Polly put the kettle on

For me, drinking tea is a passion. A hot cuppa does more than shake my brain cells awake or warm me when I'm cold (which is a rare occurence for this old hot-natured cow) - there's something comforting, restorative about hot tea. As for coffee - well, if it only tasted as good as it smells. I want coffee to taste like chocolate, and it just doesn't. But tea is just supposed to taste like tea - though it does come in flavors, of course (but I can't imagine chocolate would be one of them.). I'm a black tea person myself. Not much for herbals unless I'm sick or feeling guilty about something.

One essential element in good tea-brewing is a fabulous kettle. In fact, I contend that a kettle is one of the more necessary kitchen items - yes, even in the face of microwave water-heating ability. I don't know - water should be boiled in a kettle, not in a microwave - that's just not natural. Anyway, I know that I am in a kettle-loving minority. I had to buy a kettle for my brother's mountain cabin because I got tired (and burned) of boiling my tea water on the stove in a saucepan. My cousin's mountain home? Nope, 'nary a kettle. My own condo-owning daughter doesn't have a kettle (but she's getting one from Santa this Christmas)!

Kettles are cool and interesting and fun. The really cool designer ones are expensive, but they're the perfect art-form for me - function + design. Architect Michael Graves is a noted designer who enjoys the challenge of reshaping and reinventing the look of the humble kettle. BusinessWeek has an interview with Graves that goes into depth about his famous Alessi kettle with the little bird-shaped whistle and his design philosophy.

Though the unassuming little kettle is obviously on the endangered essential-life-object species list, it's gratifying to know that someone somewhere is looking out for it. And I really want one of those Graves-Alessi kettles, dammit. Mo' tea, mo' tea.