I am English and don’t drink tea (or coffee) but wouldn’t dream of not having a kettle. Use it for so many things - instant gravy, pot noodles, ramen, mash, dissolving jelly cubes and more
I think my main reason for liking an electric kettle over any form of boiling on the stove, whether there's a whistle involved or not, is because it shuts off itself and I don't need to be physically nearby to turn off a burner. I realize that might not be as important to everyone. But it's a thing that provides a lot of ease for me in being able to just turn it on and walk away
We don't just use a kettle to make tea. I boil mine to cook veg or pasta because it's much quicker. I also use it to top up dishwater. Because the hot water out the tap cools down quickly. It's a health and safety thing because I have autistic kids.
Canadian here - most of us have tea kettles, and they're available in basically all home goods stores. I drink tea every day, and every person I know has a tea cupboard. That's so odd that Americans don't have that same habit. We're also on that 120v power system which means it takes a while to boil, but we just put up with it.
The reason Americans don’t drink tea goes back to the revolution, British colonial rule, taxes and a general disdain for the British and anything associated with those times following that. Although our relationship Britain is now excellent the tradition of drinking coffee instead of tea never went away. Once a tradition is established it doesn’t change easily or without reason.
@@pjschmid2251 does the USA not realize that tea isn’t a British thing? It was one of the biggest things that was traded out of Asia when the international trade agreements were first established. It’s an international things.
Came here to say the same - though I find if you get a strong kettle it will boil faster. I have a Swann (UK brand but with US plug) and it seems to take no time.
I feel like in the big kettle debate you/a lot of people miss out that kettles are useful for loads of things not just tea. Pot noodles, cup of soup, gravy ect I just can't imagine heating what 100ml of water on a stove (and I don't have an induction hob) when the kettle takes 1 min and u can boil as much or as little as you need and can then easily pour it into whatever I'm making
@@jwb52z9 Surely you boil potatoes, rice and pasta before you eat them! The kettle is great for quickly boiling that water instead of using the hob. When the kettle is done, pour the hot water into the pot and boil away, saving time and energy.
@@mytube001 it just seems silly to have a full other appliance to speed up the job that other appliances do just fine. You use the time the water is boiling to prepare other parts of your meal. If you already have the kettle bc you're a frequent tea drinker then sure, use it! But it's not a reason to buy one imo. (edit: He literally addressed the pasta thing in he video, you should've just watched -_-)
@@RRW359 Not as quickly or safely. An electric kettle is already a safe vessel for boiling hot water. It's harder to find one suitable for a microwave oven, and taking it out introduces a tipping risk, which could lead to severe burns. A really bad idea!
this is actually exactly the content I want You guys actually have no idea how long I have spent being shook that people in the US don't have kettles. Now I know. Life Changing.
I didn’t have any type of kettle until I was an adult and thought they were handy. My mom and grandma always brewed huge pots of coffee that keep the coffee hot all day & they would sip on it all day. My grandma is in great health from having her coffee addiction her whole life, lol. She’s not the type to dump a bunch of sugar in though
It's still bizarre to me. I have a fancy electric gooseneck kettle with multiple settings on it (for various types of tea and one setting for coffee (pour over)). But then I was born and raised in Canada and am now in the US (as a dual citizen). Mum was born and raised in England and Dad had English born (and raised in my granddad's case) parents. So I appreciate kettles and tea and can be patient. XD
American here. I don't drink tea or coffee. Whenever I want hot chocolate, I heat the water up in a microwave or in a pot on the stove. I've never owned a tea kettle in my life (51 currently) and I just see no reason to ever get one. It's cute how riled up people get over their caffeine products, though, and how to make them. :)
Fun fact: Halloween originated in the UK and Ireland as it stemmed from the Celtic festival of Samhain. It’s battled with religion in England for a long time which is why it’s more low-key than in America but I wouldn’t say the UK is following America in Halloween popularity, it’s been around here for a very long time :) People in the uk are also generally far less festive so decor is definitely not as popular here 😭
I was gonna say the exact same thing! If being influenced by America is finding any excuse to have. a party and dress up (baby shower, gender reveal, divorce party) then yes it's American influenced
I mean... gee... I wonder why the English church has a problem with what is basically associated with worship of evil spirits. It's pretty much the most Anti-Christian holiday out there... lol.
To add to the Hallow'een comments; Guising (pronounced guys-ing) has been a thing in Scotland for much longer than trick or treating has been in America. Guising is basically the same thing as trick or treating and, from what I can tell, was revived as a practice in the early 1800s (the practice predates this period, but I imagine the demonisation of Samhain/conversion to All Saint's Day had a lot to do with it not being practiced for so long). From the (very, very cursory) research I did into Trick or Treating, it's only been around in the mainstream from the 1930s.
I was about to say this. It's actually from the guising tradition that the US version of Trick or Treat derived. They re-exported that tradition to England. 😂😂😂
Yeah, trick-or-treating dates back to a lot of practices that happened in Ireland and Scotland. Remember all the immigrants bringing their culture. Plus the ritual began centuries ago as people leaving offerings for dead family members returning on the night when the veil between worlds was thinnest.
In the Isle of Man, we have always celebrated Halloween. My 95 year old dad remembers Halloween as a child. We would carve turnips or swedes into lanterns, and kids would go door to door singing "Hop-tu-naa" a traditional song, and ask for sweets or money for the song, dressed up in guises like ghosts etc.
Alex from Technology Connections did a video and a followup about kettles. The voltage doesn't make much of a difference (and we do have 240v power but it's complicated), and you can buy an electric kettle in most places, tea just isn't that popular and he actually pointed out that microwaves aren't actually that bad at boiling water in terms of both time and power efficiency.
I was gonna mention technology connections! Yeah we have 120v power but we have a potential of 240v. This is because we have a -120v to 120v and we use a neutral! The whole grid thing is a myth. We bring that power down to 120v except with large appliances.
Many people forget that split-phase power is used in places like north america and australia while europe uses three-phase ac(230/400V). Still sucks that you can only get like 1.5-1.8kW from the american type A/B socket while a water heater takes like 2-3kW
As an American, I just use my coffee maker for the hot water to pour into my cup. Depending on what tea I want to drink, I put the tea bags directly into my cup before the boiling hot water comes out or I take the tea leaves an put them into a tea infuser in similar fashion like the tea bags.
That's what I was forced to do the first time I stayed at a hotel in America and they didn't have a kettle in the room, which I was shocked to discover. They had a coffee machine, coffee pods and teabags, so I had to use the coffee machine to get hot water into my cup. I don't know if it was the coffee machine water, the plastic lined paper cup, or the American teabag (probably the combination of all three), but it did not taste good 😖
@@ShirinRose If it was a hotel, you more than likely had a very cheap brand of tea in the first place, so you were certainly not off to a good start. Though if the hotel has breakfast buffet, you can usually get better tea there than the cheap teabags in the room.
@@robertgronewold3326 Yeah, I ended up buying a small box of Twinings Earl Grey teabags from a nearby supermarket, to take with me to the conference I was attending, as well as to have in my hotel room
German here: My Inducition plates have 3,2kw Max Power, my Kettle (Wasserkocher) only 2,4kw and the Microwave 0,8kw. So the fastest way to boil water is on the induction field. But because the Kettle automatically switches off when the water boils, I often use it for instant nudels or hot drinks, because I can fill in the water and go away. As for a Microwave, I usually use it to make hot chocolate or warming up meals.
American here: I have three electric kettles that I used extensively in college for big tea parties. Unfortunately, you don't usually need that much boiling water, so it's understandable that most Americans don't have them. Also, I think it's interesting that you have a coffee kettle, whereas I use my fancy multi-temp electric kettle to make pour-overs (with difficulty). I think most people are either tea or coffee people and then buy appliances accordingly. I bet that most brits don't own drip coffee makers in their homes either, and could not produce a pour over mug and filter.
@@tinnagigja3723 well, any group of 20+ college kids hyped up on caffeine and sugar at midnight could be bad, but luckily it was tea instead of coffee. Hoewever, each kettle can only warm3-4 mugs at a time.
Most Brits don't own drip coffee machines, that's true. Most British people I know who drink real coffee at home (ie not instant) use some kind of manual appliance, I think most frequently a cafetiere/French press, but others will have a pour over mug of some kind, or an Aeropress or similar. They're not as ubiquitous as having tea making supplies (even people who don't drink tea will probably keep tea bags for guests), but they're not particularly uncommon.
I (an American) also want to say that electric kettles aren't actually that hard to find here. Walmart and Target both carry a variety, including the cheap plastic ones that just boil as well as the fancier temperature controlled ones.
A Finn here. I use the electric kettle for noodles, coffee, (sometimes instant coffee), vegetables, instant soups etc. However, 1) There is no best way to heat water 2) Everybody should have freedom!
As an American who drinks tea, I would never ever throw tea leaves into the kettle. I don't have a tea pot, so since I only make tea for myself I have a tea strainer/infuser that I set in my mug.
Bought my kettle six years ago in a Walmart in Texas. Yes, used mostly by this American for tea, but also for those instant type foods that households of two turn to a lot: noodles, mashed potatoes, etc. I grew up with the range top type kettle, that practically always had hot water in it - I remember my mother pouring some into our dish washing water because it was quicker and hotter than tap. Microwaved water doesn’t seem to retain the heat, as in it cools off faster. But it’s interesting to me that an electric kettle would be more practical in the rest of world due to the voltage.
Absolutely loved the outro song! As an American (ugh) I do have a kettle and my kid (12y) has been obsessed with tea for at least 3 years. They even have their own drawer in the kitchen for all of their teas and accessories. It is much faster than the stove (hob) but I have a decorative kettle as well. I guess we are strange Americans, and I am totally ok with that.
we’ve always celebrated halloween in the uk. the main difference i remember is we focus more on dressing as something spooky, whereas america dress as anything from pop culture, but more recently the uk has been becoming more similar in that sense.
I don't remember any Halloween celebrations in the UK when I was a child more than half a century ago - we were barely aware of it at all. The big thing back then was Bonfire night and in the weeks leading up to it, kids would be out on the streets asking for 'Penny for the guy'. My husband and I lived in the US for a while back in the 80s and the neighbours' kids came to our door saying 'Trick or treat'. My husband had no idea what they were talking about and sent them away. In the morning we found they'd smeared soap all over our car. I wanted to let down the tyres on their parents' car and tell them it was an old British custom but hubby didn't think it was a good idea. Probably just as well lol!
American here..I use my Keurig for hot water for my tea. Just run water through it and place my lovely Twinings Black Tea Bag in my mug and let it steep a little bit. If I was to be more traditional English…I use my lovely Brown Betty for a pot. I boil the water in a kettle on the stove and once hot pour into the Brown Betty with the teas of my choosing. It is so relaxing!
Are you actually under the impression that Hallowe’en is a US creation? Even though it has existed in Scotland and Ireland for centuries? Guising (derived from disguising) where children dress up and go door to door carrying carved lanterns (though turnips not pumpkins were used)on Hallowe’en is a long standing tradition. Though instead of the demanding with menaces that is the cry of “Trick or Treat!” Scottish kids would have to “do a turn” so sing a song, tell a joke, do a dance, recite a poem etc etc in return for (when I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s) a handful of monkey nuts, some fruit, some sweets and if you were lucky some money (back then normally about 10p). The fact that you are conflating what happens in the south east of England with the whole of the U.K. shows just how much of a Londoner you are. Hallowe’en is Celtic (hard c sound) not US American, the US just took it and turned it into a massive corporate money spinner instead of the centuries old custom that it was. Though your Londoner credentials do not let you off with the excuses in regards to the tea kettle debacle. All those excuses were fine and appropriate for those from the US that still live there, they don’t work when it comes to someone who has lived in the U.K. for as long as you have and doesn’t understand why some may not regard you as British whilst happily agreeing that you are a British citizen.
@@robertgronewold3326 I’m not, that is essentially the point I was making. Hallowe’en wasn’t created there, it was taken there as part of the customs of the Scots and Irish migrants.
From my own life observation which is subjective of course,in my part of England Halloween wasn't a thing,it maybe got a passing mention,there might be a Brownies party,maybe some adults had family parties but it was very low key. There were villages,like one in Somerset that had "Punkie Night" where the local children did a (adult watched) walk through the village with turnip lanterns and my late Mum remembered aged 5 (that would be 1929) tagging along with a group of older kids and they did this thing of ancient hallowed custom. All the kids knocked on the first door of a terrace of houses. The occupier opened the door,all the kids ran through and out the back and over the low wall in the backdoor of the next house and out the front door,in the front door of the next.....all up the row..no householder objected and no damage was done but it still sounds horrendous to me! When my Mum got home her Dad gave her a stiff telling off and she never did it again but seems in that Somerset place it was an age old custom of Punkie Night. The USA commercial,totally grim style we got now only started to slip in,in the 1990s and I don't think it's ever really caught on. And yes it probably was taken to America by Scots and Irish settlers.
@@janebaker966 Yes, it was the Irish and Scots who made Halloween big here in the USA. It got a huge reinvigoration, and now it's spreading to every corner of the world, so more spooky fun for everyone.
Yep, in previous generations you were to wear your 'clothes back to front' so that the ghosts and ghouls wouldn't recognise you (in Scotland, at least).
Honestly, I can't think of a single person here in Belgium who doesn't have an electric kettle. It's just so much more convenient! But I understand why you wouldn't if you grew up without it (unless you also like the convenience of it of course) In Dutch it's also called a "waterkoker" so watercooker, maybe the German languages are just lazy with their words XD
In Estonia I'd say 99% of people have them as well, I use it for not only tea (I do drink tea though), but also cooking. And we call it "veekeetja", so water boiler.
I got an electric kettle for college because we weren't allowed hot plates or anything without an automatic shutoff. I mostly use it to make tea but it's also good for hot cocoa (or any cheap instant meals like just add water mac and cheese or instant oatmeal or ramen... you know, the kinds of things broke college students eat)
For english students the kettle is a holy instrument used for everything. Ive used a kettle to fill my bath with hot water when my hot water stopped working, ive used it to heat up bent plastic from coathangers to random stuff so i could bend the plastic back into shape, used it for food and drink (obviously).
Hello Evan. I am a 23 year old british man. When I was growing up there was a show called the singing kettle. Prominently featured in this production were the teapot style of kettle. Handle, spout, the whole shabang. I think that’s what you’d call a tea kettle. Considering this British production called it a kettle, I’d say you’re well in the clear with that one.
Singing Kettles were kettles designed to be used on stoves which had a device that fit over the spout which would whistle due to steam from boiling water. Such stove kettles were referred to as Tea Kettles as well.
My small kitchen is full of appliances. Most were wedding or holiday gifts. The counters and the cupboards are overflowing. A kettle seems like a good idea, but there is nowhere to put it, and I have five other ways to boil water.
American here with some British friends who told me...to my horror... that hot tea is NOT made in the microwave...silly me!! My hubby has since bought me an electric kettle (which is sold in "regular" stores, not just niche-y ones now) and I am happy to report that tea from a kettle is SO much better than tea from the microwave. Converted, and I love it!! Now, I am a southerner and when you, Evan, say, "tea" my brain immediately goes to sweet, ice, cold tea which is what we southerners prefer, however if I "fancy" a hot tea "of an evening" I'm gonna use my electric tea kettle 😉
In Scotland we’d always go ‘guising’ at Halloween. We’d dress up / disguise ourselves (hence the name) and go round the houses in a group -with the older kids looking after the younger ones. We’d sing songs, recite poems and tell jokes to earn our sweets/candy. In school, we’d have to learn Halloween poems so that everyone had something entertaining to do to earn sweets. It’s still a tradition in some places, but most of the kids do trick-or-treating these days.
4:30 Canadian/American here: while I agree with most of what you've said, you CAN buy an electric kettle at Target. They ARE available (not in wide variety), just not popular
I'm from the U.S. and have always used a kettle. Whenever I go to someone's house, I always ask where the kettle is. I get weird looks all the time. 😂 I also use kettles to use to heat up any water, including för my coffee, not just tea.
Canadian here - we call electric kettles, either "electric kettles", or just "kettles ". I've almost always had one - in Canada and since moving to the UK. I've always used it for pour-over coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cup a soup, instant ramen, hotter pasta water, and now.. aeropress. But Evan, you have an electric kettle - it's just a fancy coffee one :-) Technology Connections did a whole 1/2 hour episode where he discovered that, even in the USA, an electric kettle is the most efficient way to boil water 🙂 - on an aside - when I first moved to the UK, I saw my neighbours outside one morning with their kettle, pouring hot water over the windscreen of their car to get the ice off. : -o
Halloween has been a thing in the UK for decades Evan... not as big as in the US probably but kids trick or treating, dressing up, Halloween parties, etc has been a thing for quite a while
Evan you need to research why we have Fireworks Night You won't be pleased as it is to celebrate the extinction of the Gunpowder Plot all tied up with getting rid of parliament and in end King
The old draft excluder thing really applies to pre central heating, especially in older properties where the gap on the bottom of the door was sometimes an inch high!
I lived in a student house with a gap under the back door like that. my British housemates told me about draft excluders but I just went to the hardware store and bought weather stripping that I installed myself. it's crazy to me what British people will put up with when it comes to housing.
Canadian here: We've always had an electric kettle. We were pretty happy when the automatic shut-off ones became available. A microwave requires so much babysitting that it's probably less time and risk to use our electric kettle. It doesn't take too long. It's much faster than using a stove top kettle without the worry of accidentally leaving the burner on, which I did at a relative's house once. I was used to the electric style. I completely ruined their kettle.
I'm American, though well-traveled and I lived in France for two years. I've never found microwaves that useful to me, so I have an electric kettle and a toaster oven. My girlfriend thinks it's ridiculous that I neither have nor want a microwave.
I have all three, microwaves are also useful. It's much faster at rewarming foods, and better taste wise for rewarming some specific foods, worse at others. Toaster ovens and microwaves aren't exclusive.
As a Scottish person who now lives in England, the idea that Hallowe'en is a new thing came as a complete surprise to me. Hallowe'en is a traditional Scottish and Irish pagan festival, which is still very much a thing that we do. It went to America along with the colonialists. They swapped out turnips for pumpkins when making their lanterns, probably because that's what was available over there, and more recently, the American variant of it seems to have come to England. The check pattern on police cars and police uniforms apparently made its way from Scotland to England via Australia.
Sorry Evan isn’t the power supply that keeps Americans from adopting the electric kettle. I would argue that it’s partially the fact that we’re not a big tea drinking nation but it’s also just a matter of traditions and the habits that they form. The kitchen counter has a limited amount of space and the space devoted to a morning hot beverage has been given over to the drip coffee maker. Only some Americans are willing to give over additional counterspace to another appliance to heat water. The general consensus for most Americans that I have spoken to is "I don’t need that I don’t want that cluttering my counter why would I buy that". And yes I have tried. I have been converted to electric kettles for years and I love mine. when I try to convince someone ,say my sister, how wonderful they are; no dice. I eventually just gave her my old stove top kettle since hers had broken and considered it a win-win since at least it cleared some cabinet space for me. Oh and by the way even on 120 V system it is more than just marginally faster; it is significantly faster and more energy efficient. Technology Connections recently did an in-depth video on the topic if you’re interested. Love the song.
Lol... I'm an American and I've been using electric kettle for many years (not for tea really). It's quite useful/convenient when you're making soup to speed up cooking. You pour pre-boiled water (from the electric kettle) to your pot of soup, let it continue to boil then simmer and done. It's also useful when you're blanching/steaming vegetables. I also use electric kettle for pour-over coffee.
Curious. I’m in Arkansas and all of the local Walmarts (and to be sure, there are so so many of them 🤮) have at least 5 different electric kettle options on hand. So I do believe that accessibility isn’t necessarily as big of a deterrent to electric kettle using in the US right now.
I had to buy an electric kettle online because I'd never seen one in a store. I keep it at work so I can make tea there, but there's always free coffee if I want it. At home I just boil water on the stove if I want tea.
Walmart in the US have electric kettles, I use my one cup coffee maker to make green tea, so buying a electric kettle would be a waste of money for me.
When I was moving to college for the first time (in the US), it was pretty common to have an electric kettle for the dorm rooms. Even though the RAs would confiscate them because “they included a hot plate”, I just hid mine in my laundry basket. I made tea and hot chocolate for the whole floor.
Halloween in its traditional sense is from Ireland/Scotland and England probably had their version as well. We Americans stole it and turned it into a hallmark holiday. Marmite is mainly Australian last I checked, so there's that. As for tea, yea, most of America forgets tea even exists, or they drink lipton... just like folders/Starbucks/MacDonalds are the main staples of coffee drinkers. It took me many many years to learn to appreciate good coffee/tea as well. As far as power grids, I had no idea we were behind in that regard, so thank you for that tidbit.
As a brit, I just realised Americans using kettles would be like us having coffee machines. We don't drink as much coffee, or just don't care as much about good coffee to the point where my parents got used to instant when they were younger, and so instant is the type of coffee they like. In my mind, having a coffee machine is sort of seen as something really fancy.
Exactly! As an American, about the only time that I drink tea (with lemon and honey) is when I am sick. If I need to boil water, I can just throw a pot on the stove or put some water in the coffee maker without the grounds basket in or even put it in the microwave in a pinch. So why need a kettle?
In Canada both an electric kettle and a coffee maker are a household staple. I never realized Brits don't typically have coffee makers, and only a few years ago found out that most Americans don't have kettles.
I’m an American and I have an electric kettle. I didn’t know they existed until college, when my Azerbaijani-American roommate had one. I love my electric kettle and it’s faster than boiling water on the stovetop. (Which is the way my dad prefers to boil water.)
Your takes on tea and coffee are completely different to mine 😂 plus I also have an induction job and it takes about 10 mins to boil cold water compared to about 1-2 mins in our kettle
I know from talking to English friends that Trick or Treat is relatively recent and is getting reintroduced from the US influence. However Guising in Scotland, Ireland and Isle of Man has existed for hundreds of years going back to the traditional celebrations of Samhuinn which became All Saints and All Souls.
As a Canadian, I can walk over to any hardware or housewares store and get a large selection of electric kettles. I have a lovely glass kettle made by Hamilton Beach. I want to get a gooseneck one for pourover as well, but I’m waiting to find just the right one. 😊🇨🇦
I would just like to point out that hallowen was actually invented in Scotland and is not, in fact, an American thing. Halloween existed before the US did.
Australian here. We call it a kettle or jug but a pot were you brew the tea leaves/bag is a tea pot. We also have a Billy Kettle which makes Billy Tea. It is used when camping and heated over an camp fire. Also it just takes around 2 mintues to boil water not really that long.
I mean I don’t think the majority of us have that type of stove 😅 so it usually takes a while for it to boil. Out of the reasons I think the electrical one is the best. I feel like we mainly use kettles because they are way quicker than the stove.
I am German and recently moved into a shared flat on the UK with two Americans. We are all new to the UK. Last week American 1 and I were chilling in the kitchen and American 2 came in He wanted to boil water, was asking us were the small pot is and in the conversation we suggested him to just use the kettle instead. (We have both a kettle and a microwave.) Turns out that while American 1 owns and uses a kettle even back home, American 2 had never even heard of electric kettles and we had to walk him through using it, step by step. American 1 also insisted that American 2 will want a kettle of his own when he returns to the US one day.
@@grahamleiper1538 Swedes are really hard! Parsnips do look suitably evil once carved as they are already wrinkly. I have trouble chopping a swede for cooking, they're so hard.
I honestly couldn't live without my Wasserkocher. I'm a tea addict. I remember very vividly the horror of the one year where my kettle died at a day before Christmas. Everything was to be closed for the next three days (a weekend was also involved)! But, there was a Christmas miracle. I was visiting my parents the next day and as I was complaining to them, it turned out, my mum had an extra one. Christmas was safed! Good tea is not just tea. There are so many differences: which type of tea do you drink (white, black, green, herbal, rooibos, infusions)? Which flavor do you prefer? Which brand do you use? A generic supermarket brand of an Earl Grey is definitely worst than a Twinnings Earl Grey...
Edit: I'm an American. I do live in the south though. I'm sorry but I have en electric kettle and it is so much faster then boiling water on my stove and I use it all the time. Since I have an air fryer and an electric kettle I find I have almost no use for my microwave. Also you can find electric kettle at Walmart or Target. They are very easy to find. I honestly don't know what your talking about
@@jwb52z9 I've seen them pretty prevalently for the past 10 years or so, but I do know he's been in England for longer than that. But my aunt got hers from "Bed, Bath & Beyond" like 20 years ago. I honestly think its just because hot tea wasn't really popular in the US. I have seen a rise in hot tea drinkers in about the past 10 years. I'd like to think it because of the popularity of "Downton Abbey" lol but I could be wrong 😊😊
Canadian here. My late father always drank instant coffee made using a stove top kettle. After he had a stroke, he would put the kettle on and nod off. After he boiled the kettle dry we disposed of it and bought an electric kettle with an automatic shutoff from Walmart
I was really not expecting to hear myself get mentioned and it made me jump when I was doing my makeup 😂 On the kettle front, I have to say a kettle is really essential for me. I use it all the time and I don't even drink hot drinks! I have hypermobility in my hands and if I had to use a pan for like a pot noodle I would be pouring boiling water all over myself frequently 😅
Canadian here, somewhere in the middle of all this mess. I grew up in a Slovak household (all four grandparents were immigrants from Slovakia) in Canada, and they'd adopted ALL the british ways of drinking tea for breakfast. There was ALWAYS a kettle on the stove and you always either decanted that into a teapot with bags in it or into your mug with a bag in it. Looseleaf was years away or only at Chinese restaurants. But yeah, now I own an electric kettle, of course I do, and was weirded out when I found out Americans did not. Bizarro!
Electric kettles go in the same category as rice cookers for me: convenience and safety. Just turn it on and forget about it, and less risk of burning myself or the cat it they get any crazy ideas. Also saves a spot on the stove if you're cooking something elaborate, or are at bad at doing the dishes
I have had at least three basic electric tea kettles, and love them for both making tea, for adding boiling water as a cooking ingredient without turning on another burner, and for making pour-over coffee (especially after I had three drip coffeemakers from three different manufacturers fail or die on me within a year, due to shoddy electronics). However, the biggest reason for using one is safety - I like using all kinds of mugs, but not every mug is manufactured to be microwave safe. In the past, say, reheating soup to have while ill, the microwave heated up the handles, or the outer ceramic of the mugs so much that it was a burn hazard to bare hands. There is also the danger of accidentally super-heating the liquid the cup or mug contains, and the potential for sparks if the design or rim of a mug or cup has ANY sort of metal or foil on it. None of this is a problem with a kettle. I can't say that I would actually MAKE or brew tea IN one... seems to be a couple of steps over a glaring red line of sorts.
We used to celebrate Halloween by apple bobbing or trying to eat apples strung up on a line and telling spooky stories. No pumpkins or superhero costumes. Spells and midnight things was the thing before the American influences.
Swede here! We call it a vattenkokare, a water boiler. I cannot imagine life without one as we like both coffee and tea, I mostly use a French press for coffee. But you use a kettle for so much, boiling potatoes, pasta etc. And it's not marginally faster than the stove, it's a lot faster. And above else, with rising energy costs it's way more energy efficient ⚡
American with an electric kettle. I'm glad I bought the one did because it's made to brew tea and keep it at the desired temp. There a basket attached to a plunger in the lid that holds the tea leaves out of the water while it's heating up. When the water is at the appropriate temp you push the plunger down and submerge the tea leaves. Once it's steep as long as you like, lift plonger to stop steeping and allow leave's to drain.
I just wanted to mention halloween may not have been celebrated much in England in the past, but trust me, it has been a thing in Scotland for years, as a brat living in a RAF camp in the 70’s halloween was serious stuff! Local legends celebrated rolling eggs to remember rolling witches in spiked barrels down a hill!! All good family stuff!!! And of course trick or treating…
Brit living in New York State here - been here over 30 years. Electric kettles used to be pretty much only available in British import stores but over the last 10 years, electric kettles and pouring kettles (for coffee) are available everywhere.
I'm from the United States, but I drink tea, Yorkshire to be specific. Coffee never tasted good, but espresso is great. I'd drink that more often, but cardiologist didn't like what it did to my blood pressure. I don't use a kettle, convenience is the hot water setting on my wife's Keurig. Yeah, that is my first sin, but then I steep it too long. Damnation probably awaits.
I live in America, and I bought my first electric kettle a few months ago. My water boils in 4 minutes and turns itself off. I use it for many things, and I love it! So much quicker than the kettle for the stove top. I do drink coffee, but I also drink a lot of hot tea. I also like iced tea. In fact, I buy just as much tea as I do coffee. And I do have a microwave, but I rarely use it. If my cup of coffee or tea went cold, then I'll use it. I never cook in my microwave, but will warm up my plate of food if it gets a little too cool.
I feel the complete opposite to the "good tea is tea, good coffee is *good* coffee". The thing is, I've found that England just doesn't have actually *good* tea (which is strange for a nation that prides itself on loving tea). Have some Palais des Thés or Damann tea and I assure you you'll change your mind. As for coffee, well, I drink it purely to wake up in the morning and I'm not a fan of the taste of even "great" coffee (which I have supposedly had before, my dad being a coffee nerd), so I won't be the judge of that.
As a British TV lover I started noticing every English, Welsh, & Irish home had a kettle. As a bona fide, tea drinker & cook that boils water often I decided to try one and I’ve never looked back. Sent my tea drinking sister one (not to be confused with tea-totaling sister) she loved it! ☕️
American with British family here. I got my electric kettle at aldi and it does boil faster than the stove, with less energy and cleaner energy than the gas stove. That’s what really sold me on using it for more than just tea.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffe
We have an electric kettle. I use it for coffee brewed in a French Press and my wife drinks tea. It is faster than a pot on the stove or the microwave, and it shuts itself off. Years ago it was hard to find an electric kettle in our shops but now they are in most stores.
omg thank you people who grow up with kettles are so weird about the idea of just ... using a stove or microwave that's already in the kitchen. like i don't care about the exact temperature of my tea as long as the water is hot i'm good to go no new equipment necessary
Brewing tea is like baking a cake. You want to do it at the right temperature and length for that tea. You can still use a microwave to achieve lower temperature hot water for tea brewing tho.
@@M.M.Y.B I use what ever tea I have in the house, thar includes herbal teas. Drop a couple mint tea bags in with the black tea...refreshing. I live in AZ, during the summer here it doesn't rake long, like maybe 40 minutes. Back in MI it would take 2 hours or more. But I don't like my tea too dark, so trial and error mistly.
The thing is that kettles are so common here that a kitchen without a kettle would feel incomplete, just as much as a kitchen without a hob or a fridge. Like my grandparents never owned microwaves, but they definitely had electric kettles. There's also the joke/fact that when you move houses in the UK, the kettle is the last item to be packed and first one to be unpacked because it's just viewed as essential.
First, you do not want to boil water for TEA. Various Teas require a different temperature to optimize the brewing. All of which, including Black Tea, are less that 100°C. And my Microwave can do that. 2:30 = 180°F/82.3°C 2:40 = 190°F/87°C 2:50 = 200°F/93.3°C 3:00 = 210°F/98.9°C Plus, I never make a Pot of Tea or Coffee, I'm a one cup guy. So, the microwave works fine even if only brewing one cup of ground coffee. Though I confess that I use instant coffee most of the time - _Vina Cafe (3in1)_ - works great for me.
My family is from Zimbabwe and my mum likes to make tea on the stove in an enamel kettle. This allows her to get hot milk in her tea without having to get a pot out or microwave it.
The electricity argument (which I'm only hearing about for the first time in this video) makes more sense to me than the argument that Americans don't drink enough tea to warrant having an electric kettle. As a European, I drink tea very little and usually end up using the electric kettle for a bunch of other stuff. I'd assume to plenty Americans do drink instant coffee so do they just boil the water in a regular pot or really in the microwave? Both seem terribly inconvenient compared to an electric kettle. For me it's not even so much about the speed as it is about being able to easily boil a specific amount of water in a container that's relatively easy and safe to pour boiling water out of.
I'm in the US and have an electric kettle, I love it! I used to use a stove-top kettle but the electric one is definitely a bit faster. Also, I love having precise temperature settings for different kinds of tea.
I’m an American and I grew up with a stove top kettle but I don’t recall it being used much. In the South we do boil our sweet tea on the stove in a pot and yes we use Lipton‘s tea lol. When I got older and got into hot tea I purchased an electric kettle from Target. I went with electric because it’s a lot faster than my electric stove. Also, the electric kettle has different temperatures for different teas. I also use it for hot chocolate, oatmeal, and Roman noodles.
I was in New York (state) last month and stayed in three hotels. If you go to any hotel or B&B in the UK, you'll always find a kettle in the room, even the most downmarket ones. None of the NY hotels provided kettles. Two of them provided coffee machines, and I was expected to make tea with the coffee machines.
I discovered "the kettle" on vacation to Europe. It was 220 volts. Wow. It worked great. Got home, went to Target and bought a 110 volt one. Doesn't work as good, but it still works. It's OK ... not bad. I now use it every day to make hot water for instant coffee. And it's safer than a microwave or pot on the stove. It's all plastic. Hard to spill. Difficult to burn yourself. Glows blue, shuts itself off when the water starts boiling too.
While I was visiting Japan to see my relatives. They actually had an electric kettle both at my relatives place and the inn I stayed in. Electric kettles were not only useful for cooking cup noodles but also they had instant miso soups, instant latee coffee, and believe it or not hot water bottles for cold winters.
I'm one of those Americans who is a bit of an anomaly on the tea topic. I LOVE tea and have an electric kettle, most likely because much of my immediate family immigrated here from England, Ireland, and Scotland, so I grew up with tea. I drink it daily, and although I drink black tea 95% of the time, the real advantage of my electric kettle is that it has variable temperature controls for the occasions I'm not BOILING water to make black tea. I wish more Americans had an appreciation for hot tea. That being said, I freaking LOVE my iced tea and coffee too.
American here from Texas. I have an electric kettle. I do find it to be much faster to boil using an electric kettle as apposed to the stove or microwave. You can get an electric kettle at most grocery stores and all walmarts and targets. So they are easy to find a between $10-$90 dollars depending on how fancy you are. I introduced my mom to it and she was shocked and now owns one. Growing up if i wanted tea you just microwaved it. If you were making ice tea we used the coffee maker and instead of putting coffee in you put tea bags in. Then cool it in the fridge over night. For ice tea we usually bought Luzianne and Red diamond family size tea bags as apposed to the Lipton but if Lipton was on sale that week well you get whats one sale. And being a true Southerner ice tea has so much sugar that the quality of the actual tea didn't really matter. It wasn't until I started reducing the amount of sugar I consume that quality became more important to me.
American here... 🙋♀️ I bought my first electric kettle (Cosori) last winter to heat the water for my hot water bottles that warm my bed, lol. It stays right in the bedroom and it's perfect! Sacramento, California USA 🇺🇸
I’m an American who drinks herbal tea and I own an electric kettle. Largely because I thought an automatic shutoff would be safer than keeping track of more burners. But beyond that, I don’t use it for much. I don’t drink coffee, instant or otherwise. I don’t eat instant noodles because of all the sodium. I don’t eat instant mashed potatoes (and when I do eat potatoes, I roast them in the oven or the air fryer). And I’ve never felt the need to get pasta boiling faster so much that I needed to add an extra step to the process. The biggest additional thing it’s helped with is when I was baking rolls for Thanksgiving. I had hot water ready to turn my oven into a proofing box for the first rise.
I stayed in London for 6 months and enjoyed using a kettle over there, but here in the US... I dont have counter space for it. Things that take priority on the counter - my Keurig, my drip coffee maker, toaster, microwave, cookie jar, knife block, and rice cooker.
I’m American & I use to have an electric kettle because I like drinking tea but in the mornings, I pick coffee over tea, tea is usually something I’ll have with dessert or something. I got rid of it because not enough room in the kitchen & I didn’t drink tea every day so it made sense. I have one of those tea steepers from Teavana because I do drink some loose leaf tea, that’s more required than an electric kettle. I use the stove top for boiling my water.
Having lived in North America(Canada) Kettles(electric) still are not the big thing they are in the UK and Ireland. Even here in the Uk induction stovetop is the fastest way to boil water really. In France it is rare to find a kettle and most frequently boil water in a saucepan. Great video!
I use my kettle mostly to boil water for instant noodles, soups. Rarely instant coffee - I have real filter coffee machine. I have an induction top but it is slow. So sometimes I pour the boiled water in to speed it up when cooking pasta or rice.
I am English and don’t drink tea (or coffee) but wouldn’t dream of not having a kettle. Use it for so many things - instant gravy, pot noodles, ramen, mash, dissolving jelly cubes and more
What is mash?
@@alvinscott1331 mashed potato
jelly cubes?
@@mrbr549 - If you are in the US it's the same as Jello.
It’s essentially a packet of ready made jelly/jello just add water
I think my main reason for liking an electric kettle over any form of boiling on the stove, whether there's a whistle involved or not, is because it shuts off itself and I don't need to be physically nearby to turn off a burner. I realize that might not be as important to everyone. But it's a thing that provides a lot of ease for me in being able to just turn it on and walk away
Also the kettle doesn't over burn the water unlike a stove.
☎️☎️✅.....
Exactly. I'm sure that a good sales company could convince the Americans to buy electric kettles.
also isn't more difficult to pour boiling hot water in mugs from a saucepan? it's much easier to just use a kettle.
@@aurora6920 yes, that too!
Evan "Why don't my friends consider me British" also Evan "Whats the point in having a Kettle"
Right lol 😂
We don't just use a kettle to make tea. I boil mine to cook veg or pasta because it's much quicker.
I also use it to top up dishwater. Because the hot water out the tap cools down quickly. It's a health and safety thing because I have autistic kids.
Canadian here - most of us have tea kettles, and they're available in basically all home goods stores. I drink tea every day, and every person I know has a tea cupboard. That's so odd that Americans don't have that same habit. We're also on that 120v power system which means it takes a while to boil, but we just put up with it.
The reason Americans don’t drink tea goes back to the revolution, British colonial rule, taxes and a general disdain for the British and anything associated with those times following that. Although our relationship Britain is now excellent the tradition of drinking coffee instead of tea never went away. Once a tradition is established it doesn’t change easily or without reason.
From what I remember, electric kettles boil water faster then microwaves or a hob, even on a 120v outlet
I don’t find it takes long to boil at all. It’s like 90 seconds in every electronic kettle I’ve ever used. Also Canadian.
@@pjschmid2251 does the USA not realize that tea isn’t a British thing? It was one of the biggest things that was traded out of Asia when the international trade agreements were first established. It’s an international things.
Came here to say the same - though I find if you get a strong kettle it will boil faster. I have a Swann (UK brand but with US plug) and it seems to take no time.
I feel like in the big kettle debate you/a lot of people miss out that kettles are useful for loads of things not just tea. Pot noodles, cup of soup, gravy ect I just can't imagine heating what 100ml of water on a stove (and I don't have an induction hob) when the kettle takes 1 min and u can boil as much or as little as you need and can then easily pour it into whatever I'm making
Yeah if I'm cooking pasta or rice I always boil the water in the kettle first before putting it in on the hob, it just boils faster that way.
@@jwb52z9 Surely you boil potatoes, rice and pasta before you eat them! The kettle is great for quickly boiling that water instead of using the hob. When the kettle is done, pour the hot water into the pot and boil away, saving time and energy.
You know what can also do all that?
A Microwave.
@@mytube001 it just seems silly to have a full other appliance to speed up the job that other appliances do just fine. You use the time the water is boiling to prepare other parts of your meal. If you already have the kettle bc you're a frequent tea drinker then sure, use it! But it's not a reason to buy one imo. (edit: He literally addressed the pasta thing in he video, you should've just watched -_-)
@@RRW359 Not as quickly or safely. An electric kettle is already a safe vessel for boiling hot water. It's harder to find one suitable for a microwave oven, and taking it out introduces a tipping risk, which could lead to severe burns. A really bad idea!
this is actually exactly the content I want
You guys actually have no idea how long I have spent being shook that people in the US don't have kettles. Now I know. Life Changing.
I didn’t have any type of kettle until I was an adult and thought they were handy. My mom and grandma always brewed huge pots of coffee that keep the coffee hot all day & they would sip on it all day. My grandma is in great health from having her coffee addiction her whole life, lol. She’s not the type to dump a bunch of sugar in though
Coffee obsession is even worse, WAY worse in the PNW where the weather is often dreary
It's still bizarre to me. I have a fancy electric gooseneck kettle with multiple settings on it (for various types of tea and one setting for coffee (pour over)). But then I was born and raised in Canada and am now in the US (as a dual citizen). Mum was born and raised in England and Dad had English born (and raised in my granddad's case) parents. So I appreciate kettles and tea and can be patient. XD
American here. I don't drink tea or coffee. Whenever I want hot chocolate, I heat the water up in a microwave or in a pot on the stove. I've never owned a tea kettle in my life (51 currently) and I just see no reason to ever get one. It's cute how riled up people get over their caffeine products, though, and how to make them. :)
"shaken" pluperfect tense.
Fun fact: Halloween originated in the UK and Ireland as it stemmed from the Celtic festival of Samhain. It’s battled with religion in England for a long time which is why it’s more low-key than in America but I wouldn’t say the UK is following America in Halloween popularity, it’s been around here for a very long time :)
People in the uk are also generally far less festive so decor is definitely not as popular here 😭
I was gonna say the exact same thing! If being influenced by America is finding any excuse to have. a party and dress up (baby shower, gender reveal, divorce party) then yes it's American influenced
Came down here to say this!
I mean... gee... I wonder why the English church has a problem with what is basically associated with worship of evil spirits. It's pretty much the most Anti-Christian holiday out there... lol.
I heard it originated in France, where they would wear masks to scare ghosta
@-_a-a_- which is in the uk lol
To add to the Hallow'een comments; Guising (pronounced guys-ing) has been a thing in Scotland for much longer than trick or treating has been in America. Guising is basically the same thing as trick or treating and, from what I can tell, was revived as a practice in the early 1800s (the practice predates this period, but I imagine the demonisation of Samhain/conversion to All Saint's Day had a lot to do with it not being practiced for so long). From the (very, very cursory) research I did into Trick or Treating, it's only been around in the mainstream from the 1930s.
Agree with the comments about Halloween being Scottish the Irish got in on the act think it was a Celtic festival in origin.
I was about to say this. It's actually from the guising tradition that the US version of Trick or Treat derived. They re-exported that tradition to England. 😂😂😂
Yeah, trick-or-treating dates back to a lot of practices that happened in Ireland and Scotland. Remember all the immigrants bringing their culture. Plus the ritual began centuries ago as people leaving offerings for dead family members returning on the night when the veil between worlds was thinnest.
The Irish brought the Halloween custom to America.
In the Isle of Man, we have always celebrated Halloween. My 95 year old dad remembers Halloween as a child. We would carve turnips or swedes into lanterns, and kids would go door to door singing "Hop-tu-naa" a traditional song, and ask for sweets or money for the song, dressed up in guises like ghosts etc.
This is really interesting. Cheers for the insight, Evan! I'm British but a non-tea drinker, and yet I can't imagine life without a kettle haha.
Alex from Technology Connections did a video and a followup about kettles. The voltage doesn't make much of a difference (and we do have 240v power but it's complicated), and you can buy an electric kettle in most places, tea just isn't that popular and he actually pointed out that microwaves aren't actually that bad at boiling water in terms of both time and power efficiency.
I was gonna mention technology connections! Yeah we have 120v power but we have a potential of 240v. This is because we have a -120v to 120v and we use a neutral! The whole grid thing is a myth. We bring that power down to 120v except with large appliances.
I came to the comments section just to look for the Technology Connections references
Many people forget that split-phase power is used in places like north america and australia while europe uses three-phase ac(230/400V).
Still sucks that you can only get like 1.5-1.8kW from the american type A/B socket while a water heater takes like 2-3kW
@@martini380 I assume they don't work great but there are small water heaters that work off a normal American outlet.
Microwave ovens can super heat the water in the cups and on putting stuff in to it, it's not unknown for it to go off like a volcano!
As an American, I just use my coffee maker for the hot water to pour into my cup. Depending on what tea I want to drink, I put the tea bags directly into my cup before the boiling hot water comes out or I take the tea leaves an put them into a tea infuser in similar fashion like the tea bags.
That's what I was forced to do the first time I stayed at a hotel in America and they didn't have a kettle in the room, which I was shocked to discover. They had a coffee machine, coffee pods and teabags, so I had to use the coffee machine to get hot water into my cup. I don't know if it was the coffee machine water, the plastic lined paper cup, or the American teabag (probably the combination of all three), but it did not taste good 😖
@@ShirinRose If it was a hotel, you more than likely had a very cheap brand of tea in the first place, so you were certainly not off to a good start. Though if the hotel has breakfast buffet, you can usually get better tea there than the cheap teabags in the room.
@@robertgronewold3326 Yeah, I ended up buying a small box of Twinings Earl Grey teabags from a nearby supermarket, to take with me to the conference I was attending, as well as to have in my hotel room
@@ShirinRose they also don't clean those coffee makers very often so the water probably ended up with remnants of coffee from the last guest in it
We do the same thing.
German here: My Inducition plates have 3,2kw Max Power, my Kettle (Wasserkocher) only 2,4kw and the Microwave 0,8kw. So the fastest way to boil water is on the induction field. But because the Kettle automatically switches off when the water boils, I often use it for instant nudels or hot drinks, because I can fill in the water and go away. As for a Microwave, I usually use it to make hot chocolate or warming up meals.
In the UK most kettles are 3 kW. They are very fast. I guess it's not surprising considering how much of a tea drinking nation the UK is.
American here: I have three electric kettles that I used extensively in college for big tea parties. Unfortunately, you don't usually need that much boiling water, so it's understandable that most Americans don't have them. Also, I think it's interesting that you have a coffee kettle, whereas I use my fancy multi-temp electric kettle to make pour-overs (with difficulty). I think most people are either tea or coffee people and then buy appliances accordingly. I bet that most brits don't own drip coffee makers in their homes either, and could not produce a pour over mug and filter.
Dunno why, but "big tea party" sounds like slang for something illegal.
@@tinnagigja3723 well, any group of 20+ college kids hyped up on caffeine and sugar at midnight could be bad, but luckily it was tea instead of coffee. Hoewever, each kettle can only warm3-4 mugs at a time.
Most Brits don't own drip coffee machines, that's true. Most British people I know who drink real coffee at home (ie not instant) use some kind of manual appliance, I think most frequently a cafetiere/French press, but others will have a pour over mug of some kind, or an Aeropress or similar. They're not as ubiquitous as having tea making supplies (even people who don't drink tea will probably keep tea bags for guests), but they're not particularly uncommon.
@@ruth649 I had to google what in the world a pour over mug is. Learn something new every day! Lol
@@chipsthedog1 ya but that still wouldn't justify buying a thing that only boils water if you could achieve it with a microwave.
I (an American) also want to say that electric kettles aren't actually that hard to find here. Walmart and Target both carry a variety, including the cheap plastic ones that just boil as well as the fancier temperature controlled ones.
A Finn here. I use the electric kettle for noodles, coffee, (sometimes instant coffee), vegetables, instant soups etc. However, 1) There is no best way to heat water 2) Everybody should have freedom!
I basicly use it for anything that requires hot water other then boiling pasta or vegetables.
As an American who drinks tea, I would never ever throw tea leaves into the kettle. I don't have a tea pot, so since I only make tea for myself I have a tea strainer/infuser that I set in my mug.
Bought my kettle six years ago in a Walmart in Texas. Yes, used mostly by this American for tea, but also for those instant type foods that households of two turn to a lot: noodles, mashed potatoes, etc. I grew up with the range top type kettle, that practically always had hot water in it - I remember my mother pouring some into our dish washing water because it was quicker and hotter than tap. Microwaved water doesn’t seem to retain the heat, as in it cools off faster. But it’s interesting to me that an electric kettle would be more practical in the rest of world due to the voltage.
Absolutely loved the outro song! As an American (ugh) I do have a kettle and my kid (12y) has been obsessed with tea for at least 3 years. They even have their own drawer in the kitchen for all of their teas and accessories. It is much faster than the stove (hob) but I have a decorative kettle as well. I guess we are strange Americans, and I am totally ok with that.
we’ve always celebrated halloween in the uk. the main difference i remember is we focus more on dressing as something spooky, whereas america dress as anything from pop culture, but more recently the uk has been becoming more similar in that sense.
I don't remember any Halloween celebrations in the UK when I was a child more than half a century ago - we were barely aware of it at all. The big thing back then was Bonfire night and in the weeks leading up to it, kids would be out on the streets asking for 'Penny for the guy'. My husband and I lived in the US for a while back in the 80s and the neighbours' kids came to our door saying 'Trick or treat'. My husband had no idea what they were talking about and sent them away. In the morning we found they'd smeared soap all over our car. I wanted to let down the tyres on their parents' car and tell them it was an old British custom but hubby didn't think it was a good idea. Probably just as well lol!
Definitely always been a thing in scotland! My parents and grandparents dressed up and carved turnips
American here..I use my Keurig for hot water for my tea. Just run water through it and place my lovely Twinings Black Tea Bag in my mug and let it steep a little bit. If I was to be more traditional English…I use my lovely Brown Betty for a pot. I boil the water in a kettle on the stove and once hot pour into the Brown Betty with the teas of my choosing. It is so relaxing!
Are you actually under the impression that Hallowe’en is a US creation? Even though it has existed in Scotland and Ireland for centuries? Guising (derived from disguising) where children dress up and go door to door carrying carved lanterns (though turnips not pumpkins were used)on Hallowe’en is a long standing tradition. Though instead of the demanding with menaces that is the cry of “Trick or Treat!” Scottish kids would have to “do a turn” so sing a song, tell a joke, do a dance, recite a poem etc etc in return for (when I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s) a handful of monkey nuts, some fruit, some sweets and if you were lucky some money (back then normally about 10p).
The fact that you are conflating what happens in the south east of England with the whole of the U.K. shows just how much of a Londoner you are. Hallowe’en is Celtic (hard c sound) not US American, the US just took it and turned it into a massive corporate money spinner instead of the centuries old custom that it was.
Though your Londoner credentials do not let you off with the excuses in regards to the tea kettle debacle. All those excuses were fine and appropriate for those from the US that still live there, they don’t work when it comes to someone who has lived in the U.K. for as long as you have and doesn’t understand why some may not regard you as British whilst happily agreeing that you are a British citizen.
Don't discount the Irish and Scottish immigrants who brought Halloween traditions to America.
@@robertgronewold3326 I’m not, that is essentially the point I was making. Hallowe’en wasn’t created there, it was taken there as part of the customs of the Scots and Irish migrants.
From my own life observation which is subjective of course,in my part of England Halloween wasn't a thing,it maybe got a passing mention,there might be a Brownies party,maybe some adults had family parties but it was very low key. There were villages,like one in Somerset that had "Punkie Night" where the local children did a (adult watched) walk through the village with turnip lanterns and my late Mum remembered aged 5 (that would be 1929) tagging along with a group of older kids and they did this thing of ancient hallowed custom. All the kids knocked on the first door of a terrace of houses. The occupier opened the door,all the kids ran through and out the back and over the low wall in the backdoor of the next house and out the front door,in the front door of the next.....all up the row..no householder objected and no damage was done but it still sounds horrendous to me! When my Mum got home her Dad gave her a stiff telling off and she never did it again but seems in that Somerset place it was an age old custom of Punkie Night. The USA commercial,totally grim style we got now only started to slip in,in the 1990s and I don't think it's ever really caught on. And yes it probably was taken to America by Scots and Irish settlers.
@@janebaker966 Yes, it was the Irish and Scots who made Halloween big here in the USA. It got a huge reinvigoration, and now it's spreading to every corner of the world, so more spooky fun for everyone.
Yep, in previous generations you were to wear your 'clothes back to front' so that the ghosts and ghouls wouldn't recognise you (in Scotland, at least).
Honestly, I can't think of a single person here in Belgium who doesn't have an electric kettle. It's just so much more convenient!
But I understand why you wouldn't if you grew up without it (unless you also like the convenience of it of course)
In Dutch it's also called a "waterkoker" so watercooker, maybe the German languages are just lazy with their words XD
It's not lazy, it's practical.
It’s vannkoker in Norwegian which also means water cooker
In Estonia I'd say 99% of people have them as well, I use it for not only tea (I do drink tea though), but also cooking. And we call it "veekeetja", so water boiler.
Yes! Unless they have a Quooker or something.
@@Snowshowslow what's that?
I got an electric kettle for college because we weren't allowed hot plates or anything without an automatic shutoff. I mostly use it to make tea but it's also good for hot cocoa (or any cheap instant meals like just add water mac and cheese or instant oatmeal or ramen... you know, the kinds of things broke college students eat)
For english students the kettle is a holy instrument used for everything. Ive used a kettle to fill my bath with hot water when my hot water stopped working, ive used it to heat up bent plastic from coathangers to random stuff so i could bend the plastic back into shape, used it for food and drink (obviously).
@@thenamescarter8279 I've heard of people boiling sausages in an electric kettle. I could never but supposedly that's a thing students do as well.
Microwave?
@@RRW359 nah fam
@@thenamescarter8279 Why not? If you already have one why buy another device?
Hello Evan. I am a 23 year old british man. When I was growing up there was a show called the singing kettle. Prominently featured in this production were the teapot style of kettle. Handle, spout, the whole shabang. I think that’s what you’d call a tea kettle. Considering this British production called it a kettle, I’d say you’re well in the clear with that one.
Nope, kettles looked similar to teapots when they were heated on top of stoves.
Singing Kettles were kettles designed to be used on stoves which had a device that fit over the spout which would whistle due to steam from boiling water.
Such stove kettles were referred to as Tea Kettles as well.
@@ethelmini I'm not sure i understand what you're trying to say. Kettles look like teapots? What part of that disagrees with what i said?
Omg I went to see The Singing Kettle live. Legendary.
My small kitchen is full of appliances. Most were wedding or holiday gifts. The counters and the cupboards are overflowing. A kettle seems like a good idea, but there is nowhere to put it, and I have five other ways to boil water.
I don't really drink a lot of tea either.
But I need my Wasserkocher for my Wärmflasche and for my Filterkaffee :)
I stimme zu
Well, maybe celebrating Halloween wasn't a big thing in England but in Ireland it's a big holiday and it doesn't have to do anything with America.
Same in Scotland.
American here with some British friends who told me...to my horror... that hot tea is NOT made in the microwave...silly me!! My hubby has since bought me an electric kettle (which is sold in "regular" stores, not just niche-y ones now) and I am happy to report that tea from a kettle is SO much better than tea from the microwave. Converted, and I love it!! Now, I am a southerner and when you, Evan, say, "tea" my brain immediately goes to sweet, ice, cold tea which is what we southerners prefer, however if I "fancy" a hot tea "of an evening" I'm gonna use my electric tea kettle 😉
In Scotland we’d always go ‘guising’ at Halloween. We’d dress up / disguise ourselves (hence the name) and go round the houses in a group -with the older kids looking after the younger ones. We’d sing songs, recite poems and tell jokes to earn our sweets/candy. In school, we’d have to learn Halloween poems so that everyone had something entertaining to do to earn sweets. It’s still a tradition in some places, but most of the kids do trick-or-treating these days.
4:30 Canadian/American here: while I agree with most of what you've said, you CAN buy an electric kettle at Target. They ARE available (not in wide variety), just not popular
Yeah, my Walmart has like one electric kettle next to all of the standard stovetop ones on the shelf.
Induction hob is definitely the way forward,even Michelin starred kitchens are using them now. That temperature controlled kettle is a new one for me!
I'm from the U.S. and have always used a kettle. Whenever I go to someone's house, I always ask where the kettle is. I get weird looks all the time. 😂
I also use kettles to use to heat up any water, including för my coffee, not just tea.
American and proud electric kettle owner here. We drink a fair amount of tea, and it's just handy to have an easy source of boiling water.
Canadian here - we call electric kettles, either "electric kettles", or just "kettles ". I've almost always had one - in Canada and since moving to the UK. I've always used it for pour-over coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cup a soup, instant ramen, hotter pasta water, and now.. aeropress. But Evan, you have an electric kettle - it's just a fancy coffee one :-) Technology Connections did a whole 1/2 hour episode where he discovered that, even in the USA, an electric kettle is the most efficient way to boil water 🙂 - on an aside - when I first moved to the UK, I saw my neighbours outside one morning with their kettle, pouring hot water over the windscreen of their car to get the ice off. : -o
☎️☎️✍️👆...
Halloween has been a thing in the UK for decades Evan... not as big as in the US probably but kids trick or treating, dressing up, Halloween parties, etc has been a thing for quite a while
Evan you need to research why we have Fireworks Night You won't be pleased as it is to celebrate the extinction of the Gunpowder Plot all tied up with getting rid of parliament and in end King
The old draft excluder thing really applies to pre central heating, especially in older properties where the gap on the bottom of the door was sometimes an inch high!
I lived in a student house with a gap under the back door like that. my British housemates told me about draft excluders but I just went to the hardware store and bought weather stripping that I installed myself. it's crazy to me what British people will put up with when it comes to housing.
Canadian here: We've always had an electric kettle. We were pretty happy when the automatic shut-off ones became available.
A microwave requires so much babysitting that it's probably less time and risk to use our electric kettle. It doesn't take too long. It's much faster than using a stove top kettle without the worry of accidentally leaving the burner on, which I did at a relative's house once. I was used to the electric style. I completely ruined their kettle.
I'm American, though well-traveled and I lived in France for two years. I've never found microwaves that useful to me, so I have an electric kettle and a toaster oven. My girlfriend thinks it's ridiculous that I neither have nor want a microwave.
Ditto with the electric kettle and toaster oven. Also minus the microwave. People think I'm weird not having a microwave.
Dump her, lol.
I have all three, microwaves are also useful. It's much faster at rewarming foods, and better taste wise for rewarming some specific foods, worse at others. Toaster ovens and microwaves aren't exclusive.
On a side note, we don’t even own an microwave anymore. Surprisingly we don’t need it at all. We live in the UK
I have reported you to the British Embassy to request your passport revoked for this blasphemy
As a Scottish person who now lives in England, the idea that Hallowe'en is a new thing came as a complete surprise to me. Hallowe'en is a traditional Scottish and Irish pagan festival, which is still very much a thing that we do. It went to America along with the colonialists. They swapped out turnips for pumpkins when making their lanterns, probably because that's what was available over there, and more recently, the American variant of it seems to have come to England.
The check pattern on police cars and police uniforms apparently made its way from Scotland to England via Australia.
Sorry Evan isn’t the power supply that keeps Americans from adopting the electric kettle. I would argue that it’s partially the fact that we’re not a big tea drinking nation but it’s also just a matter of traditions and the habits that they form. The kitchen counter has a limited amount of space and the space devoted to a morning hot beverage has been given over to the drip coffee maker. Only some Americans are willing to give over additional counterspace to another appliance to heat water. The general consensus for most Americans that I have spoken to is "I don’t need that I don’t want that cluttering my counter why would I buy that". And yes I have tried. I have been converted to electric kettles for years and I love mine. when I try to convince someone ,say my sister, how wonderful they are; no dice. I eventually just gave her my old stove top kettle since hers had broken and considered it a win-win since at least it cleared some cabinet space for me. Oh and by the way even on 120 V system it is more than just marginally faster; it is significantly faster and more energy efficient. Technology Connections recently did an in-depth video on the topic if you’re interested. Love the song.
Lol... I'm an American and I've been using electric kettle for many years (not for tea really). It's quite useful/convenient when you're making soup to speed up cooking. You pour pre-boiled water (from the electric kettle) to your pot of soup, let it continue to boil then simmer and done. It's also useful when you're blanching/steaming vegetables. I also use electric kettle for pour-over coffee.
Curious. I’m in Arkansas and all of the local Walmarts (and to be sure, there are so so many of them 🤮) have at least 5 different electric kettle options on hand. So I do believe that accessibility isn’t necessarily as big of a deterrent to electric kettle using in the US right now.
But why Americans still don't know anything about electric kettles if you can just buy them at your local stores?
I had to buy an electric kettle online because I'd never seen one in a store. I keep it at work so I can make tea there, but there's always free coffee if I want it. At home I just boil water on the stove if I want tea.
Walmart in the US have electric kettles, I use my one cup coffee maker to make green tea, so buying a electric kettle would be a waste of money for me.
I've never NOT seen electric kettles in any department store in the US.
When I was moving to college for the first time (in the US), it was pretty common to have an electric kettle for the dorm rooms. Even though the RAs would confiscate them because “they included a hot plate”, I just hid mine in my laundry basket. I made tea and hot chocolate for the whole floor.
Crazy since they don't actually include a hotplate as such
Halloween in its traditional sense is from Ireland/Scotland and England probably had their version as well. We Americans stole it and turned it into a hallmark holiday. Marmite is mainly Australian last I checked, so there's that. As for tea, yea, most of America forgets tea even exists, or they drink lipton... just like folders/Starbucks/MacDonalds are the main staples of coffee drinkers. It took me many many years to learn to appreciate good coffee/tea as well. As far as power grids, I had no idea we were behind in that regard, so thank you for that tidbit.
As a brit, I just realised Americans using kettles would be like us having coffee machines.
We don't drink as much coffee, or just don't care as much about good coffee to the point where my parents got used to instant when they were younger, and so instant is the type of coffee they like. In my mind, having a coffee machine is sort of seen as something really fancy.
Exactly! As an American, about the only time that I drink tea (with lemon and honey) is when I am sick. If I need to boil water, I can just throw a pot on the stove or put some water in the coffee maker without the grounds basket in or even put it in the microwave in a pinch. So why need a kettle?
In Canada both an electric kettle and a coffee maker are a household staple. I never realized Brits don't typically have coffee makers, and only a few years ago found out that most Americans don't have kettles.
@@chrisischeese I think coffee makers are becoming more common, but at least to me they always seemed kinda fancy
☎️☎️✍️👆...
@@davidroddini1512 because it heats the water way quicker than doing it on the stove and it's not just for hot drinks
I’m an American and I have an electric kettle. I didn’t know they existed until college, when my Azerbaijani-American roommate had one.
I love my electric kettle and it’s faster than boiling water on the stovetop. (Which is the way my dad prefers to boil water.)
Your takes on tea and coffee are completely different to mine 😂 plus I also have an induction job and it takes about 10 mins to boil cold water compared to about 1-2 mins in our kettle
I know from talking to English friends that Trick or Treat is relatively recent and is getting reintroduced from the US influence. However Guising in Scotland, Ireland and Isle of Man has existed for hundreds of years going back to the traditional celebrations of Samhuinn which became All Saints and All Souls.
As a Canadian, I can walk over to any hardware or housewares store and get a large selection of electric kettles. I have a lovely glass kettle made by Hamilton Beach. I want to get a gooseneck one for pourover as well, but I’m waiting to find just the right one. 😊🇨🇦
I would just like to point out that hallowen was actually invented in Scotland and is not, in fact, an American thing. Halloween existed before the US did.
This is very interesting as an American that grew up with an electric kettle. Though we called it a “water heater” so idk
Australian here. We call it a kettle or jug but a pot were you brew the tea leaves/bag is a tea pot. We also have a Billy Kettle which makes Billy Tea. It is used when camping and heated over an camp fire.
Also it just takes around 2 mintues to boil water not really that long.
Aussie here. My family is from Scotland and England. We drink tea all the damn time. I couldn't exist without my kettle.
I mean I don’t think the majority of us have that type of stove 😅 so it usually takes a while for it to boil.
Out of the reasons I think the electrical one is the best. I feel like we mainly use kettles because they are way quicker than the stove.
I am German and recently moved into a shared flat on the UK with two Americans. We are all new to the UK.
Last week American 1 and I were chilling in the kitchen and American 2 came in
He wanted to boil water, was asking us were the small pot is and in the conversation we suggested him to just use the kettle instead. (We have both a kettle and a microwave.)
Turns out that while American 1 owns and uses a kettle even back home, American 2 had never even heard of electric kettles and we had to walk him through using it, step by step.
American 1 also insisted that American 2 will want a kettle of his own when he returns to the US one day.
I think you'll find Halloween was imported from Europe. You just made it great because you had pumpkins! Try carving a parsnip!
Neeps (swedes) here in Scotland, not parsnips. Nightmare to carve compared to pumpkins.
@@grahamleiper1538 Swedes are really hard! Parsnips do look suitably evil once carved as they are already wrinkly. I have trouble chopping a swede for cooking, they're so hard.
I honestly couldn't live without my Wasserkocher. I'm a tea addict.
I remember very vividly the horror of the one year where my kettle died at a day before Christmas. Everything was to be closed for the next three days (a weekend was also involved)!
But, there was a Christmas miracle. I was visiting my parents the next day and as I was complaining to them, it turned out, my mum had an extra one. Christmas was safed!
Good tea is not just tea. There are so many differences: which type of tea do you drink (white, black, green, herbal, rooibos, infusions)? Which flavor do you prefer? Which brand do you use? A generic supermarket brand of an Earl Grey is definitely worst than a Twinnings Earl Grey...
Edit: I'm an American. I do live in the south though.
I'm sorry but I have en electric kettle and it is so much faster then boiling water on my stove and I use it all the time. Since I have an air fryer and an electric kettle I find I have almost no use for my microwave. Also you can find electric kettle at Walmart or Target. They are very easy to find. I honestly don't know what your talking about
@@jwb52z9 I've seen them pretty prevalently for the past 10 years or so, but I do know he's been in England for longer than that. But my aunt got hers from "Bed, Bath & Beyond" like 20 years ago. I honestly think its just because hot tea wasn't really popular in the US. I have seen a rise in hot tea drinkers in about the past 10 years. I'd like to think it because of the popularity of "Downton Abbey" lol but I could be wrong 😊😊
Canadian here. My late father always drank instant coffee made using a stove top kettle. After he had a stroke, he would put the kettle on and nod off. After he boiled the kettle dry we disposed of it and bought an electric kettle with an automatic shutoff from Walmart
I was really not expecting to hear myself get mentioned and it made me jump when I was doing my makeup 😂
On the kettle front, I have to say a kettle is really essential for me. I use it all the time and I don't even drink hot drinks! I have hypermobility in my hands and if I had to use a pan for like a pot noodle I would be pouring boiling water all over myself frequently 😅
Me too .
Canadian here, somewhere in the middle of all this mess. I grew up in a Slovak household (all four grandparents were immigrants from Slovakia) in Canada, and they'd adopted ALL the british ways of drinking tea for breakfast. There was ALWAYS a kettle on the stove and you always either decanted that into a teapot with bags in it or into your mug with a bag in it. Looseleaf was years away or only at Chinese restaurants. But yeah, now I own an electric kettle, of course I do, and was weirded out when I found out Americans did not. Bizarro!
Electric kettles go in the same category as rice cookers for me: convenience and safety. Just turn it on and forget about it, and less risk of burning myself or the cat it they get any crazy ideas. Also saves a spot on the stove if you're cooking something elaborate, or are at bad at doing the dishes
I have had at least three basic electric tea kettles, and love them for both making tea, for adding boiling water as a cooking ingredient without turning on another burner, and for making pour-over coffee (especially after I had three drip coffeemakers from three different manufacturers fail or die on me within a year, due to shoddy electronics). However, the biggest reason for using one is safety - I like using all kinds of mugs, but not every mug is manufactured to be microwave safe. In the past, say, reheating soup to have while ill, the microwave heated up the handles, or the outer ceramic of the mugs so much that it was a burn hazard to bare hands. There is also the danger of accidentally super-heating the liquid the cup or mug contains, and the potential for sparks if the design or rim of a mug or cup has ANY sort of metal or foil on it. None of this is a problem with a kettle. I can't say that I would actually MAKE or brew tea IN one... seems to be a couple of steps over a glaring red line of sorts.
We used to celebrate Halloween by apple bobbing or trying to eat apples strung up on a line and telling spooky stories. No pumpkins or superhero costumes. Spells and midnight things was the thing before the American influences.
Me: *a dumb American who microwaves the water for tea*
“Oh am I the villain 😂😅”
Be careful i microwaved the water here in Australia, then put tea bag in it caused a bit of an explosion once , there after back to Kettle for me .
Swede here! We call it a vattenkokare, a water boiler. I cannot imagine life without one as we like both coffee and tea, I mostly use a French press for coffee. But you use a kettle for so much, boiling potatoes, pasta etc. And it's not marginally faster than the stove, it's a lot faster. And above else, with rising energy costs it's way more energy efficient ⚡
Pouring water from a saucepan into a cup makes me cringe!! If I had to do that, I’d have burns way too often 😂
Some saucepans have a spout to make pouring easier.
That's why we microwave water in a cup for 2 minutes
American with an electric kettle. I'm glad I bought the one did because it's made to brew tea and keep it at the desired temp. There a basket attached to a plunger in the lid that holds the tea leaves out of the water while it's heating up. When the water is at the appropriate temp you push the plunger down and submerge the tea leaves. Once it's steep as long as you like, lift plonger to stop steeping and allow leave's to drain.
I just wanted to mention halloween may not have been celebrated much in England in the past, but trust me, it has been a thing in Scotland for years, as a brat living in a RAF camp in the 70’s halloween was serious stuff! Local legends celebrated rolling eggs to remember rolling witches in spiked barrels down a hill!! All good family stuff!!! And of course trick or treating…
Actually the egg rolling might have been Easter 🤔
@@davidbutler7602 For sure David egg rolling took place on Easter Sunday in Scotland it still happens today .
Brit living in New York State here - been here over 30 years. Electric kettles used to be pretty much only available in British import stores but over the last 10 years, electric kettles and pouring kettles (for coffee) are available everywhere.
I'm from the United States, but I drink tea, Yorkshire to be specific. Coffee never tasted good, but espresso is great. I'd drink that more often, but cardiologist didn't like what it did to my blood pressure.
I don't use a kettle, convenience is the hot water setting on my wife's Keurig. Yeah, that is my first sin, but then I steep it too long. Damnation probably awaits.
I drink tea maybe three or four times a year. I don't understand the foreign obsession with having boiling water available at all times.
I use one daily and they are better. I’ve converted my Friends too. But I’m an outlier. It’s safer for children. Bought mine at Target
An Outlier, is that near New York?
I live in America, and I bought my first electric kettle a few months ago. My water boils in 4 minutes and turns itself off. I use it for many things, and I love it! So much quicker than the kettle for the stove top. I do drink coffee, but I also drink a lot of hot tea. I also like iced tea. In fact, I buy just as much tea as I do coffee. And I do have a microwave, but I rarely use it. If my cup of coffee or tea went cold, then I'll use it. I never cook in my microwave, but will warm up my plate of food if it gets a little too cool.
I feel the complete opposite to the "good tea is tea, good coffee is *good* coffee". The thing is, I've found that England just doesn't have actually *good* tea (which is strange for a nation that prides itself on loving tea). Have some Palais des Thés or Damann tea and I assure you you'll change your mind. As for coffee, well, I drink it purely to wake up in the morning and I'm not a fan of the taste of even "great" coffee (which I have supposedly had before, my dad being a coffee nerd), so I won't be the judge of that.
As a British TV lover I started noticing every English, Welsh, & Irish home had a kettle. As a bona fide, tea drinker & cook that boils water often I decided to try one and I’ve never looked back. Sent my tea drinking sister one (not to be confused with tea-totaling sister) she loved it! ☕️
I think you’ll find all Cwaffee tastes like dirt
American with British family here. I got my electric kettle at aldi and it does boil faster than the stove, with less energy and cleaner energy than the gas stove. That’s what really sold me on using it for more than just tea.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffe
We have an electric kettle. I use it for coffee brewed in a French Press and my wife drinks tea. It is faster than a pot on the stove or the microwave, and it shuts itself off. Years ago it was hard to find an electric kettle in our shops but now they are in most stores.
omg thank you people who grow up with kettles are so weird about the idea of just ... using a stove or microwave that's already in the kitchen. like i don't care about the exact temperature of my tea as long as the water is hot i'm good to go no new equipment necessary
Brewing tea is like baking a cake. You want to do it at the right temperature and length for that tea. You can still use a microwave to achieve lower temperature hot water for tea brewing tho.
@@M.M.Y.B I let the sun brew mine. Ice cold sun tea is the best!
@@kylaluv8453 I love sun tea! What leaf are you using? And how long do you leave it out to brew?
@@M.M.Y.B I use what ever tea I have in the house, thar includes herbal teas. Drop a couple mint tea bags in with the black tea...refreshing.
I live in AZ, during the summer here it doesn't rake long, like maybe 40 minutes. Back in MI it would take 2 hours or more.
But I don't like my tea too dark, so trial and error mistly.
The thing is that kettles are so common here that a kitchen without a kettle would feel incomplete, just as much as a kitchen without a hob or a fridge. Like my grandparents never owned microwaves, but they definitely had electric kettles. There's also the joke/fact that when you move houses in the UK, the kettle is the last item to be packed and first one to be unpacked because it's just viewed as essential.
Ergh, we have an electric kettle in our home in America! You can totally get it everywhere!
First, you do not want to boil water for TEA. Various Teas require a different temperature to optimize the brewing. All of which, including Black Tea, are less that 100°C. And my Microwave can do that.
2:30 = 180°F/82.3°C
2:40 = 190°F/87°C
2:50 = 200°F/93.3°C
3:00 = 210°F/98.9°C
Plus, I never make a Pot of Tea or Coffee, I'm a one cup guy. So, the microwave works fine even if only brewing one cup of ground coffee. Though I confess that I use instant coffee most of the time - _Vina Cafe (3in1)_ - works great for me.
My family is from Zimbabwe and my mum likes to make tea on the stove in an enamel kettle. This allows her to get hot milk in her tea without having to get a pot out or microwave it.
The electricity argument (which I'm only hearing about for the first time in this video) makes more sense to me than the argument that Americans don't drink enough tea to warrant having an electric kettle. As a European, I drink tea very little and usually end up using the electric kettle for a bunch of other stuff. I'd assume to plenty Americans do drink instant coffee so do they just boil the water in a regular pot or really in the microwave? Both seem terribly inconvenient compared to an electric kettle. For me it's not even so much about the speed as it is about being able to easily boil a specific amount of water in a container that's relatively easy and safe to pour boiling water out of.
I'm in the US and have an electric kettle, I love it! I used to use a stove-top kettle but the electric one is definitely a bit faster. Also, I love having precise temperature settings for different kinds of tea.
I’m an American and I grew up with a stove top kettle but I don’t recall it being used much. In the South we do boil our sweet tea on the stove in a pot and yes we use Lipton‘s tea lol.
When I got older and got into hot tea I purchased an electric kettle from Target. I went with electric because it’s a lot faster than my electric stove. Also, the electric kettle has different temperatures for different teas. I also use it for hot chocolate, oatmeal, and Roman noodles.
I was in New York (state) last month and stayed in three hotels. If you go to any hotel or B&B in the UK, you'll always find a kettle in the room, even the most downmarket ones. None of the NY hotels provided kettles. Two of them provided coffee machines, and I was expected to make tea with the coffee machines.
Savages! 😁
I discovered "the kettle" on vacation to Europe. It was 220 volts. Wow. It worked great. Got home, went to Target and bought a 110 volt one. Doesn't work as good, but it still works. It's OK ... not bad. I now use it every day to make hot water for instant coffee. And it's safer than a microwave or pot on the stove. It's all plastic. Hard to spill. Difficult to burn yourself. Glows blue, shuts itself off when the water starts boiling too.
We make coffee with kettles as well so it's no just about tea
While I was visiting Japan to see my relatives. They actually had an electric kettle both at my relatives place and the inn I stayed in. Electric kettles were not only useful for cooking cup noodles but also they had instant miso soups, instant latee coffee, and believe it or not hot water bottles for cold winters.
I'm one of those Americans who is a bit of an anomaly on the tea topic. I LOVE tea and have an electric kettle, most likely because much of my immediate family immigrated here from England, Ireland, and Scotland, so I grew up with tea. I drink it daily, and although I drink black tea 95% of the time, the real advantage of my electric kettle is that it has variable temperature controls for the occasions I'm not BOILING water to make black tea.
I wish more Americans had an appreciation for hot tea. That being said, I freaking LOVE my iced tea and coffee too.
American here from Texas. I have an electric kettle. I do find it to be much faster to boil using an electric kettle as apposed to the stove or microwave. You can get an electric kettle at most grocery stores and all walmarts and targets. So they are easy to find a between $10-$90 dollars depending on how fancy you are. I introduced my mom to it and she was shocked and now owns one. Growing up if i wanted tea you just microwaved it. If you were making ice tea we used the coffee maker and instead of putting coffee in you put tea bags in. Then cool it in the fridge over night. For ice tea we usually bought Luzianne and Red diamond family size tea bags as apposed to the Lipton but if Lipton was on sale that week well you get whats one sale. And being a true Southerner ice tea has so much sugar that the quality of the actual tea didn't really matter. It wasn't until I started reducing the amount of sugar I consume that quality became more important to me.
American here... 🙋♀️ I bought my first electric kettle (Cosori) last winter to heat the water for my hot water bottles that warm my bed, lol. It stays right in the bedroom and it's perfect!
Sacramento, California USA 🇺🇸
I’m an American who drinks herbal tea and I own an electric kettle. Largely because I thought an automatic shutoff would be safer than keeping track of more burners. But beyond that, I don’t use it for much. I don’t drink coffee, instant or otherwise. I don’t eat instant noodles because of all the sodium. I don’t eat instant mashed potatoes (and when I do eat potatoes, I roast them in the oven or the air fryer). And I’ve never felt the need to get pasta boiling faster so much that I needed to add an extra step to the process. The biggest additional thing it’s helped with is when I was baking rolls for Thanksgiving. I had hot water ready to turn my oven into a proofing box for the first rise.
I stayed in London for 6 months and enjoyed using a kettle over there, but here in the US... I dont have counter space for it. Things that take priority on the counter - my Keurig, my drip coffee maker, toaster, microwave, cookie jar, knife block, and rice cooker.
I’m American & I use to have an electric kettle because I like drinking tea but in the mornings, I pick coffee over tea, tea is usually something I’ll have with dessert or something. I got rid of it because not enough room in the kitchen & I didn’t drink tea every day so it made sense. I have one of those tea steepers from Teavana because I do drink some loose leaf tea, that’s more required than an electric kettle. I use the stove top for boiling my water.
Having lived in North America(Canada) Kettles(electric) still are not the big thing they are in the UK and Ireland. Even here in the Uk induction stovetop is the fastest way to boil water really. In France it is rare to find a kettle and most frequently boil water in a saucepan. Great video!
Excuse me, I would expect Canada but France is not using an electric kettle to boil water? Truly, absolutely, barbaric...
American here. I have an electric tea kettle and a stove top. I use the electric one everyday.
I use my kettle mostly to boil water for instant noodles, soups. Rarely instant coffee - I have real filter coffee machine. I have an induction top but it is slow. So sometimes I pour the boiled water in to speed it up when cooking pasta or rice.