Guest blog by Gary.
Sitting down with a nice cup of tea and feeling instantly relaxed and revived is a fundamental part of British culture. We don’t have standard “builder’s tea” nowadays; with choices such as Assam, Earl Grey, Oolong, Darjeeling, green tea, peppermint tea and Lapsang Souchong there’s plenty of variety. We are also a nation with an increasing number of coffee drinkers, too. Add in to the mix the range of hot drinks we love – Bovril, Ovaltine and hot chocolate in every flavour combination you can imagine – and you start to realise that your kettle is a very important piece of kit.
Temperature is critical in making good tea and coffee. The popular conception that a kettle full of boiling water can be used on any kind of tea or coffee is actually incorrect. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that each variety of tea, from green to black, is best prepared at a different range of temperatures. Because of its more delicate processing, green tea is best prepared at a cooler temperature to bring out the right flavour. Conversely, black tea, which has been fully oxidised during preparation, needs much hotter water to bring out its characteristic baked-in sweetness.
As a fan – and avid imbiber – of both tea and coffee, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to review the KitchenAid 5KEK1222 kettle. This is a kettle that allows you to heat water to a range of temperatures. This was going to be a product review that would suit me – to a tea (pun intended).
The kettle is a striking design and available from us in red or black, it will look good in any kitchen. The kettle has a good 1.25L capacity – enough for a nice, big pot of tea or a large cafetière of coffee.
I was pleased to notice that this kettle features a removable limescale filter. Although I regularly use a de-scaler, a removable filter helps to ensure no pesky limescale ruins my brew! Also pleasing was the 360 degree base, a must-have for our house of left- and right-handers.
I filled the kettle, boiled it and set that water aside to use in the iron. We always recommend that you do this as it ensures any small particles of debris or dust that may have settled during manufacture and transportation aren’t in your first cuppa. My initial reaction was how well built the kettle is; it has a stainless steel metal body and when you pick the kettle up I could just feel it was exceptional quality. I particularly like the design; it’s retro and shaped like an old style 50’s kettle. It has a large and well-shaped handle, too, that’s ergonomically clever – allowing you to grip and pour with ease.
The dual wall cavity is designed to keep the water hotter for longer so I started with a cup of black tea (at 100 degrees) and then moved on to a nice cup of coffee (at 90 degrees, for me). Both drinks were perfect and I have spent the week testing a whole range of teas, coffees and hot drinks and can say that the KitchenAid 5KEK1222is the perfect partner when you need to sit back and relax with the perfect cuppa. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it!
You can pop into your local branch to view the KitchenAid range or purchase online today. You can even use our Click and Collect service to collect your purchase from a local branch in as little as one hour*.
* Selected locations; t&cs apply.
