The Teapot Debacle

A few weeks ago I bought a really lovely-looking teapot from Kikki-K. It’s lovely, made of glass, and has shiny gold-coloured spots on it. I usually use a double-walled tea flask at work, but it can be annoying to clean when I use it so much and it keeps the tea super hot and I can’t really drink straight out of it.

I decided to give this teapot a go, as well as buying a matching teacup and saucer, and a trinket box (woo, desk swag). The teapot came with a glass strainer. When the three items arrived, they came in a huge box. Though it was not very tall in height, it was gigantic and mostly filled with air pillows.

Teapot and matching teacup on my desk
Brewing green tea… matching teacup and teapot!
The teapot packed really well
Yeah… air pillows to the max

I was glad everything was packed well and my teapot arrived without any damage. I started using it straight away. :D

Observation #1

On the first day of using the teapot I made the conclusion that the tea strainer wasn’t a very good one. Because it was entirely made of glass, the holes in it were just slits. And there weren’t many of them. So I found that my tea leaves would often get stuck in it and it was difficult to clean. I continued to use it, because for the most part, it worked.

Observation #2

I was discussing the UX of my teapot with my team, and we all looked at it and pondered the state of the lid. It was a simple lid with a knob and it didn’t lock in place in any way (I believe most teapots are like this). As my coworkers observed me pouring the contents of the almost-empty teapot into my teacup, they pointed out that after a certain angle, the tall design of the teapot showed its flaws because the lid had to be held in place to prevent it from falling off.

Hmm.

Incident #1

After perhaps my fourth day of using the teapot, I did a boo-boo and I accidentally smashed the glass strainer on a bench. I felt really dumb. I was shaking it over one of those pull-out trash drawers to get the leaves out, but I didn’t open it very far and didn’t give myself enough room. It still functioned, but there was a chip in the top lip of the strainer and it was not very safe to use. I still continued to use it though, but was careful not to cut myself on the sharp chip.

Annoyed that I had broken the strainer, I contacted Kikki-K’s customer support to ask if I could purchase – or get sent! – a replacement strainer, because I didn’t want to buy a whole new teapot. Although I already thought the strainer was crap at this point, I was still curious to see what they might say. Of course, I was willing to pay for the strainer to have a more ‘complete-looking’ teapot, even if I could use a different strainer. The teapot looked fine with just the lid and the strainer removed though…

After a little back-and-forth, I received a reply and they said they would send me a brand new teapot! I was really surprised, but also happy, and thanked them immensely. I had bought the teapot for 20% off and now I was going to get another one. I couldn’t really complain.

Incident #2

The new teapot arrived, but I didn’t open it yet. I figured I could probably sell it, I mean – my original teapot was functioning albeit with my makeshift disposable-teabags-acting-as-strainer solution. And someone could well do with a teapot I couldn’t even recommend at this point.

I decided to throw out the strainer after I cut my finger on it (when will I learn?), and instead opted for putting my loose leaf tea into some empty teabags bought from Daiso.

Incident #3

Some time after this happened, I spilled my tea all over my desk when I poured too much tea into my teacup. I don’t know how I managed that… but I was not having a great morning and I looked away from the teacup while I was pouring and poured too much in.

It was very funny, though (as it usually is when someone spills a drink all over their electronics), so I took a photo.

A tea spill on my work desk
Laughing at my own misfortune

Incident #4

A couple of days later, I didn’t have too much tea left in my teapot, so I thought I would empty the rest into my teacup.

While we were having a bit of a laugh about my clumsiness at work, we also deduced that perhaps this teapot’s quality was not very good at all. Kikki-K specialises in well-designed stationery, and it’s possible that their homewares were not made of good quality glass. Even if the bottom of the teapot insists in gold print, “Made from quality glass”.

Alas, when I poured the rest of my tea into my teacup, without holding the lid, the lid did a wonderful thing and dropped itself into my cup of tea, breaking its knob off in the process. As much of an innuendo that sounded just then, I would invite you to laugh at the part of that sentence that was very much not an innuendo.

So I had a teapot with a gloriously broken lid. The break of the knob off the top of the lid was so clean, it just sat there and did nothing more than piss me off, really.

Incident #5

It’s worth noting that Incident #5 is not my doing. But considering I’d broken both the strainer and the lid of my teapot, I decided to open the replacement teapot that was sent to me and check it out. A lot fewer air pillows were present this time, and I experienced the ravish glory one usually experiences when unpacking a box or unboxing a package.

The teapot was packed exactly the same way as the original one – each piece was wrapped in tissue paper and adequately padded.

It turned out that the strainer, the piece I originally wanted to replace, was also adequately broken. The rim had broken off and it was at that moment that I felt the most ironic feeling of Schadenfreude.

I returned to my email client and wrote another ‘thank you for the teapot’ email, only this time, followed by ‘but…’, an explanatory paragraph of the broken goods, a brief mention that I intended to leave a less-than-favourable review on the website for the purpose of educating other customers, and a photograph to prove that I really wasn’t just a teapot thief.

I do think this cursed teapot brings me terribly bad luck; apart from that, its quality is not fantastic and does not live up to the teapot my friend Emi bought for my birthday about thirty months ago, which has survived numerous bumps and does not – for the love of all things tea – have a bloody glass strainer.

Conclusion

I thought it best to include this note: I am using the original teapot without a lid, continuing to use my own teabags, and I’ve used the replacement teapot as a form of storage for the empty teabags.

Comments on this post

Oh jeez. That is one incident filled teapot! I really hate when you get stuff that COMPLETELY disappoints you. I’m sure you can find a better one for your needs. Shame it didn’t work, as pretty as it looked.

oh dear, this does not sound good at all. I hope you managed to get some kind of reimbursement. If you are looking for a good glass teapot, I’d highly recommend the Japanese brand Hario. Theirs has a nice, fine mesh metal strainer!

This post had me giggling like a loon. Oh, Georgie. Your sense of humour.

It’s a shame the teapot, however pretty, wasn’t up to standards in the end. It’s nice that they sent another teapot, mind.

Awfully random, but I get the sense it must be really hard to get a teapot right. What a peculiar object.

Ah, Kikki-K. I’ve ordered from them before (a planner), and everything came in a too-large box. I’m not sure what their feelings are about smaller, more practical boxes, but apparently they’re not good. I had to go to the post office to pick up the package because they wouldn’t leave it on my doorstep it was so large. And it was a planner! Sheesh.

I’m sorry about your teapot, though. When I saw this was a Kikki-K teapot I cringed, mostly because I couldn’t imagine it was particularly high quality. At least it made for some interesting stories, though! And it is cute. Just not practical.

I think I was away from work when my package arrived, my coworkers immediately thought I just stocked up on stationery until they saw that the box was just filled with air pillows. Hahaha.

i don’t know why but i prefer drinking tea in mugs and not in cups LOL

and i also don’t know why but i laughed a little when you mentioned the functionality of said teapot as “UX” hahaha it’s not weird or wrong but it’s just…idk, i laugh at non-funny things sometimes hahaha

wow so many incidents xD i’d love to have a teapot too someday and this post is quite informative and helpful :D now i know how to pick my teapot, hopefully ;)

I used to drink tea from mugs but I had some big mugs and the tea would cool down pretty quickly (especially in an air-conditioned office) so I use a smaller cup now. :)

That sucks loads. :(

I’ve been having similar issues but in he electronics department. Dx blah.

It’s kinda funny how you use the other teapot for the empty tea bags. ^^;

I’ve been wanting to buy my own teapot for a while for some delish Teavana mixes. I love the golden spots around the teapot. It sounds like the teapot does a fine job of being cute but not at being practical. I wonder if there are any teapot manufacturing companies that actually put some work into R&D for proper usability (use + abuse resistant kinda thing). I can’t believe how much misfortune came out of this teapot. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is cursed X’D. At least you found a use for both teapots (or teabag holder at this point). Hope you’ll find that sturdy teapot that won’t crack or leak as easily!

Talk about one cursed teapot(s)! It is clear that Kikki-K is good for stationeries, but perhaps not for teapots . . . it is a very pretty teapots, but it definitely has a lot of issues. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone having such a hard time with a teapot of all things!

It’s good you were able to get some usage out of it, and in the end is using the teapot along with the other as a storage container XD

This post is pretty funny. I hope you’ll have a better luck with your next teapot! Do write about that if you find a good one that actually cooperates with you! ^^

Wow, sounds like this teapot was not meant to be! It sucks that the strainer was broken in the replacement one, but it is funny in retrospect since you got it because of the original broken strainer :) It’s too bad that this teapot isn’t very good because the design is so cute. I really like the gold dots. I have a glass teapot, too, because I like being able to see the color of the tea. The strainer and lid are stainless steel though, so they have not broken! Definitely recommend ones like that if you go with a glass teapot again!

Wow, that does not sound like it was made very well. :( To have so many problems and the replacement to be broken as well, I hope you will be able to get a refund.

Oh my goodness, this post had me cracking up!!

Sometimes the cutest things aren’t always designed the best or as functional as they should be. But it was a really cute tea pot! I’ve never purchased a tea pot before, but I have a couple of teacups that I love using. I’m always afraid that it’s going to break because they are made of some type of glass or porcelain.

That was some pretty good customer service though for them to send you a new tea pot for free! Except for the part where it was broken… I’m sorry I can’t stop laughing haha. At least you can use parts of it? I’m trying to look at the teapot half full, not half empty. ;)

HAHAHA I love your half-full joke! SO appropriate! 😂

Glad I read this was just thinking about purchasing one but you have put my mind at rest the answer is a big No No Lol😒