So this is in the small pot for just one mug-full. While I was making it, it suddenly occured to me that perhaps I ought to have done the short-steeping before the Western style. When I do it the other way around I often find the short-steep a bit thin in comparison. Oh well.
At the first sip this seems like I’m due for the same wacky experience as last time. It’s giving me an initial association to seafood with lemon, but wait! There is a solid sweetness hovering just underneath. It’s the caramel note, I think. In the large pot that didn’t show up at all at this point, but only came to completely replace the seafood-y lemon once the cup had cooled off some.
It’s as though with a smaller quantity, the flavours are getting compressed together rather than spreading out in neat little categories.
girly scream! OH MY GOD, I JUST NOTICED MY MOST FAVOURITEST AND BELOVED ROY KIRKHAM BONE CHINA POT HAS A FREAKING HUGE CRACK IN IT! I… need to go cry in private for a bit… O.O It’s not just the glaze. It’s cracked all the way through and it’s ten centimeters long. That’s a dead pot. And it was the most favourite one I’ve ever owned. Cute design and little to no drippage at all when pouring. Oh wail! Oh woe!
I shall clean it out and keep it on display before it actually breaks completely. Shall need new RK pot now. Clearly. (Do you think I might be able to persuade Husband that 8 mugs are totally not enough while I’m at it…?)
Gosh, what a dramatic little interlude there. Well, that also puts an end to any potential re-steep of these leaves now. Now that I’ve seen the crack, I can’t ignore it. I really, really, really don’t want it to break completely. While I was in a state of mournful shock, the tea has cooled off a bit further, and is now sort of on the brink between the caramel stage and burnt toast stage. Still following the road map the larger pot laid out, I see. Just, as mentioned, it seems squished a little closer together, making for a more ‘complete’ tasting cup. So the first experience wasn’t just completely bizarre, then. It really is that complicated a flavour profile!
I feel more confident about the rating now, and while I liked it for the most part, the initial seafood and lemon weirdness, I’m sorry, has to knock off a few points. Had it only not had the seafood association, I would have enjoyed a surprise lemon note much more.
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Yikes, broken favourite pot. That is not good at all. I think your husband, if he has any compassion, should get you a new pot as a replacement and the extra mugs as a way to cheer you up.
Oh noes!! not the favortite tea pot!
Yes, because the old mugs are in the same series as this pot. :D
I was going to spend some of our wedding money on a second small RK pot anyway, because sometimes we might not want the same thing, and it’s a hassle to make first one cup, clean out the pot and then make the second cup. It’d be much easier to just have his and hers pots. I’ve been snooping about on the Roy Kirkham site trying to decide which pot I want to replace it with. I can get another ‘Please shut the gate’ on Amazon, it seems, if I’m quick, but if I’m keeping this one as a decorative pot, I’d rather have a different design, I think. There are so many cute ones though!
You can never have too many tea pots! ;-)
Only not enough space. I got rid of a lot never used ones when we moved, but there are still a good number of pots just kicking about because I couldn’t make myself part with them yet. One of them is an obscenely orange one with the single most drippy spout I have ever seen (to the point where you can’t actually really use it), but it was one of the first gifts Husband ever gave me, so… It stays.
I feel your pain. I have a pot corpse sitting in the corner as a decoration because of a big crack. Sob! I thought about selling the lid on eBay and making an artificial arrangement in the pot, or putting in a liner and adding a hardy indoor plant. Sigh.
I suspect that teapots are like books. If it ever reaches the point that you cannot move in your house due the sheer volume of pots/books then that is nature’s way of telling you that it is time to move to a bigger house. ;-)
Roughage: I like the way you think! As it happens, we are nearly run out of houses and home by both books AND tea paraphernalia!
Ashmanra, that sounds like a great idea, planting something in it. This is from tea for one set, so I think it might be too small for that purpose. I might be able to repurpose it, though. Pen cup, perhaps?
Roughage, there’s no such thing as too many books. :)
Oh man, losing favourite tea accessories is the worst! I totally sympathize and am sending huge hugs. <3
Yeah, this one was particularly bad. I bought for myself for my birhtday once, having seen it in the window of a shop and fallen immediately head over heals. How could I not? http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XtC8iHFtL.SL500_AA300.jpg (The picture is off on the colours though. It’s not this yellow in real life.)
Sure, pens, paperclips, teabags! Bobby pins! It is too cute not to repurpose it!
Sorry to hear that :( No pot is too small for planting succulents, if that’s the direction you would like to go. My gaiwan I got for Mother’s Day cracked the second day I used it, but I have it on display next to my oversized impractical yixing pot, both have dragons on them.
Hmmm. I’ll pass the suggestion on to Husband. He’s the one in charge of plants in this house. (I can kill anything)
I turn broken pots or lidless gaiwans into lamps or holders for tealight candles (typically the electric variety, sometimes on timers). Bone china glows nicely when either lit from inside or backlit.
Wouldn’t the heat from the light just aggravate the crack more, though?
It’s difficult to keep these things out of the (sometimes)destructive paths of the cats, so I don’t really feel comfortable with the candle idea. I don’t know where I could safely put it.
I use electric ones, as I prefer not to deal with the smell of smoke when they are put out and can stick ‘em anywhere without regard to heat. There’s different brands out there, including ones that turn on or off automatically, making them good night lights that are not very bright at all.
This kind of thing:
http://www.target.com/p/flameless-tea-lights-set-of-12/-/A-11011179#?lnk=sc_qi_detailbutton
Oh, of course! That’s clever. (And cat safe)
Yikes, broken favourite pot. That is not good at all. I think your husband, if he has any compassion, should get you a new pot as a replacement and the extra mugs as a way to cheer you up.
Oh noes!! not the favortite tea pot!
Yes, because the old mugs are in the same series as this pot. :D
I was going to spend some of our wedding money on a second small RK pot anyway, because sometimes we might not want the same thing, and it’s a hassle to make first one cup, clean out the pot and then make the second cup. It’d be much easier to just have his and hers pots. I’ve been snooping about on the Roy Kirkham site trying to decide which pot I want to replace it with. I can get another ‘Please shut the gate’ on Amazon, it seems, if I’m quick, but if I’m keeping this one as a decorative pot, I’d rather have a different design, I think. There are so many cute ones though!
You can never have too many tea pots! ;-)
Only not enough space. I got rid of a lot never used ones when we moved, but there are still a good number of pots just kicking about because I couldn’t make myself part with them yet. One of them is an obscenely orange one with the single most drippy spout I have ever seen (to the point where you can’t actually really use it), but it was one of the first gifts Husband ever gave me, so… It stays.
I feel your pain. I have a pot corpse sitting in the corner as a decoration because of a big crack. Sob! I thought about selling the lid on eBay and making an artificial arrangement in the pot, or putting in a liner and adding a hardy indoor plant. Sigh.
I suspect that teapots are like books. If it ever reaches the point that you cannot move in your house due the sheer volume of pots/books then that is nature’s way of telling you that it is time to move to a bigger house. ;-)
Roughage: I like the way you think! As it happens, we are nearly run out of houses and home by both books AND tea paraphernalia!
Ashmanra, that sounds like a great idea, planting something in it. This is from tea for one set, so I think it might be too small for that purpose. I might be able to repurpose it, though. Pen cup, perhaps?
Roughage, there’s no such thing as too many books. :)
Oh man, losing favourite tea accessories is the worst! I totally sympathize and am sending huge hugs. <3
Yeah, this one was particularly bad. I bought for myself for my birhtday once, having seen it in the window of a shop and fallen immediately head over heals. How could I not? http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XtC8iHFtL.SL500_AA300.jpg (The picture is off on the colours though. It’s not this yellow in real life.)
Sure, pens, paperclips, teabags! Bobby pins! It is too cute not to repurpose it!
Sorry to hear that :( No pot is too small for planting succulents, if that’s the direction you would like to go. My gaiwan I got for Mother’s Day cracked the second day I used it, but I have it on display next to my oversized impractical yixing pot, both have dragons on them.
Hmmm. I’ll pass the suggestion on to Husband. He’s the one in charge of plants in this house. (I can kill anything)
I turn broken pots or lidless gaiwans into lamps or holders for tealight candles (typically the electric variety, sometimes on timers). Bone china glows nicely when either lit from inside or backlit.
Wouldn’t the heat from the light just aggravate the crack more, though?
It’s difficult to keep these things out of the (sometimes)destructive paths of the cats, so I don’t really feel comfortable with the candle idea. I don’t know where I could safely put it.
I use electric ones, as I prefer not to deal with the smell of smoke when they are put out and can stick ‘em anywhere without regard to heat. There’s different brands out there, including ones that turn on or off automatically, making them good night lights that are not very bright at all.
This kind of thing:
http://www.target.com/p/flameless-tea-lights-set-of-12/-/A-11011179#?lnk=sc_qi_detailbutton
Oh, of course! That’s clever. (And cat safe)