Buying A Kettle In Hong Kong - Lin Ceramics Kettle

On my way home from Canada, I stopped for a day in Hong Kong.  This 1 day layover allowed me to adjust my internal time clocks and most importantly, gave me the opportunity to drink as much tea as I could, as brewing tea in the Canadian hotels was not good.  Let me explain, the Canadian hotels were great in terms of quality, hospitality and service…..except that you could only get hot water from the room's coffee maker. Getting boiling water from these machines will have that inevitable coffee aroma in the water.   I lost count how many times I had to discard the hot water before I brewed up a cup of tea.

I drank lots of tea during this layover……and I even bought some tea ware.  One was this Lin Ceramics Kettle.  This 1.4l kettle looks very traditional.  Noticed the bamboo handle that was carefully bent and the fine copper wires wrapped at the handle ends nicely 'hooking' onto the pot.  Overall impressions of this kettle is good. Apologize for the different light exposures of the pictures.  The color of the kettle is closer to pix 2.  

I read the enclosed instruction leaflet that I had to boil or cook rice porridge in the kettle for the 1st use.  This was to ensure the 'waterproofing' of the kettle so a user will not get dampness on the exterior of the kettle while in use.  This 'cooking of rice' in ceramic pots and kitchen ware is a very traditional method to prepare such pots for use.   In Japan, locals there also cooked rice in their new earthenware pots (aka donabe) before actually using them too.  What is the science in such methods?  I do not know, but I am going to boil porridge in my kettle soon.  My daughters think I am off my rockers. 

And why buy a ceramic kettle? Many tea drinkers tell me that using boiled water from these earthenware taste sweeter.  I cannot comment unless I actually try it out for myself.  This coming Chinese New Year long break will provide me that opportunity to compare how the water taste like, and allow me to compare with my Japanese tetsubin I bought last year and my regular steel kettle that I regularly use to boil water for my tea.   

I had also purchased a small teapot at one of the teashops in Hong Kong.  This is a 80s single hole teapot.  The color and the overall appearance of the teapot appealed to me and this teapot is now being used by me for oolongs due to its smaller size (about 130ml).

As for that stove in pix 4, I found this traditional stove in a small grocery store last weekend.  Notice the red metal sheet that 'wraps' neatly around the stove.  Perhaps…. I should get some smokeless charcoal and used it for my kettles.