Monday TeaDay 6/14/10 Color your teaware?

[Chip]

Yesterday, chocolate won the snack war. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Welcome TeaFriends to TeaDay. Let's brew and share what is in our cups today...all day. You can reflect back on your TeaDay if you need to.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic is again teaware...hope to spend a few more days here. Color is very personal when it comes to teaware. Share with us your fave colors in teaware...and why?

I am looking forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone. So, bottoms up, refill, repeat many times...

[entropyembrace]

transparent, as in glass

I like to watch the leaves infuse

[debunix]

No favorite. I love looking at my tea in the simple glass mug out of which I am drinking the 2007 white bud sheng puerh from Norbu, but my 'granite' multicolor yunomi and 'seafoam' blue & white from ginkgo also add a lot of pleasure to my teas. But the yunomis holds the heat of the teas infused at a boil long enough to both scorch fingers and tongue, so the glass mugs still see regular use. And this morning I was drinking out of some decorated porcelain tasting cups as I compared two organic shinchas from Yuuki-Cha (the Honoyama and the Tenryu Misakubo), which were bought because I wanted cups of that size and thin material for comparisons, not because I otherwise really liked them much.

I have strong color preferences for clothing and housewares and many other things, but little of that carries over to teaware. I enjoy my Korean celadon teaware in colors that I would never wear and would be unlikely to use to decorate my home.

[Victoria]

I think glass is the best choice for letting the beauty of oolongs shine though. But I also like white. I took me a long time to get past this preference, but I do enjoy other colors now. But clear and white still are my favorite.

[nickE]

I prefer white in both my teacups and brewing vessels. I have 3 gaiwans, they are all white. Also, most of my teacups are white. I find that it shows off the color of the tea very well.

For some reason I do not like glass when brewing tea, not sure why.

I also voted for "the natural color" because I use some yixing, of which whatever color the clay is works fine for me.

Ending the TeaDay with some Long Jing after spending too many hours studying. There's also some Assam cold-brewing in the fridge.

[Trey Winston]

Transparent glass and natural color are my favorites. With the former I can admire the tea visually as well as olfactorily and gustatorily (ooh, look at the long words I know), while I can't really explain why I like the latter.

Having some Dragon Well today.

[Seeker]

Truly no fav. But I voted 'white' & 'other'.
'Other' is for no fav, and white is because I sometimes like a white interior in my cup so I can see the tea liquor best (but for me this only applies to infused tea, not to matcha).
That being said, my fav tea ware (as you prob know) is chawan, and I have absolutely no preference for color. My preference runs to an overall esthetic resonating from the individual chawan.

Most recent tea in me cuppa was 18 year old puerh.

Cheers.

[artmom]

No favorite, so I didn't vote.

Most of my cups are white inside, but that's because most are Western style. Recently, I have purchased yunomi and hagi in various colors.

Hope your TeaDay is good!

[dooble]

Natural colors for me, but for the tea cup it has to be white to see the color clearly. Somehow I still don't own a 'traditional' purple tea pot, but tend to purchase darker colors like grey and black.

[Skippyandjif]

I have no favorite outside color for teaware-- generally, I like teaware on an individual basis. If I feel drawn to something, I like it, regardless of color. (On the other hand, I have seen some truly hideous tea cups in some of my favorite colors or designs, which just makes me sad.) That being said, I do prefer to have the inside of the cup white, so that I can see the color of the tea.

Magnolia pu-erh in my cup this morning.

[JBaymore]

I voted natural colors and multitone.

When I think of tea..... I think of ceramic wares. Not so much of glass, or stainless, or plastic, or wood, or other materials.

The colors that develop from all ceramic materials are "natural" colors... produced by the inherent chemical processes produced by subjecting clay and glaze materials to the heat of the kiln. So the full spectrum of colors is available and are actually all "natural".

That being said, I tend to prefer earth tones, ivory whites, grey greens, warm rusty red-browns, rich and varigated blacks, and so on. I also prefer that the surface have some variation in it that documents the movement of flame across the pieces in the kiln. I like work that shows the metamorphic character of the ceramic process.

For certain types of teaware pieces I am particularly enamored of yakishime pieces (work that goes into a wood kiln unglazed) with shizenyu (natural ash glaze) and youhen (fire change) effects. And the character of the clay itself, tsuchiaji (the variations in color and texture within the clay) is also a very important consideration.

There is a reason that early tea practitioners used tenmoku (black) glazed bowls from China. Whisked Matcha looks terrific against the black glaze. Shino white with just a hint of fire color (reddish) also sets off Matcha very well.

best,

..................john

[Victoria]

This morning I am having some '10 Maribong FF Darjeeling
from Special Teas. It is positively glowing inside the frosted
glass Japanese cup I choose this morning. Lovely.

[Geekgirl]

I voted natural color of the teaware materials and "other" because I love painted teaware.

[Seeker]

I REALLY like what John said.
Ditto that, especially with chawan.
No tea yet today, buuuuut...

Matcha soon!

[mbishop]

White! But I also picked 2 tone, since I like a little color on the outside too

Just received my Den's order, started with the Zuiko. Quite good.