Sunday/Saturday/Friday TeaDay 6th, 7th, 8th day of Spring

[Chip]

Greetings one and all, welcome to a Spring TeaDay. Please stop in and share what is in your cup throughout the day.

Yesterday we discussed, "On the 5th day of Spring ... share your 5 fave teas ..." You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. On the 6th day of Spring ... do you have 6 fave pieces of teaware? Please share your Spring faves. Also, faves for particular teas.

We are all looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with ... everyone. Bottoms up.

[entropyembrace]

hmmmm 6 faves would include most of my teaware still

[brandon]

Yay what a topic! I have many favorites but some stand out.


Japan export Yixing for aged puerh.


Three foot shui pin for high fire Tie Guan Yin. I chipped the spout and it is still in the Teaware Hospital. Getting close to recovery I am told!


The undeniable classic. 90ml gaiwan, thin walls, good flare, "just right" lid fit. Use them every day.


40ml Yixings, Mr. Red and Mr. Blue.


Best for last... Hokujo Yohen kyusu.

[Chasm]

I voted "maybe" because I'm actively hunting for the best pairings.

The six that are currently most-used (I really should take pictures at some point):

• My water-cooler. It's a largish creamer of ivory glazed stoneware with a basket-weave design. It's a magnificent heat sink, with a thermometer-handy shape and a wide mouth. I've gotten expert at judging amount of water by how high it goes in this vessel. Cheap thrift-store find, but I like how it does the job better than anything else I've seen.
• Joyce Chen ceramic kettle. Love the neutrality on the water of this one, and it is one tough baby.
• The object listed as "Hakucho Banko Yaki Houhin Teapot" on Yuuki-cha. I got it from some other store on ebay, but it's the same one. I'm currently drinking O-Cha's Sae Midori every morning, and this is the best infusion vessel I have for that tea. Banko-yaki, even a poured-slurry cheapie like this one, does something to this tea I adore, and this is my only banko with a steel mesh filter.
• My current chawan of choice is a 69-cent thrift store find. I always wanted one in a certain type of cobalt blue, because the green matcha against that color really does something to me, but I've never seen one I could afford. There's no maker's mark on this bowl, I don't know who made it or what for, and it had a sizable chip missing off the outside, but it was that perfect gorgeous blue and the right size and shape, so I brought it home, lead-tested it, and dyed the chip with tea. The tea-dyed imperfection fits very well with the traditional matcha aesthetic, I think.
• I have a lot of china in the Haviland Blue Garland pattern, all of it accumulated from thrift stores. The teacups (not the coffee cups) for this set are excellent when you want a thin-walled porcelain English-style cup with a good shape for tea drinking. I use one for when I drink black tea. I have several, which is good given that I've already smashed two. I'm getting much better at not smashing teaware.
• A "singing cup" from Stephane at Teamasters. It's my reference cup against which I compare others for finding the right pairing with a given tea. It sits on a copper flower-shaped chataku depicting the Meiji shrine.

[Chasm]

Those are all gorgeous, brandon.

[Chasm]

The six that give me the greatest kerwallops of the heart:

• My sweet, sweet 40ml banko-yaki kyusu. It has the finest-mesh ball filter I've ever seen. The guy who sold it to me on ebay was worried I didn't understand how tiny it is, but I assured him that's why I wanted it.
• My other banko-yaki kyusu and matching set. What can I say, I have a weakness for banko-yaki, both how it looks and how it affects my tea. Another old ebay find. I'm not sure which I love more, the pot or the cups.
• A new acquisition, which I've carefully cleaned but been too nervous to use yet: An old and smallish Tokoname orange clay pot. It was designed for an overhead bamboo handle, which is missing. It has that super-silken feel you don't get with modern shudei and some funky lid shrinkage.
• Some of my rice-grain ware.
• It's hard to pick among my cup collection; there are quite a few that make me go all weak in the knees, so I'll just pick one to mention. It's a pair of handle-less porcelain cups with matching saucers, painted black with gorgeous floral and gold designs on the outside, but with the inside a delicate robin's egg blue. Fun to haul out for tea with one guest.
• An odd little nerikomi houhin set. Very simple design, no fussiness in how the two clays are swirled together, silken texture. Ebay again.

[brandon]

Can't wait to see those PHOTOS, Chasm.


"It sits on a copper flower-shaped chataku depicting the Meiji shrine."

Chataku envy.

[Chasm]

Can't wait to see those PHOTOS, Chasm.

My life is in huge transition -- completing a doctorate, moving cross country. I'll photograph everything for packing records, and I might get around to posting some of them at some point. Well-done photos are at least six months away, probably.

"It sits on a copper flower-shaped chataku depicting the Meiji shrine."

Chataku envy.

Does that mean you can translate what it says on it? I didn't realize it was anything special. I have a few of them, and I didn't pay much for them on ebay.

[dokpm0]

I don't have enough teaware to have six favorites. For a lot of things I'm using makeshift teaware that's not teaware at all. My electric kettle lives at work. At home I heat water in a saucepan on the stove for the time being. I have two tea pots at home. One is a bit large for brewing for one, and doesn't have an infuser. It rarely gets used. The other is a Adagio PersonaliTEA, which gets used fairly regularly. At work my "tea pot" is a pyrex measuring cup with a saucer for a lid. Some day I'll get a real tea pot for work. I also have an Adagio glass mug with infuser. It's been semi-retired since I discovered the infuser is too fine for some of the teas I drink. The mug was too thin for my taste to begin with. I had to keep reminding myself that it was glass. It's so thin and light that every time I pick it up I think it's plastic. The only actual tea cups I have are cups that came with a couple of sets of dishes I got 20+ years ago. They've rarely been used for tea. At work I drink tea in a German Shepherd mug I found at PetCo. At home I usually drink tea in a coffee mug. It actually has "Coffee Mug" in olive green letters on it.

I received my first samples from Jas-eTea yesterday. This TeaDay is starting off with the first Pu-Erh I've had that I know the details of. At the moment my mug contains some 2008 Menghai 8592 shu Pu-Erh. It's not bad, but could be a little more earthy for my taste. I might not have done this steeping justice. I have no scale at work, so I was guessing at the amount of tea. Everything I've tried up to now I've been able to measure with a teaspoon. I guess I need to add a scale, or two, to my shopping list. I have a digital scale at home, but it's not precise enough. It measures in even grams.

[karmaplace]

My favorite brewing vessels:

IMG_1093.jpg (19.3 KiB) Viewed 2754 times

Matsukawa Tokoname Teapot by Gyokko, approx. 8oz, bought from Yuuki-Cha.
Teapot by Son Chun Ho, approx. 5oz, bought at the 2010 Busan International Tea and Craft Fair.

My favorite cups:

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Mini-Chawan by Ralph Nuara, approx. 4oz, 7oz, and 6oz, bought from his Etsy Shop.
Melting Snow and Three Layers Yunomi, approx. 5oz and 4oz, by Mitsuko Siegrist (TSUCHIKARA POTTERY), bought from her Etsy Shop.

My favorite chawan:

IMG_1098.jpg (20.83 KiB) Viewed 2754 times

Footprints in Snow by Mitsuko Siegrist (TSUCHIKARA POTTERY), approx. 3"h x 5.25"w, bought from her Etsy Shop.
Teabowl by Melanie Sherman, approx. 3"h x 4.5"w, bought from her old Etsy Shop.

I have a lot of love for my wares.

I had some green chai today, and several infusions of honey orchid oolong at work.

[David R.]

It would be so much easier to have only six favorites...

Kawane Zairai Sencha : first contact with it but very promising.

[tortoise]

My collection is modest yet, but here are my two favoritos:

hagi-san

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Much more textured in person

hokujosujihiki.jpg (16.16 KiB) Viewed 2738 times

Hokujo Sujihiki

Product and photos from Artistic Nippon.

This morning I drank brews 7 and 8 from yesterday's high fired TGY from a 3.99 "Yixing" that has actually seasoned ok. This one was responsible for getting the Mrs. and I quite tipsy yesterday. <teadrunk emoticon>

[brlarson]

Brandon, I have been eyeing a Mr Red over in Tim's shop. Is that where you got yours?


I have no pics, but here are my 6 faves:

My first is a 190ml xiao hong ni Chrysanthemum themed Yixing pot which I use every morning for medium to heavy roast yancha.

This hohin is my go-to pot for high quality Japanese greens
http://www.hibiki-an.com/images/upload/ ... et_B04.jpg

For dancong and very-light-roast yancha I use this
http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-jing-tea- ... pot-ps.cfm

I have three favorite cups, all are hagiware:
one from Kashun, one from Deishi and one from Seigan.

Hou de's Beidou No 1 is breakfst tea today. Maiko's maruyama might be on the menu for later.

[Chasm]

Some lovely pictures here! Thanks for posting them.

[AdamMY]

Favorite pieces in no particular order:






My Gyo White out team.






And always the Next One!