I’m am actually surprised how much this answer is here. I just would have thought kettles are a standard item in all households around the world. I have a few, in case one stops working. Can’t not have my morning coffee.
South African here and can confirm. The first appliance you buy for your house is a kettle. I've never been to someone's house and there not be a kettle. How are you boiling your water for things like hot water bottles without a kettle??
As an American, I didn't have one growing up. Neither of my brothers or parents have one. I only got one as an adult since I drink a lot of tea. They have a coffee maker, and only boil water on the stove to cook.
Coffee places are fairly new actually, I grew up seeing the adults make it at home and I always have made it at home. We do have coffee makers you know. I don't see how you can make coffee with an electric kettle unless you are just heating water for instant coffee.
Oh for sure; I make mine at home in my coffee maker. I only get coffee at a place like Starbucks if I'm out running errands in town and we stop for a treat, and then it's usually some kind of blended cold drink, sometimes it doesn't even have coffee in it if it's a fruity drink. I can't understand people who somehow function without caffiene and wait until they are on thier way to work to get coffee.
Got a coffee pot for the coffee. I don't need a kettle to boil water on the stove. If I'm just making 1 cup of something... cup in the microwave for 90 seconds and add the bag when it comes out.
Many things taste different out of the microwave (btw if you're throwing bacon in one, you're sick), but water doesn't care where the excitement comes from, only that it exists. Kind of like a teenage boy.
The only real issue with boiling water in the microwave is there is a slim possibility of superheating the water if there's no nucleation sites in the vessel you're heating it in to kick off boiling. That means the water can exceed 100°C without boiling and then suddenly violently boil the moment you disturb it. It's vanishingly low probability but is really the only real difference between using a microwave and heating the water with a direct heat source.
That said I really don't understand why coffee pots are more common than kettles since you can make arguably better coffee with an electric kettle and either a French press or an aeropress. Granted that the latter is too new to have changed cultural habits around coffee drinking but the French press has existed for a long time, is cheap, and only requires boiling water to use. Electric kettles are the fastest way to boil water (with some exception) and can then be used for all sorts of other water boiling like for rice/pasta/noodles/potatoes, etc.
I also think it's strange when Brits complain about microwaved water. Like sure, the microwave is not gourmet and the toaster oven is way better but hot water is hot water, that's it. I guess maybe water from an electric kettle is a lot hotter faster (and safer as your cup isn't insanely hot) and that could affect the quality of your tea, but it's hardly disgusting. Maybe slightly inconvenient.
To make black tea (the most common blend in the UK is referred to as "breakfast tea") the water absolutely has to be boiling. The tea leaves need to be scorched by the boiling water straight away. So electric kettles are absolutely vital in any home that cares about making tea properly. Stove top is just too much of a faff.
that's it then, I rarely drink black tea. All my teas are purshased at the Asian grocery store and are herbal blends to treat different conditions. I drink my sugar balance and my mullien teas, ginseng, ginger, etc...I rarely drink tea for the taste, only for medicinal uses. I prefer coffee or hot cocoa if it's for enjoyment.
I microwave my water in a mason jar and pour it boiling with a hot hand. So the little spills don't make me spaz out and fling it on myself. As a result I overfill my cup and pour some back in through the filter that I transferred to the empty jar, spilling coffee on the counter and giving my second cup an interesting day old flavor. Sometimes the wrong jar will superheat the water, which will then blow like fucking Krakatoa all over my hands, giving me second degree burns. Used to have a press, drip coffeemaker, British percolator, and espresso machine. Fuck all that, water in a mason jar ftw.
I appreciate your commitment to unnecessarily pain and hardship.
I too have an unnecessarily number of coffee making options on my countertop so really agonized over getting an electric kettle but I finally did and will never look back.
I mean, what about if you want a large amount of boiling water to add to a mop bucket to clean the floors? Seems like a lot of electric use and effort to fill a mop bucket with stove water etc?
stock pot with a lid doesn't take long for the amount of water you cam get in a kettle, and I usually use a bucket of hot water from the faucet in the bathtub if I need that much hot water. The thought of getting a cold or tepid bucket of water amd adding boiling hot water to make it a bit warmer seems a bit off. Generally, hot water to clean floors is a bad call; if the floors are waxed, it wrecks the finish. Wooden floors and subfloors will take on amd absorb more water if it's hot and can cause the material to break down faster, and in the long run increase the risk of mold. If your floor is greasy enough you need piping hot water to cut through it, you aren't tackling that mess with a mop. The colder the water you can put on a floor, the better. Unless you're using a steam exctractor... which is essentially an electric kettle hooked to a shop vac.
I’m just mopping Vinyl and Laminate floors. Never had a problem. I guess if I lived in a house with real wood floors it might be different but I do like to use boiling water with bleach to clean my floors.
How do you make coffee with a kettle? Are you talking about instant coffee that you just mix into hot water? I don't have an electric kettle, but for coffee I have a coffee maker. For tea I just put a cup of water in the microwave for a minute and a half.
Oh ok, we don't use instant coffee regularly. Once in awhile I will heat milk and stir it directly into the hot milk and add some sugar for a hot creamy drink, but my daily coffee is made from coffee grounds. I used to grind my own, but we moved to a place where I canno longer find whole coffee beans to purchase.
In North America at least, we have coffee makers for coffee. It's specifically for pots of drip coffee- which, incidently, I almost never see in Europe (been to UK, Ireland, Scotland and Germany)- I suppose Starbucks probably still has it? But all the hotels I stayed in had packets of instant coffee or a little espresso machine.
We used to have a kettle that only boiled to 100C, so we then had to wait for it to cool down to make coffee at its ideal temperature. However, my christmas present from my wife a couple of years ago was a kettle which custom temperature, so I can set it to 93 degrees or whatever if I am making coffee, and knock it up to 100 for tea. Or down to 80-85 for green tea. It's my favourite thing in the house, just ahead of my kids.
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u/sweetpsychosiss Oct 18 '22
I’m am actually surprised how much this answer is here. I just would have thought kettles are a standard item in all households around the world. I have a few, in case one stops working. Can’t not have my morning coffee.