When the weather turns a little cooler my thoughts turn to sweaters, soups and drinks.

On a cold rainy fall day my comfort food is a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup.

But I also think of a nice cup of hot tea or hot cocoa.

Today, to make that hot cup of tea, I regularly fill up my coffee mug with water, (I am really a coffee drinker) pop it into the microwave and then place a tea bag in the cup when the water gets hot. Yes, I do have several teapots but they take too much tea and they take too long. I want instant gratification.

Most real tea drinkers are probably cringing by now because that is not the proper way to make tea. According to the internet, to make a proper cup of tea you need to follow these directions.

You need:

A kettle (no microwaves, please)

A proper teapot (with more than one hole inside the spout!)

A tea cosy, to keep the teapot warm (which can also warm your hands on a cold day)

Loose tea, or tea bags (tea bags with no tags, strings or outer wrappings)

A tea strainer if you use loose tea. Make tea by boiling water in a teakettle and pouring over the tealeaves.

Aside from wanting to be practical, the teakettle made a significant design statement.

My mother’s teakettle sat on her stove all of her days. But what did she use it for?

I’m not sure! When we didn’t have hot water to wash with she heated water on the stove, poured it into the kitchen sink and we washed up in the sink. When she washed my hair she heated up the water in the kettle. When she cleaned chickens she used it to heat water for blanching the chickens, or vegetables or whatever she was preserving.

When she made coffee she used a drip pot so she heated the water and poured it in to the coffee pot. I guess you could call her teakettle a coffeekettle.

Her teakettle was metal with a big handle and a top that came off. When it got hot she had to use a potholder to keep from burning her hands. It had a wood handle on a thick wire. She put marbles in her kettle because she believed the marbles would remove the lime that built up over time.

But in the 1950s that all changed. She got a kettle with a black Bakelite handle, I believe it was made by Revere Ware with a copper bottom and it whistled.

When I got married I bought a teakettle. Did I need it? Did I use it?

I finally got rid of it because it took up too much space on my stove. I used it for my drip coffee pot but then I got an electric percolator and that is a story for another day.

In 1955 electric kettles became popular. They quickly heat the water and are much more energy efficient. But heating water is now a lost art. Many people have a hot water dispenser or they just use their microwave. I don’t think I have seen a kettle on anyone’s stove lately, but to be honest I haven’t really looked.

If you use a teakettle, let me know and tell me what you use it for. I am just curious!

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.