.....but it does help to make a very good cup of tea.  In fact, I bought my very first electric kettle back in 1987, after my first visit to England.  I had been a coffee drinker of sorts before that trip; I never really loved coffee, but drank it, as did generations of students before me, to stay awake. 

In England, though, I discovered tea.  Black tea, well brewed, with milk.  Caffeine and flavor......and no horrible coffee mouth afterwards.  It was an epiphany–a hot drink I actually loved......with caffeine.  And easy to make; heat your water in a kettle, toss in a sachet* of tea into a mug, pour hot water, steep three minutes, add milk and enjoy.

When I got home, I went looking for a proper electric tea kettle––one that not only heats water quickly, but has an automatic shut-off feature.  And I did, although not cheaply or easily: a silver Russell Hobbs cordless kettle.  It still works as well as the day I bought it. 

Since then, tea has become more popular in the USA, and kettles easier to find.  You can pick one up in just about any store that sells small kitchen appliances.  The best are the kind that come with a base, rather than plugging directly into an outlet.

So what does this have to do with pysankarstvo?  It means I can quickly boil water for mixing up dyes anywhere there is an electrical outlet. I am not limited to the kitchen, and do not have to choose between mixing dyes (a potentially messy prospect) there or schlepping boiling hot water down the stairs to my studio.  And if I am teaching class somewhere, and need to mix up dyes (which can be easier than transporting jars of them), I can do so quite easily.

There are lots of models out there, but I love the Hamilton Beach kettle pictured above.  Costco carries it, quite cheaply (about $20), and I’ve bought at least half a dozen of them so far–one for myself, the rest as gifts.  They work well, don’t burn out (like the cheap ones can), and shut off automatically.  The latter feature gets to be more important as you get older......

So, fresh dye in minutes, anywhere, any time......... and I can have a nice of cup of tea whenever I want it.

__________

*  what we in North America call a tea bag.

Back to Favorite Things Outline

Back to MAIN Pysanka home page.

Back to Pysanka Index.