Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tea warmer

First of all, it is OBSCENE that none of my local tea shops carry teapot warmers. Not even electric ones, which would have been a compromise even though I prefer the ones that use a tea light. I called around, checked various thrifting apps and sites, and nada!

That said:

Aw yeah! No more room temperature tea in this house!

(As always, use denture cleaning tablets to remove tannin buildup from your teapots and cups.)

#glees teas #cuppatea #cuppa tea #teatime #tea time #tea warmer #teapot warmer #teapot

A Sweet Little Spot Of Tea! SOURCE

Stövchen, for warming more than just tea

This, for the unacquainted, is a Stövchen, a warmer, or tea-warmer to be more specific to the German custom. It's a word I could never forget because I think of it as 'little stove', with me linking 'Stov' to the English word stove, ie. oven (for anyone young reading this!), a cognate really, and then the umlaut over the vowel 'ö' plus '-chen' suffix making a diminutive form in German (another example could be 'Hund' = dog in English, but 'Hündchen' = little dog - more of that here: ).

Anyway, the Stövchen is a steel or porcelain unit, with ventilation holes around the side and on top, inside which you place a Teelicht [tea-light candle], which flickers away whilst keeping warm the pot of tea you've placed on top.

When I lived in Germany on my year abroad - the third year of a foreign 4-year languages degree course was spent immersed in the language and culture of a land where studied language(s) were spoken, as still now I believe, except perhaps this year, tragically - I noticed people would have a Stövchen in their home, and they kept a pot of tea going on it until the tea ran out, then would top it up and keep the next batch warm again - bottomless tea in all but name! The tea would be something warming and herbal, fragrant with spices, often cinnamon, and the colour was a shade of honey, in all the different shades that honey comes, and it was quite a ritual to approach the Stövchen, pour this warm drink into small ceramic cups, und Tee trinken.

I was so enamoured by the ritual that I bought myself a Stövchen in the next Flohmarkt I went to; it looked like a UFO had met a rainbow on its way down to Earth, bejewelled as it was with different coloured glass beads that shone as the little Teelicht candle flickered inside it, and a brass-coloured hotplate on which my teapot stood. I felt so proud to have adopted a German custom that I genuinely couldn't imagine life without!

That was some time ago... and whilst I'm sure I still have that colourful UFO-Stövchen, it did fall into disuse, for various reasons, but when I came across the shiny Stövchen pictured above, before Christmas in a charity shop in my local high street - on one of those shelves where people discard household relics from the past - I was sofort transported back to that year in Germany, and all the warmth and shared tea drinking that went with it! So I bought it, well, it was bought for me as a Christmas present, and since lockdown working / homeschooling began again this January (usually my nemesis when it comes to months of the year) I've been using the Stövchen daily not only to keep pots of tea/infusions warm, most often diffusing ginger and turmeric in scent and flavour, but also to enjoy the light and atmosphere brought by the flickering candle on these grey days, which in turn enables flickers of my happy memories of times in Germany.

The only thing I've realised, is that burning a few single-use Teelichter each day is BAD for the environment, and it's time to find some without the Aluhülle (metal sheaths), although it has at least led me to a good article in German that discusses more durable alternatives: "Teelichter sind umweltschädlich - Tipps für nachhaltige Alternativen".

There are also tonnes of designs here, even some you can make yourself, but I'm sure everyone has something they can adapt to become a Stövchen, if so inclined, eg, Pinterest . Alternatively, there's always a tea cosy!

#tea #Tee trinken #Stövchen #tea warmer #Germany #Germany customs #German lifestyle #German food and drink

Decisions decisions...which one to make 💛💙💜💚❤️

#tea cozy #tea warmer #crochet #home life

Keep your tea warm for hours! Cannot live without mine!

"Handmade in America, a Dutch style tea cozy by The Cosy Teapot. Happy cats themed fabric and trimmed in dark grey. This cozy is designed well and built to last. Hand stuffed with 100% organic and natural Kapok fiber. Kapok is a super insulator and will keep your tea warm for hours. "

TheCosyTeapot

#tea #tea cosy #tea warmer #cats #madeinusa #etsy #handmade