Automated Daydreaming: The Question of The Kettle

My poor old electric kettle, my simple black Ibis, my companion and boiler of tea water for these past 4.5 years has died.

In his old age he had become grumpy and reluctant, requiring one day a spanner on his lid, the next a paint brush tilting him back. Yesterday he boiled his last boil, an unpleasant whiff of burning plastic and a wheezy death-rattle signaled the end. It was quiet and dignified, and as I drank my coffee I bade him farewell.

Now comes the task of finding a new kettle. A breif search on Amazon did not inspire me as far as electric kettles go. There are few to choose from, and of those many are small, ugly or badly reviewed. So I'll turn away from those, and focus on stove-top ones.

A brand named Copco seems to have a wide variety in attractive designs and shades, and at resonable prices. Here is my shortlist:

This Michael Graves Design in pale yellow is quite pretty, but it doesn't seem very ergonomic and I've heard bad things about the quality of his tea kettles. $25 @ Target

The Bellini Teakettle in Robin’s Egg Blue is a lovely shade, with happy curves. $20 @ Target

I like the old-fashion shape of this Copco Cambridge Stainless-Steel one, it's elegant but not at all fussy. It looks like it would do its duty for many years without complaint. $30 at Amazon.com

This charming Red Delicious apple kettle has a 2.5qt capacity, which is great as I drink lots of tea. I love the 'stem' on top. $26 @ Amazon.com

This brings to mind tea and buttered toast. The Copco Bristol. $30 @ Amazon.com

I particularly like the simple design on this one, and it comes in lovely shades of pale green, blue and red. The Copco Midori Enamel $20 @ Amazon.com