Assassin's Teapot

Post Reply
User avatar
Iizuki
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:23 am

Thu May 18, 2023 8:26 am

Steve Mould has made an interesting video about assassins teapots.

It's a cool concept where there are two internal chambers in the pot, and it's possible to choose which one to pour from. All from the same spout.

Now poisoning your tea buddies would be a dumb thing to do -- unlike tealeaves, they don't grow on trees -- but they might very well appreciate the milk trick shown in the video (try to ignore the coffee).

Safe to say these things are curious at least. Do any of you have these? Share if you do!
There seems to be some on sale in Etsy for example.
User avatar
mbanu
Posts: 962
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Thu May 18, 2023 12:48 pm

I think this is a new name for an old concept. Dual-chambered pots were for having tea with folks who refused to drink tea, so you could have tea in one chamber and coffee in the other. This was to save space from the older version where a tea-set in a mixed-drinking region would come with two pots, one for tea and one for coffee. I think they were also used in some tea-exclusive regions for watering tea without needing to have the kettle at the table, as if someone's tea was too strong hot water could be poured out of the other chamber.

My suspicion for why they never caught on is that they all seem annoying to clean, and there is always the risk of pouring coffee in someone's tea or tea in someone's coffee by mistake. :D

Here is a patent for one variety from 1923: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1484889A/en
User avatar
Iizuki
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:23 am

Tue May 23, 2023 9:05 am

@mbanu thanks for the enlightenment!

Yeah I don't imagine them to be all too convenient. Then again neither is brewing loose leaf if you ask a random person :roll:

So anyway theoretically there might be some serious examples still in thrift stores etc.
Post Reply