Once you've won that pretty Wilton tea or coffee pot what do you do with it? Do you display it in a cabinet or do you intend to use it? I suggest using it. A well-seasoned Wilton pot makes the best tasting tea!

I discovered this quite by accident. When I made tea at my father's house it always tasted nasty. I assumed it was the water. Last Thanksgiving I brought some of my Wilton to make the table more festive. Included were two pitchers and a Flagon coffeepot to hold iced tea. The Flagon pot was to be used to differentiate the unsweetened tea from the sugarated. The night before I got a hankering for tea. I prefer to make it by the pot so I used the Flagon pot. It tasted yummy like my tea at home! A little research told me why.

After you have used your pot a few times you will notice that the inside is tea stained. This is caused by a build up of tannins from the tea. The rough inside of Wilton pots makes them especially prone to staining. But that's a good thing because that is what makes a good flavoured pot of tea. The porous clay Yixing teapots of China are particularly desirable to tea connoisseurs because of the way they build up a coating of tannins. I wonder if any of these aficionados have discovered Wilton yet. A well seasoned Wilton pot will be dark brown on the inside.

To preserve your coating, you can gently clean your pot with a plastic brush with mild soap and warm water. Or you can simply rinse the pot out. With the plastic brush and a little elbow grease, I scrub the brown off near the rim to keep it looking nice. You can dry the outside of the pot with a towel to preserve the shine but allow the inside to air dry. You can get a jump on seasoning your new pot by brewing up a pot of tea and letting it sit for a day before pouring it out.

While Wilton is stovetop safe, do not heat water in your pot. It will cause funky white spots after a while. If you like sweetened tea do not sweeten it in the pot. Put the sugar in after you pour it in the cup. Sugar makes funny stuff grow on the bottom.

If your pot has the handle molded on, you will need to use a pot holder with it. In my experience, models with rubber coated handles or bolted on handles with white or black insulators at the joints remain cool enough to handle. When you get your pot test it to make sure!

I have not found it necessary to preheat my pots with warm water. I pour in water at a full rolling boil and steep according to package instructions.

When you pour in the boiling water leave about an inch below the rim. If you overfill, the pot will drip from the spout or around the lid.

I suggest having separate pots reserved for black teas and herbal teas.

I find 'gooseneck' styles pour better than stubby spouts.

In each pattern, Wilton seems to have sold large and small pots. They marketed the small as teapots and the large as coffeepots. The small pots hold only about 16 to 20 ounces depending on the design. I drink a lot more tea than that so I always use the 'coffeepots' for my tea. I reserve the small pots for serving herbal concoctions to sick people (you know those teas that curl your toenails but make you feel better).

The easiest pot to find is the 1840. It's the one with the gooseneck spout and (usually) a knob on the lid with a coat of arms on it. The handle is usually rubber coated and screw mounted well away from the side of the pot so you don't burn your knuckles. It holds 48 ounces making it a good all around teapot. Sometimes you will run across one with a Liberty Bell on the side. The small pot is charming and I really like the matching cream and sugar set.

For the tea guzzler there is the Flagon style. It's a tall pot with a short curved spout and a rather conical lid. It holds 64 ounces but I have found it to be rather drippy and messy. Mine has the handle molded on and because of it's size I need two potholders to move it. I use it more for iced tea. This one looks really nice on a sideboard when you have matching small pot and cream and sugar.

The Country French style seems to be a lot harder to get a hold of but I think it's my favourite. It holds 52 ounces and has a long gooseneck spout. The spout is wider so it pours faster. It has a narrower base than the 1840 so it fits on my trays better. I don't care for the cream and sugar that goes with it because they don't have lids. I use the 1840 set with it. The small pot is very squat and near impossible to find. I think I may have seen two on eBay in the last couple of years.

There is a squat round teapot with a rubber coated handle that shows up often on eBay. The lid is not hinged but it has that little bump that keeps it from falling off into your cup when you pour. It's a very nice little pot that holds 16 ounces.

The perfect compliment to a Wilton teapot is a Wilton tray. They have so many styles to choose from. I particularly like the Acanthus and Oak leaf and Acorn patterns.

The best thing for those of us who are all thumbs (like me) is these beauties don't break when you drop them. Just mind your toes when you do.

Perhaps it is a little peculiar of me, but now when I visit relatives for more than a day, I roll a Wilton teapot up in my jeans and stick it in my clothes bag.

I do not sell, I only buy when I see a good deal :)