Marble etches instantly. I'll take patina over imitation any day. If you are anti patina, how about a Glacier White Corian?

PS and no to hot on quartz, too risky. No to hot on Corian too, though I used to put cookie sheets on mine without any trouble, the right answer is no, regardless of personal anecdotal experience.

I went with honed marble for my 2018 kitchen remodel and love it. My kitchen gets used hard and two years later, I am still loving the marble. I wanted a well used, natural stone top that remained me for the old bistros in Europe.

However, marble is for very few people. The water rings and etching spots drive my husband to the point of despair and I think if I mentioned replacing the marble, he would gladly spend the money.

Sealing the marble does not prevent etching. Sealing is to prevent stains from setting into the marble. Ours was sealed and we haven't had a stain yet.

If water rings and etching will bother you, don't choose marble.

Pennfire: what causes water rings?

condensation, my husband and son filling their water glasses from the faucet and letting water dribble on the outside of the glass, etc.

It is only visible if one gets down low and looks at the counter top at an angle.

Quartz! I love it. No worries with it.

kelleg69 Are you saying that you put hot pans from the oven or stove on your quartz?

Thoughts on quartz - I have quartz (a dark greenish grey) at our cabin that that counter top has held up very well to rough use. That counter top is 5 years old and aside from a few tiny nicks on the edge, it looks perfect.

I do not place hot pans direct from the cook top or oven on the quartz.

A friend has quartz that looks 99% like marble and she loves it.

Are people really putting hot pots directly on their counters? I don’t have Quartz, but I never put hot pots on my granite counters. I either slide them to an unused burner on my stovetop, or I have a trivet or pot holder I put on the counter. I mean, really, this is not any difficulty.

I cannot imagine using the criterion of being able to place hot pots on the counter for deciding on a counter. But in any case, if that is people’s priority in choosing a counter, then they need to choose soapstone and be done. Soapstone can handle screaming hot pots placed on it, and it is beautiful.

What @mmiller said. Soapstone is the only stone which accepts hot pans and pots, without experiencing thermal shock, I.e., cracking. It’s also impervious to staining and etching. Get a hard variety, like Belvedere (which we have), and it will take all kinds of abuse, without showing wear.

Here‘s ours, now almost 5 years old. Click to enlarge.

There is no soapstone exception to the Natural Stone Institute's recommendations for trivet use on all natural stones.

Since natural stone, engineered stone, and solid surface all require trivet use, they are for all practical purposes equal in the heat resistance department.

Joseph, we’ve been through this before. I’ve quoted the source debunking your statement before.

Soapstone is unique. It’s properties absorb heat slowly, rendering thermal shock a non-issue. That, is fact.

I’ll say once again...just because a government agency says something, doesn’t make it so. Surely you know that by now.

“There is no soapstone exception to the Natural Stone Institute's recommendation for trivet use on all natural stones.”

Joseph Corlett - we have seen on this forum and other websites many “experts”, fabricators, stoneyard owners, KDs, etc. who don’t understand soapstone, and moreso, haven’t bothered to educate themselves about it. Lots of posts from people with all kinds of misconceptions or ignorance about soapstone. Like they think soapstone should be sealed (it should not), or that it has the same heat capacity as granites and other stones (its heat capacity is much higher). Either the Natural Stone Institute prefers to make recommendations based on generalizations and would rather not set aside separate instructions about soapstone, or, they don’t know soapstone.

Bullets were originally made by pouring molten lead into soapstone forms. Those forms, 200+ years old, are still found intact today.

Thanks for all who gave me helpful info. Please don't hijack the thread by adding new ideas and arguing about them. I specified marble or quartz. And yes, for 20 years I have put hot pans on my granite. No problems. From the first comments I had pretty much settled on marble, but I have done several hours of research since I first posted and have concluded that my best option may in fact be neither marble or quartz, but quartzite. And pennfire and Zalco, yes, I'm good with patina! Thanks again.

I take back my statement above about the possibility that the Natural Stone Institute does not know soapstone. Joseph Corlett - please refer to Page 11-5, Section 3.3 of The Natural Stone Institute’s Soapstone guide available on their website’s Resource Library. I’ll link below, but also copy and paste here what it says:

“3.3 Heat retention is very high. Soapstone is unaffected by temperatures from well below zero to above ±2,000° F. Thus it is very useful as refractory material and is frequently used for wood burning stoves that use both of these properties. It is dimensionally very stable through a wide range of temperature.”

http://pubs.naturalstoneinstitute.org/pub/2d885a78-0fd6-c0d4-a836-766b817df276

Marble! If you are ok with the patina then quartz will never come close to the beauty of real marble. It looks so flat and pixelated. Bonus- since you love baking marble is the perfect counter for that!

@jandsmom We have VERY similar kitchens, the door styles and handles look identical. Similar husbands too from the sound of it :)

As for hot pan talk, my former counters were concrete and I put hot pans on that.

I have leathered steel gray granite on the perimeter. I also had granite in my old house for 15 years and always put hot things on it. Because of the crystallization on the quartzite, it's more fragile so I never put anything hot on it. Everything goes on a cork trivet. Lately, I've just been naturally putting hot things from the oven right over to the rangetop so I don't forget and put it on the quartzite :). The pulls are from Amerock in Champagne Gold. Different sizes depending on the cabinet. Inexpensive but are comfortable and wear beautifully.

M Miller:

Thanks for the link; it's informative, however, my claim remains un-refuted. There is no exception to the NSI's use of trivets on natural stone.

darbuka: You've debunked nothing. The Natural Stone Institute is the 70-year-old trade association of the stone industry. It is a non-profit, not a government agency. Debunk that for us please.

If baking is your major love, have you been able to actually try rolling out dough on a quartz countertop? I went with soapstone, which had rave reviews from bakers only to find it disconcerting for rolling more delicate doughs like for pie. It has a grippiness that’s probably great for bread dough but I couldn’t get used to it. It felt like a car with the emergency brakes on. I still love soapstone for other reasons but that was a big surprise. I bought a large marble pastry board for about $35 and all is happiness. Anyway, I’ve tried Formica, granite, wood, soapstone and marble for rolling and working pastry. All of them are different. I personally do like marble the best for that kind of cooking. A random thought - marble is easy to chill down or warm up, what about quartz?