Using A Coffee Percolator as an Electric Tea Kettle

I have become quite a tea afficionado. I love green and white tea, and somtimes dapple in oolongs and black teas. Sometimes I drink coffee too, but I find that for the optimum relaxed mental clarity required for good prgramming, tea can't be beat.

I was heating my water in a pot on the stove; but in my haste, I would occasionally walk away to do something else and get in engrossed (in coding) and forget all about the water on the stove. As you can imagine, I've done some damage to some pots.

I started looking into the idea of an electric tea kettle (I only recently understood the difference between a tea kettle and a tea pot - but that is another blog post). I wanted to get one that is all stainless steel since I'm a bit paranoid about the dangers of plastic (maybe you are too if have you read the news lately). I couldnt find one.

Then I came upon the idea of using a coffee percolator for the tea water warming job (from my Mom) and I am very happy with the results. I bought a "Farberware Fully Automatic" but I imagine any coffee percolator will do. Here is why I like it:

• As previously stated, hot water never comes in contact with plastic.
• Heats the water very fast (3 minutes for a quart).
• Seems to heat the water to an appropriate temperature for green tea (although I have not used a thermometer)
• Doesn't boil out so your not likely to ruin it.
• Keeps the water warm just in case you forget to come back and actually pour the water into your tea pot.