Three years ago, Ben and I received an electric Capresso tea kettle from Ben’s mother, and we have completely fallen in love with this kettle.  The Capresso kettle has consistently and quickly boiled water for us, without once threatening to burn the house down.

The glass design threw me a bit initially, but the water is enjoyable to watch and the kettle itself hasn’t broken nor have I burned myself.  I was also not convinced by an electric kettle versus a stove top kettle.  I have great fondness for stove top kettles (another day I will write up my favorite), but at least on our electric stove, it is definitely slower and presumably pulling more power.

The glass also allows us to easily monitor the water, and while I’m not particularly manic about having the perfect temperature of boiling water, I like knowing that I could have perfect fish eye water if I wanted.

There is now some slight discoloration to the metal bulb in the bottom of the kettle, but after three years of heavy use, I’d be concerned if the kettle didn’t show its age a bit.  The efficiency and auto shutoff haven’t shown any signs of slacking.

We would definitely recommend this kettle to anyone considering an electric kettle.

Well, what is it exactly?  It looks like a cross between a fat marker and a syringe, but no, it’s a tea infuser that holds several infusions worth of loose leaf tea.  Cat bought me this unique looking tea infuser this past week from Tovolo (http://tovolo.com/prod/tea/teago.htm).  First, you load the tea into the basket and infuse the tea.  Then, you depress the end pushing all the liquor out of the infuser into the cup.  Once, you have most of the liquid out you can cap the end so there’s no mess.  All in all, it’s almost as convenient as a tea bag, but with loose leaf tea instead.

I was a little concerned that the infuser would not contain the liquid remaining in the infuser very well, but even when I inverted the infuser it did not leak.  The only other trick is getting your tea in and out of the infuser basket, which is very narrow, but this is a common issue I see with most infusers.

Cat also notes that the packaging is excessive for such a small product.  Otherwise, a very interesting and well thought out design.

This product is available through Amazon.com: Tovolo Tea Press Tea Infuser

Cat and I just received an new electric tea kettle from Capresso. We had been looking a glass kettle so we could catch the water just short of a boil for those green and white teas that suffer from steeping in 100 degree C water. My mom saw this kettle at her favorite tea shop in Kansas City, MO and shipped one out after rave reviews from the proprietor.

It is a very slick design. You can see the bubbles start to form on the chrome element so you can better guess when the water is just right for your that delicate white peony.