The humble kettle. Throughout my life, it has enjoyed the status of being the most-used appliance in our house. Broken hearts; bad days at school or work; fights with friends; all things could be miraculously healed with a cuppa; with added sugar if the episode was particularly stressful. It is no wonder then, that kettles are found in more homes than any other appliance. But where did the kettle come from?
History tells us the ‘kettle-shaped vessels’ with spouts to aid pouring, were used to boil water over open fires in Mesopotamia as far back ad 3500 BC. Over the years, it has evolved; it was first made from copper in the 19th century, as copper was a better conductor of electricity. Then came the ‘whistling kettle’ in the early 20th century. And finally, in 1891 our beloved electric kettle was sold by the Carpenter Electric Company in Chicago. Carpenter’s model had a design flaw though, which meant it took 10 minutes to boil the kettle. Could you imagine the arguments over who had to make the tea, if they had to wait 10 minutes for it to boil? Thankfully, we had a solution in the 1920s, when Arthur Leslie Large designed the first plug-in electric kettle, which now takes its place at the centre of every Irish family.
Tea Glorious Tea
What would the kettle be without tea? A perfect match, they complete each other like Ross and Rachel, or Miley and Biddy. Tea has been part of our culture in Ireland since the 1800s. Initially, our tea was imported from Great Britain. As Irish tea was generally of cheaper quality, Irish people added milk and sugar to tea to disguise the taste – a tradition that is still upheld today, even though the quality of our tea has improved.
Tea is an integral part of our culture. Tea brings us comfort, especially on a wet and windy Irish evening. It is a welcome drink for a friend, or a stranger. It is our way of showing care to other people. When we see someone is not quite themselves, we ask ‘do you want a cup of tea?’. It is after all what made Mrs. Doyle famous. Per capita, Irish people are the heaviest tea drinkers in the world; we drink on average four to six cups per day; and I know I, for one, am well above that average!
In the 1960s, we started importing our tea directly – blending Assam tea from India with Ceylon from Sri Lanka, to give us our much-loved Irish Breakfast Tea. And thank goodness for that. Without Lyons and Barry’s what else would families and colleagues have to argue about? Well I guess there’s always the age-old battle of Brennan’s or Pat the Baker. Tune in next week when we’ll talk about another match made in heaven – the toaster and the sliced pan.