I cross posted this on Teamail. Am looking for any advice for the
following question. Thanks!

I am hosting an event where just under 20 people will be served tea.
In researching an urn or hot water dispenser that will work for this
event, I saw a couple of products on amazon.com, that are listed as
coffee urns, but was wondering if these can be used to heat plain
water too. Or perhaps even brew tea.

Two products I was looking at that were very reasonably priced and
big enough for the event a

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_rhf_p_4/102-
2122271-2012161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_rhf_p_5/102-
2122271-2012161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much!!

Linda

Those look like aluminum and I wouldn't use them for brewing tea. It
might work if all the tea will be drunk within three hours, though.
Toci
Linda wrote:
> I cross posted this on Teamail. Am looking for any advice for the
> following question. Thanks!
>
> I am hosting an event where just under 20 people will be served tea.
> In researching an urn or hot water dispenser that will work for this
> event, I saw a couple of products on amazon.com, that are listed as
> coffee urns, but was wondering if these can be used to heat plain
> water too. Or perhaps even brew tea.
>
> Two products I was looking at that were very reasonably priced and
> big enough for the event a
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_rhf_p_4/102-
> 2122271-2012161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_rhf_p_5/102-
> 2122271-2012161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507
>
> Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much!!
>
> Linda

If you're planning on serving tea of any quality, you should make sure
the water is as hot as possible (preferably boiling, since I'm guessing
you'd have black tea)

"Linda" > wrote in message

> I am hosting an event where just under 20 people will be served tea.
> In researching an urn or hot water dispenser that will work for this
> event,

You need 2 or 3 teapots, a kettle (electric is more convenient but you can
do without) and a first price 5 liter thermos from the nearby Chinese
market. If you take the second price model, it will have a water dispenser
top.

Heat water to fill the thermos just before guests arrive, and prepare pots
and cups. Then all you have to do is to fill the pots with water and ask 2
persons to help fill the cups. That way, everybody gets the first cup of tea
at the same time. For refills, some people drink quicker than others, you
can take your time and heat water to do one pot at a time.

Kuri

>Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much!!
>
>Linda


Consider a Zojirushi, it will keep the water at 208 just off the boil,
there is a reboil button if needed, and they are available in a 5Liter
size. 5 liters would be enough to give everyone a cup before you
needed to refill and then just top off the water once in a while using
gallon jugs of spring water as people saunter in for their second
cuppa. The beauty of this solution is you wind up with a device you
might actually use yourself after the event is over.

http://tinyurl.com/hggda shop around as you may find it cheaper.

I have been using one now for over year and I love it.
http://www.pu-erh.net/toolfull.php?Tool=23

good Luck,

--
Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net

>was wondering if these can be used to heat plain
> water too. Or perhaps even brew tea.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_rhf_p_4/102-
> 2122271-2012161?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507


Hi. Any of those coffee urns can be used to brew tea. I see them used
all the time. They're cheap too. So that's an added bonus. We used to
make tea like that a long time ago. But I forget exactly how we did it.
All I remember is we used an inexpensive loose leaf oolong tea, and
used a very small amout of leaf to water - so the resulting brew was
very weak - with only a very faint taste. Basically, it was just
colored water. You can do a stronger brew too.

But I would pre-brew a couple urns full of tea first - and dump it -
just so there's no funky taste left from a new machine when you
actually brew tea for a group of people.

Some Chinese herb stores, and at least one tea store in Toronto uses
these coffee urns to brew ginseng tea, and they hand out free cups of
ginseng tea to all their customers. But some people also use them to
brew oolong tea too.

For the type of tea they used, the coffee urn didn't leave any
noticeable disagreeable taste. Just don't serve the tea in styrofoam
cups. Styrofoam will interfere with the flavor of the tea.

Anyway, it can be done.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I really just want to boil the
water, and not brew the tea in the vessel, and it sounds like these
would suffice, and that the water would be hot enough. The Zojirushi
sounds like an attractivce option, but I just don't think it's big
enough. For the 16 folks, I'll be serving a cup, doing 6 cuppings, and
then a cup to finish, so I'll need plenty of hot water on hand.

Linda

Linda > wrote:
>I am hosting an event where just under 20 people will be served tea.
>In researching an urn or hot water dispenser that will work for this
>event, I saw a couple of products on amazon.com, that are listed as
>coffee urns, but was wondering if these can be used to heat plain
>water too. Or perhaps even brew tea.

What kind of tea?

If you're intending on making black tea, there is no way that any of the
coffee urns will get hot enough. You really need to be at boiling.

If you're trying to make a green tea that is brewed at 160'F, they will
do just fine.

>Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much!!

My advice: if you have a gas stove, you can boil a lot of water faster in
a big teapot than you can with any plug-in device.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."