Linen tea towels
Linen tea towels
Linen tea towels, aka the Easi Dryer. Well, the most linen-y I could find without breaking the bank. These are near as dammit all linen: A whopping 92% linen, 8% cotton. The absolute best for drying up and polishing glasses. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. It's made from flax and if you're really interested, click here for more about linen.
Anyway, trust me, this linen content thing can become quite obsessive. Once you have an all-linen tea towel, you will start turning your nose up at anything else. If you can't get to grips with spending £12.50 on a tea towel, keep your eye out for all linen tea towels in charity shops (I've got a 1966 World Cup one which I shouldn't really be using). Second hand linen is wonderful because older linen gets softer and softer. It's also a good gateway drug choice for entry level linen acquisition because it's cheaper (a natural salesperson, me).
See the pics with a blue and a red edge tea towel next to each other. The blue is linen union and red is all linen. Notice how the weave is gappier. This is another reason it dries things well.
Also to enjoy them to their fullest (what a life I lead), you MUST iron them. They work better and they look better. Clean, ironed linen sort of quivers in a most appealing way. Saying "I'm proper."
You can wash them hot. And you should. Anything you use in the kitchen should washed hot (oh, and pillow cases).
We do of course, have other choices: all cotton (quite cheap, but good) and a glass cloth with a 30/70 linen cotton mix. A bit cheaper.
Approx 70x50cm.