The author should try drinking loose leaf teas instead. I'm sure the gains of switching away from tea bags (which often contain whatever can be swept up off of a tea factory floor) are worth touching a hot handle.
Loose leaf teas are much harder to steep, and if you steep them wrong, you end up with a rancid bitter flavor (for lots of higher quality teas).
To quote a song: "You could not feel sadness if you've never tasted joy" - perhaps, if he's content with his tea bags, we can let him drink his tea bags. Since switching, I can tell you first hand, that I can no longer drink tea bags, or even poorly steeped teas without cringing. I sound like an asshole, I know.
There's a great quote about not refining your tastes as it narrows your world but instead continuing to explore the availability of the world around you. It was either Feynman or Ryan Dahl. =p
That being said, I love me my loose tea leaves, but it's just a different product then bagged tea, one hasn't ruined the other.
It's not that hard with a bit of electronics: Japanese homes usually have big electric kettles with temperature control. Green tea, as an example, needs 80C I think.
Japan in general is a great example for optimizing people's daily lives without compromising on quality. There are many of such rituals to explore that are very specific to that country.
I'm one of those people without a microwave. Instead, I have a toaster oven. For warming up leftovers, the toaster oven or stove does just fine, and most of the time it turns out better than the microwave, as it doesn't get mushy.
This is the second apartment I've lived in without a microwave, and I think I've missed it all of twice. Once, when I wanted some popcorn, and a second time when I was in a hurry to heat something up.
I'm as appreciative of the "multitaskers only" kitchen mentality as anyone, but an electric kettle is a "single use appliance" in much the same manner as a Pyrex measuring cup is: it's a pretty important "single use".
A distinct advantage of electric kettles over stovetop kettles is precise temperature control. High-end loose-leaf white and green tea wants 70c-82c water; Aeropress coffee wants 80c-90c.
Speed is obviously another benefit. Good electric kettles are significantly faster than stovetop kettles.
Also, electric kettles take up counter space, but stovetop kettles take up space on your cooktop. Space is more constrained on the cooktop; you probably only have 4 burners, and on my stove, if the front two burners have skillets on them, it's awfully hard to maneuver with the rear burners.
Also, I hate the ergonomics of cutesy round tea kettles, and, obviously, that's a tea kettle: most electric kettles hold more water.
I want to clarify that I'm not looking to get into a holy war about tea kettles o_O.
I didn't realize electric kettles could control water temperature. Which one do you have? I've always just boiled water, and then let the temperature fall to where I want it, even when using an electric kettle.
Also, for me, the fact that the regular kettle is on the stovetop is actually better, because that space is almost never in use (only during cooking), and when I do need, I can temporarily shift the kettle elsewhere. My counter space, on the other hand, is always at a premium (I only have 2 squares.)
interestingly, here in Australia an electric kettle is one of the required basics of any kitchen. Even the cheapest nastiest hotel room will contain a toaster and an electric kettle
He wouldn't even need to touch a hot handle, everything else can be kept the same. the only difference would be a little required filling of a tea ball before he started and emptying the tea ball after he is done. an additional 10-15 seconds for tea that is streets ahead.
I must ask, have you watched Community? Otherwise, they have successfully coined the phrase "streets ahead" to the point were people actually are using it seriously, and that would be cool.
I think the story is that it was an idiom used in England and the show runner for community heard it and thought it was stupid so he incorporated it into Pierce's character.
It's not entirely untrue to say that teabags are "swept off the floor", though it may be misleading. Typically, ALL tea is sorted on the factory floor. http://www.discoveringtea.com/2011/06/21/in-amgoorie-the-fac... However, it is true that the tea in most teabags is "dust" or "fannings": very small broken pieces of tea leaves that remain after the higher grades are sorted out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannings
While a few companies like Mighty Leaf do offer higher quality, whole-leaf tea in bags (or rather, sachets), at that point you're paying as much as a 2x-3x premium over loose-leaf tea of comparable quality. For example, this tea from Adagio is about 16¢ per cup loose-leaf, but 40¢ per bag: http://www.adagio.com/black/ceylon_sonata.html
I'd suggest anyone who likes tea get a stainless steel mesh infuser (they're about $10) and go loose-leaf. It's worth it.
