tea cozy or Lapsang Souchong (whichever you prefer)

A cozy for your teapot was mentioned by a few people here, and I want to just run this up the flagpole...see if it flies.

It seems the deal with a tea cozy is very simple. Both Jeffrey and Jackie talked about them in the comments here recently, so I thought I'd mention my deal with the tea cozy. Philosophically, I'm ok with them. Theoretically even.

But I don't use one. And I have no intention of buying one. My mother has a funny one in the shape of a hen that I use whenever I'm visiting her. It's ok. The hen tea cozy always makes me smile.

The way I keep my tea warm isn't tea lights, but I've been known to use them. What I like most is a good thermos. I pour the hot water that I used to heat the teapot into the thermos to warm it while the tea is steeping. Then as soon as the timer goes off to alert me that my tea's ready, I dump the water that was warming the thermos and pour the tea in there.

Am sure some tea enthusiasts will tell me that I'm losing heat by transferring the tea from teapot to thermos, but I just really don't care. I love my Art Deco teapot and the tea seems to stay warmest the longest time in the thermos. Problem sorted.

Really.

Now that I read over this post, I'm a little concerned that this is even enough content to make a full post. Maybe I should tak about something else to make it a bit meatier.

Oh, I know.

A tea recommendation, yeah?

Lapsang Souchong. Someone mentioned it here or at http://leafboxtea.com or http://steepstercom, and I made a mental note that I wanted to write a few lines about this really tasty sort of tea. It's strong, so if you only like light Darjeelings and Chamomile tea, this isn't for you. It's smoky. Everything I read/hear about Lapsang Souchong is 'smoky'. In this case the reviews are accurate. It tastes strong, dark and definitely smoky.