a glazed or porcelain gongfu pot?

[moot]

I've been spending a lot of time in my office, so I was thinking about installing a pot. I'm lookin' for: gongfu sized, glazed or porcelain.

Not yixing, because I brew everything from green to cooked pu-erh, and... well, the pu, at least, definitely lingers in porous material. Especially with my slovenly office brewing habits. Esp. the occasional leaving of an wet, leaf-filled pot over the weekend.

And not a gaiwan because, well, let's say I'm pretty good with a gaiwan, I'm not unerring, and I've lost more than one student paper to distracted, exhausted gaiwan-handling.

Suggestions? Imperial Tea Court has a lovely, appropriately sized little yellow one (that my friend has, and brews very nicely), but it's really pricey, and only comes as part of a huge set that I really don't need. I was also eyeing some of the little Lin's pots at Houde. Anybody used them before? Other suggestions?

Thanks!

-thi

[wyardley]

Small (150ml and smaller) porcelain pots are pretty easy to find in Taiwan and on Taiwanese auction sites, and maybe in other places as well, but I don't know of too many vendors catering to the US that sell them. I sent you an email with some ideas.

The little pots with a built in strainer (usually called a cebei or something) are kind of a pot/gaiwan hybrid. I think they're ugly and not that appealing, but they might work for what you're trying to do here.

[tingjunkie]

I am on the same quest as you! I'll let you know what I turn up.

[tingjunkie]

Group buy anyone? Check here.

[Dreamer]

Maybe something from here:
http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/category/ceramic

I bought the fishy set and swapped the cups (they weren't a shape that works for me). Nice stuff...unfortunately, my fishy "pot" has disappeared ...lost or broken and tossed...now I have to shop for a replacement

Happy shopping,
Dreamer

[teasbest]

Dragon Tea House on eBay has about a dozen:

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea- ... itleDesc=1

[tingjunkie]

Dragon Tea House on eBay has about a dozen:

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea- ... itleDesc=1

Those are great! Thanks for the link.

Anyone have experience with these?

[wh&yel-apprentice]

I've been spending a lot of time in my office, so I was thinking about installing a pot. I'm lookin' for: gongfu sized, glazed or porcelain.

Not yixing, because I brew everything from green to cooked pu-erh, and... well, the pu, at least, definitely lingers in porous material. Especially with my slovenly office brewing habits. Esp. the occasional leaving of an wet, leaf-filled pot over the weekend.

And not a gaiwan because, well, let's say I'm pretty good with a gaiwan, I'm not unerring, and I've lost more than one student paper to distracted, exhausted gaiwan-handling.

Suggestions? Imperial Tea Court has a lovely, appropriately sized little yellow one (that my friend has, and brews very nicely), but it's really pricey
-thi

I hope I'm not too late, been off of teachat for a while.

Another teachat member and I were @Teahabitat Sunday (me the whole day) tasting teas, discussing tea brewing/tasting philosophies (something that should pique your interest :p ), and all were talking about *you* and your article, all the hard-liquor you plied her with :p. (dont' be a stranger to Imen, she might be able to help with suggestions on your teapot dilemma)

Anyway, we were doing an experiment that Imen wanted to try on 3 of us. In wine tasting parlance, it was akin to 'stump the chump' double-blind tasting...kind of. (was I ever the chump :p, fooled big time)

Unfortunately I did not get the teachat handle of this other member...maybe he'll post to the LATimes article thread once I post a few more of my comments. He's a primarily a Japanese green tea fan, brought in his own tea cup to ask Imen if she, with her superior palate, could taste the difference with tea put into this cup which had an black iron component outer glaze, with a off white inner glaze said to have enough silver in it to affect the taste of the water in tea. Ie. make the water taste 'softer'. I think the 'silver' glazed tea pot debate is a whole thread unto itself.

I'll do a search in the next week to see if he posts up his impressions of the 3 different vessels we got blind tasted on with the same two types of Dan Cong, 1st one was a 'commercial' DC that I called 'eggy' on the initial 'attack'. Or maybe for the pastry chef, and to be less derisive, being a n00b taster I am; I should have said I was getting the complexity of mild creme brulee /Chinese custard dim sum desert tarts, lol

How much is too expensive for you, probably the 1st question?

Is this the tea pot set in question? I ask because many here would not want cups that are not white on their interior, and I bought my mother that crackle glaze celadon set which is so green as to make it nearly impossible to tell what color the infusions really are.

http://www.imperialtea.com/Imperial-Yel ... -P642.aspx

(rules for posting on this site, dictate you need 10 posts and minimum membership time of 30days before posting other tea vendor links)

There was a link someone gave to some aged oolong's, a site in England, IIRC, where they had a tea 'mug' like gaiwan thingy that had an integral strainer. Will try to find you that link in my next post, assuming you haven't already made your choice.

btw, if you're tired when going over student papers, short of the thermo's; pretty much going to find any tea drinking vessel is going to result in occassional 'accidents' :0 .

[tingjunkie]

Can anyone comment on shipping from Dragon Tea House to the US? Does it really take two to three weeks as quoted on their site? (Kind of sad how impatient us modern folk are now, huh?)

Perhaps I can easily find one of these down in Chinatown instead.

[TomVerlain]

2-3 weeks would be EMS ... and yes that is realistic. I use SAL - usually, I have a bigger order so shipping SAL makes economic sense. For teaware, EMS might be better, less chance of breakage when the boxes aren't going steerage.