Pitchers, do you use them?

[solitude]

As I read in an another topic aroma cups are not used very often.
What about the pitchers? do you use them when you are drinking tea alone? or you pour tea directly to the cup with the size of the vessel? The most of the Chinese cups are small and I sometime feel forced to use pitcher .

[wyardley]

I often use a fair cup / pitcher, either when brewing alone and using a larger pot than can comfortably fit in 1 or 2 cups, or when brewing for larger groups of people. Otherwise, when people drink at different paces, or when they're sitting too far to comfortably reach their cup, pouring directly into the drinking cups becomes a pain. Using one also ends up being a bit neater if a particular pot is a bit on the drippy side.

Most of the time, though, when brewing for myself, I use a small (60-80 ml) pot or gaiwan and pour into two or three small cups or one slightly larger one.

[IPT]

I never use a fair cup. I use a second zisha teapot as a fair cup and have two dedicated teapots for each type of tea. I just never felt that a fair cup matched with the style of my tea ware. They always looked modern and western to me and didn't blend. Of course, that's just my opinion.

[Tobias]

I have one but I never use it, I try to match the brewing vessel's and the cup's size instead. The reason I don't use it is beacuse it makes the tea lose much of it's taste, most people here doesn't seem to have the same problem so maybe it's because of my water?

[debunix]

I use my pitchers for taking prepared tea up and down the hall to my tea-drinking colleagues, or when sharing tea gongfu cha with someone, to even out the pouring. Otherwise, not so much.

Haven't yet picked a tea for this morning.

[Chip]

I use one virtually every day. It is a clunky glass pitcher that holds 250 ml, was likely a creamer. Paid 1.99 USD for it at a glassware outlet and have used it thousands of times.

This doubles as an "aroma cup" as I always make a point of smelling the aroma when the tea is in and after it is poured.

It is the one teaware item that I really neglect ... in fact looking at it, I really need to descale it.

This also goes along when I drive.

I had one of those borosilicate glass ones, but broke that pretty quickly ... and will likely not buy one of those again anytime soon.

I also have a few porcelain ones that match other porcelain pieces. Yet these I virtually never use.

[David R.]

It depends on the size of the teaware (teapot and cup) I am using mostly. For very fragrant teas, I use a "bellybutton" porcelain pitcher which captures the aromas very well and for a long time. (I use no aroma cups.) I always use one when I have guests for the tea to be the same whatever the cup.

Herb-Master, where are you with you thousand pitchers ?

[tingjunkie]

Always, for three reasons: 1) I can save a little tea to be poured back over the pot. 2) The faircup gives me deeper more concentrated aromas than the bottom of the cup. 3) I enjoy drinking out of smaller cups, and I'm too impatient to let a big cup cool to the right temperature.

[tortoise]

I don't use them when it's just me. I always use them when there is more than one person. The purpose is to collect all the liquor at once so you have a unified flavor instead of pouring successively stronger brew into each cup. The other way to accomplish this without a pitcher is the Japanese method of a quick pour into each cup like 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1.

That's my take on it anyway.

[fire_snake]

Always, for three reasons: 1) I can save a little tea to be poured back over the pot. 2) The faircup gives me deeper more concentrated aromas than the bottom of the cup. 3) I enjoy drinking out of smaller cups, and I'm too impatient to let a big cup cool to the right temperature.

My reasons are pretty much the same. I love my porcelain pitcher. Next to a gaiwan it seems to be the most useful part of a set.

[entropyembrace]

I use a fair cup when I want to use my tiny porcelain cups, which even my 50ml pot will overfill, and when I want to share tea. Actually my faircup is an old creamer from a western style tea set.

[fire_snake]

I use a fair cup when I want to use my tiny porcelain cups, which even my 50ml pot will overfill, and when I want to share tea. Actually my faircup is an old creamer from a western style tea set.

A 50ml pot? Is this a Yixing?

[David R.]

I never use a fair cup. I use a second zisha teapot as a fair cup and have two dedicated teapots for each type of tea. I just never felt that a fair cup matched with the style of my tea ware. They always looked modern and western to me and didn't blend. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Just curiuous : zisha teapots are known to round the edges of tea. Aren't you afraid that a double use of zisha materiel, teapot or zisha fair cup, affects your tea too much ?

[Chip]

Like I said earlier, I had a borosilicate one, that might have lasted 20 times ... but I have used this "faircup" literally 1000's of times. It is probably bomb proof, and a bit clunky, albeit.

I like the constriction near the top, this forces all the aromas to concentrate through the smaller opening, really great for smelling tea.

And nothing like glass to show of liquor. In this case, Yutaka Midori this AM.

[gargoylekitty]

I have a glass one that I use whenever my pot/gaiwan size is bigger than my cup size or when sharing with friends, so about half the time.