If you’re like me – or the majority of the people on Earth – you probably don’t give a lot of thought to tea kettle whistles. All that really matters is that they work when the water starts to boil. Not so long ago, while writing an article for this site on the science of… Continue reading

A tea kettle whistle is usually seen as nothing more than a simple alert that your water is boiling and your tea is almost ready. In most cases, that’s exactly what it is. But as it turns out, even this everyday kitchen feature has attracted scientific curiosity. If you never considered the mechanism behind a… Continue reading

The key ingredient in tea is water, specifically hot water, and the way to heat water is most often in a tea kettle. There are tea kettles galore and new ones being introduced every day, so it’s pretty easy to get into hot water. It’s a little trickier, though, to select the kettle that’s right… Continue reading

That old faithful workhorse of your daily tea time may need to retire. “Retire?” you ask. Yes, as in “let the poor thing rest and go play a round of golf or two.” No pension involved here, though. Just a bit of kind-heartedness and common sense. The top reason for retiring a tea kettle is… Continue reading

If you find the tea making process entirely too taxing, there are many gadgets these days that seek to automate the process as much as possible. While some of them do the job quite nicely, there’s typically a price to pay – an actual financial price, that is – for all of this high-falutin’ gadgetry.… Continue reading

You might call me a tea kettle philosopher. After years of waiting for the tea kettle to boil I’ve acquired such wisdom as: “No use crying over spilt tea.” I think that’s the expression. (Actually, it’s “spilt milk” but no matter.) The idea is that accidents (“Oops!”) happen. It’s a shame when the tea you’ve… Continue reading