Need a new all-purpose pot...

[bjlange]

Hey TeaChat-
I've come here before and you've never steered me wrong. My first pot was a little red kyusu from Den's (the old $9 ones- they don't sell them anymore). I loved it. I dropped it, it broke.

I followed it up with one of the Den's Shincha kyusu-s. Last night, it fell off a shelf and broke.

So I find myself in need of a new all-purpose pot to brew in. I've really liked my glazed kyusu-s thus far, so I'm thinking of getting another. I didn't like the 360-degree style filter on the Den's Shincha though- made it hard to clean, and when it broke open, I saw how dirty and gross it was behind the filter. Any suggestions on another quality, relatively inexpensive glazed kyusu?

I'm also open to other ideas for an all purpose pot- I love the shape and functionality of kyusu-s (I actually wrote a paper on them for a design class), but then again I've also broken two of them.

Thanks!

[iannon]

Can I assume you will be using it for Sencha? or something else?

[bjlange]

I use it for everything- from rooibos to white to black and everything in between.

[iannon]

I use it for everything- from rooibos to white to black and everything in between.

Just asking cause what we suggest may not work filter wise. For instance I use pots with finger filters for fukamushi vs a porcelain Kutani pot that has larger holes which I use for Oolongs. Its great for my taiwanese but would not work for sencha very well due to the larger ball filter holes. If you would be using it for "finer" steamed teas or teas with more "dust" or particles we'd have to go with a more stainless mesh filter style pot.

[TwoPynts]

Adagio's PersonaliTea may fit the bill of an all purpose pot. You may want to browse teapots over at Amazon.com. I'm not sure about a kyusu.

[debunix]

Asking one pot to do EVERYTHING is actually quite hard.

Rooibos has very very tiny bits in it, like a fukamushi sencha, and needs a fine strainer to keep those out of the finished tea. If you buy a pot with a very fine strainer, you're possibly going to have trouble iwth very short infusions of puerh where you may need a quick pour. And if you rely on a finer strainer, put over your teacup, pouring from the teapot with not so fine strainer into the fine strainer it is easy to overflow the strainer (at least it has often happened to me!). A nice sasame filter in a japanese kyusu is sturdy and fine enough for rooibos, but I've not seen one of those glazed--clearly the glaze might fill the holes as it is fired. But brewing rooibos in an unglazed pot that would also be used for more delicate teas is not a great idea. I've done it on occasion and regretted it once or twice. Even a gaiwan, my #1 choice for most versatile brewing vessel, has a little trouble with 'clogging' with these very fine teas. And my Kamjove 'kungfu art' plastic brewing cup has a design that requires a larger minimum volume of tea per infusion than I generally want with solo gongfu sessions.

That said, my most versatile vessels are a 6oz glass teapot with built-in strainer in the spout ($8.99 at my local chinatown teashop), a basic porcelain gaiwan ($2.99 at same), and my Kamjove KJ-350. I've brewed herbal, white, green, oolong, puerh and black teas in all of them and they're fine, if not perfect for every last thing.

[bjlange]

Thanks for all your replies everyone! I think I'm going to get another glazed kyusu, and maybe an inexpensive gaiwan too. I've looked, and honestly the Den's kyusus seem like the best value for glazed. Apparently there is a way to take the filter out and clean, so I just have to figure out how to do that this time .

Anyone have recommendations on a cheap starter gaiwan online? I know there's a small Chinese tea shop within biking distance of me, so I may head over there this weekend too.