The Importance of the Brown Betty

In the morning before I can be functional and/or pleasant, I must have a cup of tea. I choose one mug as my 'morning mug' and use it every day until it either breaks or gets so many chips in it that it is no longer suitable and terribly depressing to look at. I derive great comfort from this mug, and it is always a sad day when I have to say good-bye to its pathetic state of affairs.

Shortly after Emilia was born, and Michael was still on paternity leave, he decided to do the most lovely and thoughtful thing for me. He made pancakes for breakfast. He used Jamie Oliver's recipe, which is wonderful, and rather than use the Kitchen-Aid, as I always do, to turn the egg whites into stiff white peaks, he actually used a bowl and a wire whisk. As all this ruckus was going on in the kitchen, I was sleeping because I had been up with the baby half the night. (So was Michael, but that is another story for another day.)

A short while later, I am sitting at the table with a huge stack of pancakes in front of me, all bleary-eyed and grumpy. Michael is happily digging into his pancakes and is demanding to know why I have hardly touched mine. The next thing I know, I am wailing 'But you know I have to have my tea first!', and promptly stomped off to the bedroom and went back to bed. Hmmm, not my finest hour, one might say.

The reason I am recounting this lovely side of myself for you now is because I am actually making a very valid point. Before eating pancakes, toast, or any other 'dry' thing in the morning, it is best to lubricate. And as much as I love a tall glass of water (not a big juice drinker, myself), it does not cut the mustard with breakfast.

So what I typically do is this: make tea first thing in the morning; make breakfast; sit down to eat and realize that my cup of tea is gone; make another cup; get highly annoyed because it is scalding hot and all I want to do is sit down to a nice breakfast.

Finally, one day it occurred to me — get a teapot. Not one of the fancy ones we've got on shelves in the dining room, but a practical, use-it-everyday teapot. And get one that I won't mind replacing as it wears, breaks, chips, and turns into another sorry state of affairs.

Enter the Original Brown Betty.

Brown Betty teapots are made in Staffordshire, England, and have been for ages and ages. Their origins go as far back as the 17th-century. They are made from a terracotta clay, or red-clay, which is meant to hold the heat longer. The shape of the pot is supposed to be the most efficient for swirling your tea leaves, thereby brewing the perfect cup of tea. And it is dishwasher friendly, although admittedly, I have not tested this out. Another matter of great importance is the Brown Betty is not expensive — mine was in the 20 to 30 dollar range, and I got the 4 cup size. You can find it at any of these sites: http://www.englishteastore.com/, http://www.bluemoontea.com/, or http://www.indigo-tea.com/. Strangely enough, they now carry them at the yarn shop on Bainbridge Island that my mom loves so much, Churchmouse Yarns & Tea. Theirs have the Brown Betty logo stamped on the side, whereas the older versions are stamped on the bottom.

However, the biggest selling point for me is that I can have my cup of tea in the morning, get breakfast going, and actually sit down to another cup of tea — which, perversely, I rarely seem to finish. Bliss.

I suppose you should also know that my husband has not made pancakes (or any breakfast at all, for that matter) since 'the incident'. Talk about touchy.