Do people still use a teapot cozy to keep tea hot?

By Perry Luckett, TeamanToo

Lately, I’ve been wondering whether tea drinkers are using tea cozies these days to keep their tea consistently hot—as it should be for best flavor.

Some say teapot cozy use is waning. For example, Jane Pettigrew, course director at the UK Tea Academy and author of World of Tea: Discovering Producing Regions and Their Teas, says the tea cosy is disappearing because few people today brew their tea in a teapot, instead simply throwing a tea bag into a mug or cup. She also points out today’s trendy teapots are often quite small, so users pour out the tea more quickly and don’t need to keep it hot for so long. [DR]

I have seen a trend toward less cozy use, especially in the hurly burly culture of the United States. But the teapot cozy remains a common craft project for teenagers and crafters, who typically either knit their cozies or sew them with felt, quilting material, or cotton batting as the insulator. Patterns for tea cozies are available from the Internet, though many of the designs are rudimentary and the recommended materials are sometimes inferior to those of commercial products. Still, these techniques can produce a tea cozy that will keep tea somewhat warmer than it would be in a bare teapot.

I’ve also seen customers returning to the teapot cozy as our current slowdown for COVID-19 demands a slower pace for many, and virtual meetings last for an hour or more. For avid tea drinkers, that means a bit larger pot and a cozy to keep their favorite tea hot and flavorful. When the virus is under control, millions of tea drinkers are going to want to congregate, and that means a larger teapot and a cozy cosy to keep it hot.

What is a teapot cozy?

Common knitted teapot cosy. Auckland Museum / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

A tea cozy can be either knitted or made with an insulating fabric that is layered with puffy material in the style of a muff or dome shape. Some tea cosies are hand-knitted, resembling woolen hats. This example illustrates the dome shape common to many crafted cozies. Some feature a "bobble" (pom-pom) on top, which may also serve as a handle to remove or lift the tea cosy. Other shapes occur, as well, and certain patterns call for leaving openings in the knitting that expose the teapot handle and spout for pouring. [Wiki]

© Koffee Kompanions, Inc.

Contemporary teapot cozies often employ streamlined design and washable, quick-drying fabrics to make them convenient for today’s person on the go. Cloth teapot cosies may be embroidered, perhaps to complement a fine set of china. Some have been made with hidden pockets to be filled with fragrant herbs or flowers, similar to a potpourri. The example on the right uses a high-loft, heavyweight Thinsulate™ insulation by 3M™ to double or triple its heat-holding capacity, thus extending the time a teapot will stay cozy hot.

No matter the design or materials, every cozy is made to insulate a teapot, ensuring the content stays warm during infusing and serving. An effective tea cozy can keep a teapot’s contents hot and fresh-tasting for more than two hours. So cozies are a fine solution for people (like you?) who love to sip a hot cup of tea over long conversations without having to reheat it several times. [TTT]

History of the teapot cozy

Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford. Wikimedia: Unknown author, public domain.

Several countries and cultures claim to have invented the tea cosy, but most writers trace its beginnings to when tea was first introduced to Britain in the 1660s. This was when King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, who brought to court the pleasure of taking tea. Afternoon tea among the gentry eventually developed into the tradition of tea parties, mostly for women. They started gaining popularity in the 1840s, when Anna Maria Russell, the Duchess of Bedford, made tea parties a regular afternoon event in her spacious home. The first recorded use of a teapot cosy was in 1867. By then, afternoon tea parties had become so popular that many British people still refer to 4:00 pm as tea time.

These parties were a time for networking and keeping up to date with gossip about the aristocracy, as well as topical news. As the folks at TopicTea.com say, “Invited guests and unexpected visitors would join in taking the afternoon tea. As expected of such social gatherings, with all the conversation and banter, the tea would get cold, most of the times disrupting the tea parties. And with that, the tea cozy came about. A warm little jacket that keeps the teapot piping hot, therefore extending tea time.” [TTT]

From these social gatherings use of the teapot cosy flourished in the late 19th century. Cozies appeared in most households across Britain and led to the general practice of adorning and covering items that was characteristic of the Victorian period. Tea cozies were introduced in North America soon after the introduction of afternoon tea in Britain. Newspapers from that time say teapot cozies enjoyed unexpected popularity in the public interest among women who loved hosting tea parties. These newspapers even included advice columns on various topics about tea cozies, which greatly added to their use and popularity. [DR, TTT]

Today, tea cozies can add color, design, and flair to a table while keeping the tea warm. Styles vary widely, with some reaching almost ridiculous proportions and sporting a riot of color. Dozens of books describe teapot cozies around the world, and some contain patterns for more enterprising knitters or sewers who want to try making their own.

Loani Prior / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Perhaps the most comprehensive accounts of often wild designs appear in Loani Prior’s four books on the subject—that’s right: FOUR books on teapot cozies. She started with Wild Tea Cosies, followed up with Really Wild Tea Cozies, and then stretched imagination even further with How Tea Cosies Changed the World. This third book was a contender for the Diagram Book Prize for Oddest Title of the Year Award and Queen of the Tea Cosies. [TTT]  Ms. Prior moved from wild, to odd, to the teapot cozy version of stand-up comedy with her fourth book, Pretty Funny Tea Cosies, published in 2015.  [KG]

How to use a teapot cozy

A great tea cozy should be big enough to cover the entire teapot, with just a bit of space around it to form an insulating air barrier. Trapped air is a natural insulator. Because it’s confined, convection currents from air circulation don’t occur easily. A properly insulated tea cozy—with the teapot surrounded by a thin layer of air—reduces heat loss by conduction and convection. [TTT]  So you can just start your tea brewing in your teapot and immediately pop a cozy over it to keep it hot during brewing and for every cup.

Why your tea cozy should come from Koffee Kompanions

You can “up your game” with the most effective teapot cozy on the market from Koffee Kompanions. Our intelligent design, high-quality cotton fabric outer layers, and heavyweight Thinsulate™ insulation by 3M™ to retain maximum heat will keep your tea hot two or three times longer than felt or down.

Koffee Kompanions’ Asian Floral Tea Tabard™ (teapot cozy) with Harney & Sons teapot

Our Tea Tabard™ teapot cozy features a different beautiful and complementary fabric pattern on each side, which gives you added options for matching your décor. Each lined cozy has matching bias tape for a contemporary finish and a rounded bottom that keeps the cozy in contact with your counter or table surface. This special design feature overcomes a problem other cozies experience with gapping over the rounded surface of most teapots, thus allowing outside air to cool the pot and your tea.

Koffee Kompanions’ Music Tea Tabard™ (teapot cosy) with matching Music Kup Kap™ (cup lid).

But beautiful fabrics and design features are just the opening act to our main attraction: 200-weight Thinsulate™ insulation by 3M™. This is the same heavyweight insulation that keeps many skiers toasty in lightweight coats while braving sub-zero temperatures on their favorite winter ski runs. It uses lofted layers of fibers to keep in maximum heat, even when wet—and after repeated washings.

Go to your tea-drinking happy place! Shop for these lovely teapot cozies here.

References:

Kay Gardiner, “How Tea Cozies Changed the World,” ModernDailyKnitting.com: https://bit.ly/32dDlbc, December 3, 2015.  [KG]

“Tea Cozies, Yesterday and Today,” Jill’s Tea Blog: https://itsmorethantea.wordpress.com/, May 14, 2020.  [JTB]

Debora Robinson, “Curious Questions: Has the tea cosy gone forever?” Country Life.com: https://bit.ly/2ZjDPLc, February 5, 2019.  [DR]

TopicTea Team, “What Is a Tea Cozy? How to Use It?” TopicTea.com: https://bit.ly/2Zn9V8Y, (date unknown).  [TTT]

“Tea cosy,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_cosy, (June 28, 2020)  [Wiki]