TeaChat

iannon wrote:Wife missed the mail man..got a little slip in the box..not sure if its my cup or tea from china?

Should not be the cup since you shipped via SAL, no sig required.

Chip wrote:

iannon wrote:Wife missed the mail man..got a little slip in the box..not sure if its my cup or tea from china?

Should not be the cup since you shipped via SAL, no sig required.

ya i wondered that..ok..so Pu from China waits til tomorrow and Snow does too! wha me

My first Hagiyaki ever and now that it has arrived I'm surprised at how even more excited I am than I thought I would be. Can't believe how engrossing to fondle and study. Kind of creepy. Is this how Gollem started out? Sorry for photo quality but a cell phone is what I had when it arrived.

When you start saying, "my precious" to your SnowDrift ... well you know, you are definitely addicted.

Beauty, precious ...

Stentor wrote:As promised, here are the pictures of the lovely Snowdrift #9.
Mine appears to be made for right handed use...

I think all pieces have the same directions for the spirals and they fit your left hand thumb perfectly so I'd say they are all left-handed.
I'm right handed and I started holding it in the right hand but soon shifted to left hand hold.

Have checked now, drinking an infusion of Hon Yama Zairai sencha from Norbu with the cup in each hand, and both infusions were comfortable.

It's got a direction to the spiral, but mine is quite ambidextrous.

Yeah, I've tried holding 'Snowdrift' in my left hand now as well. I don't think it was much less comfortable. I guess it depends on whether or not you prefer your thumb or the other fingers to go with the 'flow' of the carvings.

Stentor wrote:Yeah, I've tried holding 'Snowdrift' in my left hand now as well. I don't think it was much less comfortable. I guess it depends on whether or not you prefer your thumb or the other fingers to go with the 'flow' of the carvings.

I have mine in hand now..i dont know ..it feels ok in both hands..just depends on where you hold it. I think for me..my sipping spot is in a place that will make it more comfortable to hold right handed.

Mines a righty too

My cup came yesterday! I had ordered a couple of bonsai pots from Magokorodou, so I picked SAL.



And I was able to soak it and enjoy my first bit of tea.... here's a fukamushi from OTTI #8 resting within its white gullet.



What a beautiful form...!

And Mine going for its test drive after soaking for a while today.


Maiko Maruyama in the cup! yummy stuff

Rad SnowDrifts Drax and Ian!

Your SnowDrifts looks great paired with that Kyusu iannon!

I absolutely LOVE how the crackles in this cup are beginning to stain! Here are a couple pictures after only 15 cups of sencha.

Here is the outside, near the bottom:


And the inside near the top (you can see sencha lurking below):



You can see with the inside of the cup, the stains look almost like random marks... when I first saw them, they reminded me of scuff marks, and for a moment I thought I had accidentally marked the inside of the cup with the metal strainer I use... then I realized they're stains starting.

What I love about it -- they're forming like random cracks in ice. It's not a general fade in everywhere, but like cracks spreading across the surface of the snowdrift.

Very awesome!

No crackles yet, but this cup has a lot of personality--it is happy in either hand, but the sipping sweet spots are rather specific, regardless of which hand I hold it in.

And because it is a bit deeper and the clay is not very thick, it cools slower than a really shallow cup and lets me know as I grab it whether the tea is cool enough to drink yet--not such a big deal when I'm making sencha, but with the yancha I'm drinking now (Da Hong Pao from Norbu), brewed at 205 degrees, I'm learning to skip the sip if it feels too hot. I have a very thickwalled and thick glazed cup that has been my main go-to cup at home which is so heavy that I don't get that warning. So.....another 'personality' difference.

Ummm....cancel that crackles comment. I was looking at the top quarter inch above the tea and it wasn't very obvious, but a sip or three later, and a sudden change in the light coming through the window (sun behind a cloud, less glare), and crackles are staining all over the inside of the cup.