Why are teacups always so small?

[entropyembrace]

Little rant on my part but it has a purpose...

I´ve been looking at a lot of teaware lately, different styles from different vendors...my teaware works okay but it´s not very pretty and I get pretty teaware envy. But everywhere I look the teacups are always very small relative to the pots being sold...

It seems like the cups are designed for sharing with 4+ people in most cases with cups being very tiny only 30 or 40ml...usually I drink tea by myself...sometimes with 1 other person and only rarely with a large group...and the large group usually wants black tea western style which is easy with a big pot and some mugs.

I can get a few matches by crossing vendors but I don´t particularily like the idea of paying separate shipping from overseas...especially since teaware is recomended to go by EMS.

I´m poking at the idea of a 90 to 150ml gaiwan or little porcelain pot and maybe a kyusu that´s 200-300ml....would really like pretty cups that match in size for drinking alone...but they are hard to find!

Anyway I know a lot of people here also drink tea by themselves quite often...how do match the cup to the pot? Or what sites have pretty wide teaware selections? So far Dragon Tea House seems best bet for the Chinese style(but I would like other suggestions), but what about the Japanese style? I´m still a bit lost in the world of Japanese tea(ware) vendors.

ps....looking at O-Cha´s teaware because I really want to order some sencha from them but they only measure the cups like this...

Measures 7.8 cm wide x 5.7 cm high (3.0 inches wide x 2.25 inches tall).

Does that mean the volume is roughly 346 ml or 44ml or something else? I´m a bit foggy of how to calculate the volume.

*facepalms* teacups are cylinders (roughly) so it must be about 270ml?
looks like a Japanese cup could solve the problem

[debunix]

I gave up: I don't even try to match cups and pot. Matched sets seem always to be made for sharing the tea with several people, and even then the cups may not equal the full volume of the pot. Other than my first tea set, before I knew better, I've only bought sets when I wanted a specific component sufficiently to pay the cost of the whole set to get it (e.g., for my very very tiny gaiwans used for uniform preparations when comparing puerh or oolong teas over many infusions).

My yunomi, which I use for most of my tea drinking, are big enough to hold the output of my routinely used teapots: they hold between 6 and 8 ounces.

[entropyembrace]

I didn´t even mean the sets...but just looking at all the cups vs all the pots at any single vendor doesn´t seem much better than the pot and cup sets sold as a package

[debunix]

Agreed. There is an assumption of social tea drinking that is not borne out for all of us in our daily tea.

I do share tea regularly with a number of people at work, but I'm carrying the thermos or pitcher to their desks & their own cups.

[wyardley]

The short answer is because the sets, as you say, were designed to be used when making tea for a larger number of people. And the solution is probably either to get a smaller pot / gaiwan, use a fairness cup, get a bigger cup, or some combination of the these options. I have cups and pots in various shapes and sizes -- I'd try to figure out the most common scenarios you're likely to deal with, and then get pots or gaiwans and cups that are appropriately sized for your needs.

Some of this is convention - while many of us usually drink alone, historically and by tradition, in a lot of cultures, tea is usually shared. The small cups I think you're talking about are mostly associated with gongfu tea, which, in most traditions I've heard about, should use 3 or 4 cups (strictly speaking, sometimes even if there are more than 4 people present). So you'd have a ~ 60-120 ml pot, and 3 or 4 tiny to medium-small sized cups (maybe 10-30 ml). Always been interesting to me, given the Chinese (and Japanese) tendency to avoid the number "4", that 4 is considered a good number of people to have tea.

I personally find it more pleasing to drink from a smaller cup, and it often seems that I lose some of the taste and fragrance if I use a larger cup. This is especially true for oolongs. I have heard quite a few people suggest using a somewhat larger cup for puer than you'd use for oolong, so you could get a rounder-shaped cup around 50-70 ml for puer that should work pretty well. And of course, for more casual drinking, an even larger cup should be appropriate.

The good news is that even fairly nice teacups tend to be available pretty cheaply, so there's no real downside (other than space / clutter) to accomodating a variety of types of cup. This also gives you the opportunity to experiment and see which type you prefer for a given tea.

[Marco]

So you just want to match in size - not in design or colour or anything?

I have this little cups too and if I drink alone I give the tea from the pot in a second pot and refill my little cup 3-4 times before doing the next infusion.
But I have bought from O-Cha this nice Tokoname teacup "16345" - and yes it is strange that they do not write the volume on their homepage - it holds about 150ml. (or even 180ml)
If you want a bigger size and a japanese design I think a summer-chawan would fit your needs.

ciao
Marco

[Chip]

... get a Hagi!

They are available in a lot of sizes and shapes. Check out the hagi topic for loads of examples.

Japanese cups in general seem to have a larger variety of sizing.

[chicagopotter]

... get a Hagi!

...Or something from one of the TeawareArtisans here on TC. Think Chip may be announcing the next TC TA special offer soon too. Maybe it will be teacups?!?!?!

[Chip]

... get a Hagi!

...Or something from one of the TeawareArtisans here on TC. Think Chip may be announcing the next TC TA special offer soon too. Maybe it will be teacups?!?!?!

Ah yes, on both points! Thanks Chris for pointing out the oversight!

Yes, our TA-s are an excellent source for Asian style in larger styles.

Yes there is a TC TA SO about 10 days away! I will give a hint that cups may be offered in addition to other items.

[entropyembrace]

I sent O-Cha´s support team a question asking for the volume of two of the cups I liked best...

will poke around TA too, ty for the suggestion ^_^

also since you mentioned hagi and I´ve thought quite a few of those look really cool what are some reliable hagi vendors?

looking for two cups basically...one around 120ml for oolong, puerh and gongfu reds I will "match" with a gaiwan or jingdezhen pot (thinking of getting both at Dragon Tea House) and another around 270-300ml to "match" the pot I already have and a kyusu I´m looking at from O-Cha for slurping down satisfying cups of Darjeeling and Sencha

Also side question...is it okay brewing other teas besides Japanese greens in an unglazed Kyusu? Thinking they´re the right size for Darjeeling...

[Chip]

Two vendors that come to mind for Hagi are ArtisticNippon.com and Zencha.net. You can also find them on ebay.

Regarding multitasking kyusu. I can say that I owned one kyusu, my first, loved the little guy so much that I used it for everything. This was before they were available at many places that will ship to the West. So I used it a LOT!!!

Bottom line, after years of constant use, it would impart a sweetness to anything brewed in it, more like a sweet flavor. But that was after 1000's of uses for everything except roasted teas like houjicha or genmaicha and never used it for scented nor flavored teas.

I could still use it, but tbh it kind of annoyed me as it gave everything the same sweet taste and I wanted to taste the actual tea I was drinking.

So, you could be OK. Just depends on the actual clay used and how much you multi task use it.

[Geekgirl]

On your sidenote: best pot I ever used for darjeeling was a tokoname kyusu with the obi-ami (360 ss) screen.

I also second the non-matching suggestion. While I do have a couple of "sets," generally I choose a brewing vessel, then choose a complementary and/or contrasting cup, depending on the type of tea and the size cup I need for the whole brew.

When I am sampling tea by myself, I use a cup that will hold the contents of the pot, and a tasting cup, since I agree that the flavor profile can be a bit different depending on volume. I often lose nuance when using a big cup, which is fine for normal drinking, but not as good for "taste-testing."

[JBaymore]

Entropye,

Try thinking of a pot and cups as a "still life arrangement" in a painting. Rather than "matched", think about creating a serving setting/situation that is varied each time you make tea for you and or friends. Select the pieces to complement each other via interplays of colors and textures and forms. Take into consideration the surroundings that the work will be placed into. And take into consideration the specific nature of the people that will be using each piece.

This is the way a formal Japanese tea ceremony is approached.

best,

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

[entropyembrace]

Thanks for the advice John and Geekgirl

I´m thinking more of a practical match as in I can pour everything from the pot to the cup and have the volumes match

other than that I´m just trying to find pieces I like which wouldn´t clash badly with each other.

[DewDropofJade]

I drink a lot of tea by myself as well and what I use (mainly) is a gaiwan, a server, and a small cup. I think this is the best solution. You can empty the gaiwan completely into the server and then pour into your cup. You can also use this for more people, just add another cup.