Feb 2nd, '14, 13:35
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When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by jbu2 » Feb 2nd, '14, 13:35

I found i barely have time for tea, sure i can make a cup of tea in 5 min but when i really want to make tea with a small pot or gaiwan it take around one hour , how do you incorporate you're tea ceremony in the everyday life ?

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Feb 2nd, '14, 13:52
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Re: when do you use all of you'r Teaware ?

by JRS22 » Feb 2nd, '14, 13:52

I didn't begin drinking tea until after I stopped working. I'm able to relax with tea and some reading material in the morning, unless I have an early appointment. I don't consider my tea drinking to be ceremonious, except that all the beautiful artisan tea ware that I've collected elevates the kitchen table setting.

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Feb 2nd, '14, 14:16
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Re: when do you use all of you'r Teaware ?

by miig » Feb 2nd, '14, 14:16

Yes, good question. I'm single at the moment and I'm worrying how I will have time for tea once I'm in a relationship again :lol:

But seriously, I basically got two kinds of tea settings: standard quality teas and teaware which I use throughout the week, teas that are neither too expensive nor too special or complex to be drunk without full attention. For example, I come home from the University, take a couple of minutes do prepare a tea of an affordable Oolong or Pu, and while studying i regularly do breaks when my concentration starts to fade and drink another infusion.

And then I got the special setup, with some expensive teas during holidays or usually on Sunday morning, i take a couple of hours just to drink that tea.

But, most importantly: The best way is to convert friends and people who visit me to tea :) That works really great.. once I bring out the tea table and the tiny cups and everything, most people are amazed. So I don't drink much coffee anymore with my visitors, because qute a few of them are now happy once i bring out one of "these specials teas you got there". This works especially well with good quality roasted Oolongs... most people enjoy these, and they like watching me prepare them.. fortunately they don't know how much more skillful that can be done :wink: Thats the best way! To share a tea with company I like totally puts the whole experience on a new level.

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Feb 3rd, '14, 06:33
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by bliss » Feb 3rd, '14, 06:33

The session doesn't have to be in one go. Yesterday I started on a wonderful pu in the evening. Steeped three times, worked for a while only to return for another three steeps a bit later. This morning I had another two steeps before going to work and I'm looking forward to squeeze out a few more steeps this evening :D

Not having overly large teaware is probably another factor to consider when wanting to keep it fairly quick.

EDIT: Oh yes, and thin porcelain cups that let the tea come down to drinkable temperature immediately.

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Feb 3rd, '14, 13:27
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by debunix » Feb 3rd, '14, 13:27

I have a tea station at work next to my desk, and prepare tea 1-4 times during the day, and have half a dozen different brewing vessels and cups for me and for sharing with guests kept there; I keep a few pieces at one of my satellite offices, where I am several days each month and have a place to store things between visits; and I keep my tea station busy when I am at home. Tea is part of my everyday routine. And some pieces of teaware get the occasional non-tea use: cups with suitable (easy wash) glaze can be used for other beverages, and some more delicately finished pieces can be used for plain water.

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Feb 4th, '14, 14:59
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by debunix » Feb 4th, '14, 14:59

Here's an example from a few moments ago:

Image

Kyusu is brewing some SeaDyke TKY for the thermos (to take to lunch and afternoon meeting); shibo is brewing some Yong De Bai Ya sun dried white buds from Norbu for drinking now in a Deishi kumidashi-wan which is on my desk, not on the tea tray; and the yuzamashi is cooling a bit of the kettle water so I can brew the Yong De at temps more congenial to white tea while keeping the TKY going with very hot water.

That's four pieces of teaware, plus kettle and thermos, all in use at once. And there will be some office tea rounds momentarily, sharing some of the TKY with colleagues who have custody of their own cups from the collection (another 4-6 cups depending on who is still at their desks).

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Feb 4th, '14, 17:00
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by kikula » Feb 4th, '14, 17:00

I have a little setup next to my bed, with electric tea kettle and all. At night I lay out wares. I love to wake up and have my first tea session in bed before anyone is stirring. And I've been known to brew cups 5+ of the previous evening's session then - I sometimes think the leaf is better for having rested all night, but that's just fanciful. :)

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Feb 4th, '14, 17:05
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by bliss » Feb 4th, '14, 17:05

debunix wrote:sharing some of the TKY with colleagues who have custody of their own cups from the collection (another 4-6 cups depending on who is still at their desks).
What a lovely thing there with the custody! Beautiful gesture towards colleagues, and avoids having to defile good tea by pouring it into unsoulful sales-pitch mugs (which surely exist at the office?).

Off-topic: Are you hacking away in a shell while slurping/sipping your tea at the office Deb? (your nick has been evoking pictures in my head for quite some time now :mrgreen: )

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Feb 4th, '14, 21:11
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by debunix » Feb 4th, '14, 21:11

Not sure what 'a shell' means in this context.....I have a small office to myself, with a large desk and two file cabinets that provide handy surfaces for tea prep and teawares, along with the desk I sit at while sipping tea and doing endless rounds of paper/computer work.

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Feb 5th, '14, 09:58
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by MEversbergII » Feb 5th, '14, 09:58

bliss wrote:avoids having to defile good tea by pouring it into unsoulful sales-pitch mugs (which surely exist at the office?).
Funny you should mention...my tea mug at work is this:

Image

Which is everything that is soulless and wrong.

M.

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Feb 5th, '14, 15:00
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by bliss » Feb 5th, '14, 15:00

MEversbergII wrote:
bliss wrote:avoids having to defile good tea by pouring it into unsoulful sales-pitch mugs (which surely exist at the office?).
Funny you should mention...my tea mug at work is this:

Image

Which is everything that is soulless and wrong.

M.
Haha, that's exactly the kind I had in mind! Sorry about bringing attention to that :lol:

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Feb 5th, '14, 15:13
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by bliss » Feb 5th, '14, 15:13

debunix wrote:Not sure what 'a shell' means in this context.....I have a small office to myself, with a large desk and two file cabinets that provide handy surfaces for tea prep and teawares, along with the desk I sit at while sipping tea and doing endless rounds of paper/computer work.
Sorry about keeping it vague! I was referring to "a shell" as in a UNIX terminal of some flavour. I thought that your nick was a homage to UNIX (Operating System and design "philosophy" that Linux and OSX can trace their ancestry to) and that your work might involve spending time in "a shell" (a good and quality way to spend time on a computer, beside drooling over tea ware) :mrgreen:

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Feb 5th, '14, 16:41
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by debunix » Feb 5th, '14, 16:41

Ah....that sort of shell. I did take a Unix class at Berkeley many moons ago, and that is where I came up with debunix--it's my initials + unix. It's been a handy login for many settings, although the passwords are always different. I do spend more time than I would like being my own IT support and occasionally dipping into terminal commands on my Macs, but that is not my primary job. I just work in several different offices, each with different computer record systems, and have to be half sysadmin just to keep them all straight in my head.

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Feb 5th, '14, 16:43
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by MEversbergII » Feb 5th, '14, 16:43

I, on the other hand, am full sysadmin :D

Nowhere near elite enough to have studied at Berkeley, though! :shock:

M.

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Feb 5th, '14, 16:47
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Re: When do you use all of your Teaware ?

by debunix » Feb 5th, '14, 16:47

Not so elite--total student body was about 30,000 when I was there.

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