La Cafetière LACAFETIERE Edited Brushed Gold Le Teapot, Brown, 1200 ml

We are a loose leaf household, much to the chagrin of a visiting relative who is completely stumped without teabags, and made the permanent switch some years back when I gave my mum an expensive tea shop brand all glass teapot for Mother's Day- 3 years later that's been replaced twice and when the spout broke off the last replacement we said no more and looked for a more affordable and perhaps robust replacement and this was the one that we chose not just because it looks beautifully stylish suiting our modern kitchen but thanks to the metal housing offering a layer of protection against accidental clanging or heavy-handedness and the fact you can replace the inner glass bowl in case of accidents for far less than buying a replacement.The metal housing is a great layer of protection, there's no longer any wincing if my hubby is banging about near it and the housing offers a much more robust solution to the handle which DOES keep cool so you don't burn your hand when pouring- we found that there were often flaws in handles of the all glass teapots which would weaken over the time (from the heat?) so this reduces the risk of it just dropping off one day especially when pouring from it (true story).The bowl of the tea pot and the metal infuser are easy to remove for cleaning, I'm looking for replacement infusers as they do tend to stain overtime from the tannins and need a long soak, but these seem to be brand specific sizing so I can't use our old infusers (worth a point if like us you have smashed a few glass ones!) but this is not a reason to demote stars.I demote a star mostly because of the lid. It gets blooming hot when brewing, we used this as part of a birthday afternoon tea party and my 5 year old wanted to help and got a nasty shock (but luckily not a burn her reflexes saved her from that) from the lid before I could stop her- she knew the old teapots lids didn't get so hot plus the handle of this remains cool so it was a surprise that they didn't engineer a solution to stop the metal lid getting so dangerously hot- after all I've seen so many people pop a finger on the lid in the name of not sloshing everywhere when pouring from a teapot you would think this would've occurred to the designers.However these aren't dealbreakers, just things to be aware of, we love our new teapot it sits well in our modern style kitchen, it has enough room in both the pot and infuser to brew loose leaf well just be careful of that lid.

read a few reviews on this purchase as I always do, read people saying the lid knob was too hot to touch,I have not found this to be the case at all,yes it gets warm but no way is it too hot to touch,the water goes no where near the lid as the filter is below, with a clear gap between the two,whats more the lid doesn't even need to be held whilst pouring,so no problem there.I use loose tea and the basket is very good at holding the tea with only dust of the leafs getting through the mesh,which would be the case with all mesh holders,this seems to collect at the bottom of the pot rather than being poured into the cup,using a tea seive before getting this pot,it would let not just dust through but leafs too, so it is a marked improvement on that,tbh I blame the tea I use more than the pot as it's a supermarket bought organic tea, so will have dust present,if using rolled leaf tea then I would say nothing would get thought the mesh,the mesh and the pot are very easy to clean,thought some leafs might get stuck in the mesh but no problem there at all,the mesh holding the leafs can easily be removed when you have the brew as you want it, it has a little handle on it which is a nice touch,this too is not too hot to touch either and as it is nearer to the water,if anything would get too hot to touch it should be that.The pot holds around 2 mugs of tea,very good price for this as some I've seen are way more expensive,not really fair but I've only given this 4 stars as I would have preferred an all glass model(mesh excluded),so lost a star for looks but as said not really fair as I knew what it looked like before buying.

Ok for price. Only concern is the life span of copper surface. Not solid copper so could scratch away in time. Easy to use.

A nice statement piece for my new kitchen.Easy to fill and pour as it is light but the lid falls off if you tilt it too far.

This is an excellent teapot at a great price. I am not a heavy tea drinker - but have been more since I received this. Brews very well, looks excellent, cleans easily. If there are remarks, then these are it:- it really is smaller than I imagined, but that has to do with 1200ml being less than I thought. So not loss of the five star rating there.- I noticed that there can be water between the glass and the inox construction around it - it is hardly noticeable. Just dry it upside down and that's solved. No loss of stars either.- But my biggest gripe is that the lid is difficult to remove to the point of being afraid that I would one day break it. Ok, it needs to stick on when pouring, but this is overdone. I suppose it is a problem with the one specific unit I have though and it is not enough to send it back. It is enough for me to remove one star.EDIT on 20111228: I took a point of the score because of the lid. A few days after I posted the initial review, the glass pouring tip indeed broke off while trying to remove the lid. I had done it a few times already and I guess I became a bit careless. Anyhow, I have written Amazon about it. They immediately sent me a replacement, which I received mere days later. The lid is far more easy to remove now - making it an excellent and well-priced choice.

I am a little disappointed with the constant staining on the stainless steel .. these items ( lip casing, infuser , glass teapot casing cannot go in dishwasher so have to use soft wire wool to remove tannin stains . This was a present for my partner . Will not buy again or recommend .