Advice on teapot for green tea

[manyfridays]

What are your thoughts on these teapots for Japanese green tea?

- http://www.hojotea.com/item_e/available --- any recommendations from here?
- http://www.denstea.com/teapots-cups-cha ... 5_548.html --- like the simplicity and read that glass is nice for green tea
- open to other recommendations

Looking for something for 1-2 people. Mostly 1 person for myself usually.

Thanks.

[AdamMY]

I am not a fan of infuser baskets inside any teapot, so I personally am not fond of the Glass pot from dens. That being said from its appearance it seems to solve quite a few problems people tend to have. By that I mean the basket is quite large, so as long as you are filling the pot 70% or more with water the leaves will likely have plenty of room to expand. That and as it is kept away from the bottom and the sides it should prevent clogging if you were to brew with deeper steamed Japanese teas.

Hojo's Tokoname are pretty standard though he is known for being pricey. You could potentially check out Artistic Nippon also under their Tokoname Section if you are leaning towards that style.

[betta]

Hojo spent more effort than other shops in terms of describing and informing their customer. If you look for something exotic, there're some pots at Hojo such as natural red clay pots which are not to be found in any other shops. But these stuffs are quite expensive.

Toru-San of the artistic nippon carries also high quality tokoname, banko and arita teapots at more competitive price.

[David R.]

Are on a budget ? Are you new with japanese greens ? Are you attracted by a specific kind of kyusu ?

[tortoise]

Tokoname is so much nicer than anything in glass from an aesthetic point of view. I have a tokoname kyusu and a banko kyusu. I prefer the tokoname.

[JRS22]

I second the vote for Artistic Nippon. A large selection of well- made Tokoname pots at good prices, and excellent service. Also, the owner is very responsive to emails.

But on the other hand the glass pot from Den's does have some good points. Down the road when your teaware collection becomes larger and more specific, this pot will be useful for "fragrant" teas like genmaicha and hojica, and also for other kinds of tea when you need that size. My basic Den's kyusu, which is glazed, may have been pushed to the back of the closet, but I still pull it out periodically.

[manyfridays]

Are on a budget ? Are you new with japanese greens ? Are you attracted by a specific kind of kyusu ?

Not really on a budget but am new to tea drinking in general.

I like teapot designs that are more simple. Was at Artisitic Nippon and a saw a couple of pretty nice ones.

[Chip]

Since you are new to tea in general, then a kyusu will definitely speed up your learning curve with Japanese greens in general.

Pay close attention to size. Newer brewers tend to buy too big thinking they need the bigger size. Then experience teaches them they need smaller than what they purchased.

We call this "tuition."

[David R.]

If your new to tea, then turn towards a nice teapot, a design that you like, that you will have pleasure to use as often as possible.

Both Artistic Nippon and Hojo have great selections. You cannot really go wrong this way.

Good luck !

[manyfridays]

Thanks all. Are there other vendors I should besides Hojo and Artistic Nippon I should look at?

[manyfridays]

I am not a fan of infuser baskets inside any teapot, so I personally am not fond of the Glass pot from dens. That being said from its appearance it seems to solve quite a few problems people tend to have. By that I mean the basket is quite large, so as long as you are filling the pot 70% or more with water the leaves will likely have plenty of room to expand. That and as it is kept away from the bottom and the sides it should prevent clogging if you were to brew with deeper steamed Japanese teas.

Hojo's Tokoname are pretty standard though he is known for being pricey. You could potentially check out Artistic Nippon also under their Tokoname Section if you are leaning towards that style.

Thanks Adam. The reason why I was looking at the glass is because I'm told that it's not good to mix different kinds of tea. So I was thinking since I mostly drink green tea, but have other tea as well, that the glass teapot can be used for all kinds of tea.

[iannon]

Thanks all. Are there other vendors I should besides Hojo and Artistic Nippon I should look at?

well.....there IS the tokoname teapot gallery at
http://www.tokoname.or.jp/teapot/
this will take some patience
but I have ordered from them before, as have some others here, and had no problems once you figure out the codes for sizes etc. always write them to ask for either more pics or to make sure the filter is the type you are looking for as that can be a bit confusing due to their layout..but..theres TONS fo pots there of all shapes and sizes and price ranges
hit the "gallery" link for some of their more "artisan" type work..( i saw a yoshiki there at about 199 bucks gie or take) then way at the bottom is the link to the "online catalog 2011" the more "production" type pots in the hundreds.(this is where the patience comes in)

[debunix]

I got very nice basic kyusus from the Tokoname catalog.

But if you want to stick to one inexpensive teapot for a variety of teas for a while yet, that little glass one is a very functional design, and I would use the one I have (same brand, same design, but larger) more often if it were smaller. I still use it for brewing herbal teas, which I usually make in larger volumes.

I do prefer my nice kyusus for sencha, and am happy to have a variety of pots for other things, but I could be pretty happy with one basic porcelain gaiwan and a pot like that if I were really limited on funds or space.

[David R.]

If you are planning to drink other teas as well in the same vessel, you'd better look for a porcelain kyusu which will be perfect for a lot of different teas. Not too big though, as mentioned Chip.

A gaiwan can be an inexpensive way to drink other teas if you are interested in the gong fu style of preapring tea, as well as a glass teapot as you mentioned. It all depends on what teas you wanna drink and how you'd like to brew them (gong fu vs non gong fu).