TeaChat

I investigated this.

The minimum order quantity is 200 units for 110V version. It socks!

They are nice, but IMHO, I think they take away from the tea drinking experience. They are trying to commericalize, and automate gongfu which in many ways defeats the purpose. But would be a nice piece of office equipment.

Its interesting, I'll keep it at that. I agree with Hop. Not to mention, its non-traditional, with tea, I try to keep it as simple and traditional as possible, I think this leads to the true enjoyment of the brew.

shogun89 wrote:Its interesting, I'll keep it at that. I agree with Hop. Not to mention, its non-traditional, with tea, I try to keep it as simple and traditional as possible, I think this leads to the true enjoyment of the brew.

All traditions are invented, and in the case of our beloved gongfu tea... much of what we do these days are actually fairly recent.

MarshalN wrote:

shogun89 wrote:Its interesting, I'll keep it at that. I agree with Hop. Not to mention, its non-traditional, with tea, I try to keep it as simple and traditional as possible, I think this leads to the true enjoyment of the brew.

All traditions are invented, and in the case of our beloved gongfu tea... much of what we do these days are actually fairly recent.

And?...

So don't sweat too much about the tradition bit.

If you are going to get one of these nice all in one pieces, you should get one with a faucet which can be hooked up to your indoor plumbing.

xuancheng wrote:If you are going to get one of these nice all in one pieces, you should get one with a faucet which can be hooked up to your indoor plumbing.

I believe Gordon of Dragon Tea House sells this particular model.

Now that is kinda cool but I have to go along with the those that like the traditional simple approach.

I really don't see the difference in having i.e. a tea table and a loose kettle on the side then having this?

Or what do you mean with "traditional"?
I guess you boil your water in a kettle over an open fire maybe?

hop_goblin wrote:

xuancheng wrote:If you are going to get one of these nice all in one pieces, you should get one with a faucet which can be hooked up to your indoor plumbing.

I believe Gordon of Dragon Tea House sells this particular model.

This is the one he sells, wich according to Oni gives a wierd taste from the kettle...
http://tinyurl.com/munfo8

So you want a friendly advice: Do not buy those gong fu automatic tea trasys, you can compose your own tea equipment with much better results, that cups sterilizer is useless, the water tank is made of cheap chinese plastic that reeks a mile away, the pump has a silicone hose, that is not midicinal quality, it`s the cheap quality used in toilets, and the metal bottom of the glass kettle is sealed with silicone, and the metal is not bended over the silicone part as with some higher quality kettle like "Ufesa" brand glass kettle. I did the side by side comparison with my old tea kettle and it gave better results as the teatable, so as a conclusion even if you replace the glass kettle two function are absolite, the water tank with the pump, and the cups sterilizer, plus the teatabe top is made of plastic too.
Trust me on this and buy a separate teatable from fine wood, buy a good quality teakettle like Lin`s purion, or teahabitats Chao Zhou stove, buy a great yixing teapot, some nice teacups (I recomend funalliance, they have a great selection of teacups, the sell the largest number of teacups I have ever seen) and there you go, you have a great teaset, all natural and high quality material, only thing left is to find high quality tea and water.

I plan to use a simple induction kettle and a glass gaiwan at work, I think this is the most simple equipment.