This teapot was at the top of my wishlist last Christmas (except in the color "le bleu"), and I was thrilled to find it under the tree! It is, by far, the most beautiful and interesting teapot I've ever seen and it dresses up my stove and kitchen even more than I had imagined. It is always one of the first things admired when someone new walks into my kitchen. It has an almost asian aesthetic which I find incredibly unique, and I love the way the handles fold down to allow you to remove the whole top. Not only is it sooooooo cool, but it's also nice to be able to get at the inside of the teapot to clean it. All the other ones I've owned had a very small top which made it difficult to clean off those hard water spots! But while this is the most beautiful and unique teapot, it is certainly not the most practical and it falls a little short in the function department. My complaints with it are the following:
1)Its terribly small girth: I have a professional Thermador rangetop with massive burners and this poor little teapot gets swallowed up by them. I have to have the burner on medium-low to low as to not have flames lopping up the sides of the teapot. This, coupled with the fact that cast iron is slow to heat up anyway, makes the task of heating up water take WAY longer than my old stainless steel model. Also, the small size is generally fine for everyday use, but if you are trying to boil teawater for more than a few people, then this teapot cannot accomodate your needs.
2)Its weight: Don't be fooled by its petite size, this is one heavy teapot! It doesn't pose too much of a problem for me, being that I'm still relatively young and strong, but if I were much older or had arthritis or other joint problems, I don't think I'd be able to handle this teapot!
3)Hot handle: Now bear in mind that this has always been a problem with every teapot I've ever owned, but those stainless handles get super hot. So hot, in fact, that it requires the use of oven mitts to handle, but again, I expect that from a teapot.
4)No whistle: The last teapot I had whistled, which I found to be a very handy feature. It has been a difficult transition for me without one, b/c I used to rely on the whistle to let me know when the water was at a boil and now I tend to forget to check on the pot.
All that being said, I still wouldn't trade in this teapot. I am so in love with the look of it, that I am willing to compromise on the function department. It may not have all the convenient features of my old teapot, but it still serves its purpose. It does boil water after all!
So for beauty and aesthetics this teapot is off the charts (5 stars all the way), but it earns 3 stars in the function department, leaving me with a final rating of 4 stars. If you can sacrifice a few comforts associated with some other models in order to gain a striking and unique teapot that is sure to become a conversation piece, then I wholeheartedly recommend this teapot to you!
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No doubt staub makes a beautiful pot. The problem is poor design. Why? The metal-chrome-plated handles are attached to the pot in a way in which the handles form a loop around a peg on the pot. As part of the pot, this peg is ceramic coated cast-iron. As the metal handle opens and closes, the chrome metal rotates on the ceramic painted pot. You don't need to be an engineer to figure-out that chrome-metal rotating on ceramic paint is clearly an area of high-wear which will rust-out in the long run. Mine started to wear with only 3 openings of the handle. Hope they fix this design. This pot gets five stars for aesthetics, one star for functional durability for the reasons just noted.
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This is not only the most beautiful teapot I have ever used but the most useful. Being cast iron core with a luscious eggplant deep purple hue it heats fast and the water stays hot longer. The handles drop down to allow the cover to be removed, Talk about a piece of Zen art.
It looks beautiful on ones stove, or table and literally everyone who has come into the kitchen and has seen it on the stove has remarked what a beautiful teapot I have, and then inquired where they could obtain one. Nice thing is they come in a colour to suit just about any decor.
And because it is so hefty and well made it will probably become an heirloom in many families like French made Le Creuset and Emile Henry which in my family gets handed down generation after generation and is sought after as a gift or requested in a will.
This makes a great gift for a male or a female, for a birthday, wedding shower, mothers or fathers day, graduation or just to say thank you. Yes, the price is a tad steep, but consider the quality, artistic and long life positives. It may be the only teapot one ever will own.
The only caution I would share, is this, for someone with arthritis or difficulty in lifting since it does weight more than a stainless steel or metal teapot.
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This is a Teapot not a Tea kettle. You can both boil your water and brew your tea in this pot because it is cast iron, but the boiling water part is not the point of this teapot. Therefore it does not have a whistle because you are not meant to stick this on the stove and walk away.
Staub teapots follow the Asian Villagers (for example Japanese Tetsubin teapots) way of making tea where you watch the water boil, dump the leaves in and serve from a sturdy cast iron pot that will keep the tea warm for an hour. The cast iron is traditionally meant for a woodstove, stone hearth or firepit. Imagine being by the fire in a cottage in the woods on a crisp fall day, then this would be your pot.
This is an excellent interpretation of the Asian village teapot. It is larger and therefore has many more applications such as making Chai Tea (where you boil the spices and tea), mull wine, apple cider or even make a rich vanilla sauce or warm berry compote for your desert. The round shape is perfect for your whisk and the pouring spout is convenient. It is pretty enough to be brought to the table and the cast iron keeps the sauces warm for round two.
The interior is a dark grey shiny porcelain glaze (not matte as decribed). The cast iron shows through the Sunflower-colored glaze around the spout and makes the pot look a little dirty or unfinished. I would recomend getting this in a darker brighter color to avoid this.
It is also cast in a slightly thinner cast iron than their pots.
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This is a beautifully designed tea kettle. Not only can you steep tea in this pot, you can heat your water (or milk, etc.) in it. The design is fantastic and if you care for it properly, like all other cast iron (i.e. wash and dry it as soon as you are done with it) it should last a life time. With all cast iron it really is important to not leave water in it or it may rust.
This is our first piece of Staub. I am generally a big fan of All-Clad and Le Creuset, but when I saw this pot a few years ago, I fell in love with it. We've get the blue one and it really compliments our other kitchen equipment and dishes (Polish pottery with lots of blue).
