are some links to some tea pots that range in design from basic squat/round ones, to more flat/fluid shapes.

If you’re interested in Elvish stuff more, there are many with leaves on them, with the colors more earthy.
Cast Iron Tea Pots

Some kettles are more Hobbit looking like these clay ones.
Clay Tea Pots

Then there’s the basic Gondorian or Rohan iron kettle.
Cast Iron Tea Pots

Many have matching cups you can buy separately, and trivets (hot pad, basically) to put under your hot tea pot. Cast iron tea pots should not be used to boil water on a stove.

Electric kettles are amazing things. They are for boiling water only, then you put the water in your tea pot with the tea. Some people have stove kettles with whistles, which are great, but electric kettles boil water in 2 minutes flat. I highly recommend one. Great if you have a small stove with only 2 burners, you plug it into an outlet, it has an automatic shut-off switch when it’s done boiling.

Porcelain tea pots come in lots of vibrant colors for that Hobbit look, and in the traditional white/flower patterns that may work well if you’ve got a flowery/Elvish idea for your house.
Porcelain Tea Pots

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From the BBC on “How to make the perfect cup of tea”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_tea.shtml

“To make tea the proper way, follow these guidelines:

1. Boil a kettle of water.

2. Warm the pot by putting some of the boiling water into a teapot, swill the water round, and then discard it.

3. Now add tea. You can use teabags, but the traditional way is to use leaf tea, which is loose. There a lots of different teas – English Breakfast (quite strong to start the day), Darjeeling, Earl Grey (flavoured with oil of bergamot), Assam, Lapsang Souchong (smoky) – are among the many varieties available. The amount varies on how strong you like your tea to taste, but traditionally you would use one teaspoon for each person and one for the pot.

4. Pour boiling water on to the tea. Now stir the tea, put the lid on the pot and let the tea stand, or brew, for five minutes. It is important that the water is boiling so that the flavours develop.

5. Put a small amount of milk into each cup and pour on the tea. If you used loose leaf tea, pour it through a tea strainer, which is like a little sieve, to catch all the leaves. You could also drink your tea without milk but with a slice of lemon.

6. Traditionally, a bone china tea set with matching cups, saucers, plates, milk jug, tea pot and sugar bowl would be used. Nowadays, we tend to use mugs, especially for breakfast.

7. Add sugar to taste and enjoy a lovely cuppa tea.”

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It’s also fun to experiment with a variety of teas to find the ones you like best. China teas vary widely from India teas, and of course, there is an unlimited variety of herbal teas. I never really understood why people liked tea so well, because here in the U.S., no one really knows how to make a good cup of tea. After I went to Scotland, that’s when I understood, and needed to get an electric kettle as soon as I possibly could. Life has never been better!

~ Dimple Toadfoot ~