@ThatTupperKid it's https://wealljs.org/ :D

@pixelpaperyarn Thanks! Maybe I'll get a chance to join!

@erinbee @pixelpaperyarn but at least you can actually get them in the US now, without having to order them from a specialty store, even.

I think part of why they caught on more slowly here is that a. tea wasn’t something that people in the US really appreciated until the last couple decades, and 2. our wiring is different, so electric kettles aren’t as efficient as the ones in the UK (and elsewhere?) or so I am told.

I love our electric kettle.

@gannet @erinbee i've heard they're not as efficient. so strange!

but yes, the US is coffee-centric for sure. though i use my stovetop kettle all the time with my french press for coffee, so i'm wondering if as people get into pourovers and french press, etc. the electric kettles have started to be more desireable, especially the ones with temp settings.

@pixelpaperyarn @erinbee I think that definitely plays into why electric kettles are catching on. But also, you can buy decent tea at regular supermarkets, and not just Lipton either. (I hate Lipton tea.) There's definitely more people here interested in drinking tea than in my childhood in the 70s.

I only get kettles with temp settings; such a help.

@gannet @pixelpaperyarn @erinbee

I grew up (1970s) drinking tea, becos my dad's a Brit. We had an electric kettle -- or at least a thing that served the same function; maybe it was sold as a hot-pot or something? Straight sides, metal.

Pretty sure we drank some mainstream brand like Lipton or Nestea, fwiw. Tea in England always tasted a little strange to me... mighta been the milk more than the tea.

Stopped drinking it completely when I left home. (I get my USRDA of caffeine from cola now.)

@woozle @pixelpaperyarn @erinbee we drank Twinings tea in my house when I was a child, which is definitely preferable to Twinings in my opinion.

I looked for an electric kettle in the early 90s when I first heard about them, but I couldn’t find any, even in fancy kitchen supply places. I did have a hot pot in college, but it was nowhere near as good.

@gannet @pixelpaperyarn @erinbee

(One of those "Twinings"es was presumably meant to be something else...) I vaguely remember Twinings being a thing; maybe the Lipton memory is from a time when the store was out of Twinings?

@woozle @pixelpaperyarn @erinbee oh, Twinings is preferable to Lipton’s. I was distracted. Oops!

@woozle @gannet @erinbee my mom drank Red Rose which was even more low quality than Lipton, but i still have a soft spot for it and it came with little porcelain animals!

@pixelpaperyarn @woozle @gannet @erinbee

my mom does too, and same on the soft spot, it was adorable

I think Red Rose is the first tea I knew of growing up

my mom used to give me the porcelain figures when I was a little girl, she still asks if I collect them now, lol

@pixelpaperyarn @woozle @erinbee I actually like Red Rose and the other cheap teas that come in boxes of 100 teabags. Lipton's has its own peculiar taste that is like nothing else. Some people must like it, though, more power to them.

@gannet @woozle @erinbee Newman's Own makes a 100 count box. organic and all but the same price as the other 100 boxes, which is really nice! and they all have "keep calm carry on" on the bags. so cute.
the tea however, is meh. needs milk to be drinkable.
Lipton is only tolerable with milk and honey, but then it's barely tea at that point.

@pixelpaperyarn @gannet @erinbee

We always had ours with sugar -- originally 2 teaspoons, but Mom cut it down to 1 for health reasons (which, really, was fine; you get used to reduced sweetness very quickly). She also tried honey once, but user reaction was negative.

@pixelpaperyarn @woozle @erinbee the Newman's Own is our staple, but yes, it needs milk. However, I only like tea that works well with milk, so that's all right.

I can’t tolerate Lipton in any form.

I used to drink all black tea with milk and sugar, but I spent a year eating a low sugar diet and got out of the habit of putting it in tea.

@gannet Funny enough, my kettle functions as a part of my coffee setup 99% of the time

@audrey oooooh.