Gong fu tray and waste water bucket. (alternatives?)

[futurebird]

I could really use a waste water bucket, something that would let me only make one trip to the drain (since there is none near by) a day. The "official" buckers are $77 shipped, which just seems like a lot for a bamboo bucket.

Are there any good alternatives?

I save and dry my tea leaves for crafts and compost, so having a separator would be nice.

I'm less adverse to paying a lot for a nice tray, but thought I'd ask what other use first and if they feel they get good utility out of such objects.

[teaisme]

water bucket could just be a nice big bowl or flower pot

I gave up the tray and prefer bamboo place mats or cloth ones. Put tea-boats and saucers on that and good to go.

Now what would be cool....is if there was a plant that thrived well on teawater. Then we could just pour our waste water straight into the pot and not empty it

[rdl]

Now what would be cool....is if there was a plant that thrived well on teawater. Then we could just pour our waste water straight into the pot and not empty it

i read some time ago that violets like green tea, so my 30 year old violet plant gets all my waste water (green and oolong) and is thriving. on occassion i pour some into other plants and all are doing well.

[teaisme]

nice!
I will add that to the list along with rush, marsh marigold, and iris that i will plant in a container this spring next to my tea table.

Thanks

[rdl]

nice!
I will add that to the list along with rush, marsh marigold, and iris that i will plant in a container this spring next to my tea table.
Thanks

your plants will be drinking finer teas than me

[tingjunkie]

I just use a Yixing tea boat and a larger Yixing waste water bowl on my table. They certainly don't need need to be Yixing though. Any smaller shallow bowl and larger deeper bowl will work. I bet there's some awesome stuff to be found on Etsy.

[Tead Off]

The great thing about using a proper sized tea tray, be it wood, bamboo, or ceramic, is the dual function of it acting like a waste water bucket while holding all your teaware for the session. Drinkers develop little fetishes for all kinds of implements and accessories, but the well-designed tea tray is a fantastic tool to have.

[ethan]

Adding to TeadOff's praise of tea tray's. When living w/others, & I take a lot of kitchen counter space &/or move & fuss a lot over tea & its preparation etc.; sooner or later, it will bother them; moreover, somedays it will irritate them a hell of a lot. Use of a tray seems to put a limit on how much others are bothered: pots won't be "all over the place", & I won't be getting up & down "too much".

[TIM]

I can see a 'Show off your tea tray' thread

[brunogm]

I have tea trays but I also bought a small Japanese kensui bowl to hold waste water, when I want a change from tea trays. It has a filtering lid on which leaves can be displayed.

Some of those kensui bowls can be very beautiful. They come in all kind of materials: copper, silver, ceramics...

Only problem is that they tend to be large and most do not come with lids. It took me some time to find one with my specs: small bowl (diameter < 8cm) with a lid.

On the other subject, I known someone feeding bonsai with tea, and the bonsai seems to be doing well.

[theredbaron]

Are there any good alternatives?

Like others here, i use tea boats and saucers, and a waste water bucket.

I don't like the bamboo tea trays - i have never had one of the very expensive ones from Taiwan, but several of the Chinese ones. Most of them, when i did not use them for some time, began leaking.
I think using saucers and tea boats is a lot more aesthetically pleasing. A tea boat has also the added advantage of keeping the temperature up during the short infusion times in very small pots.
There endless possibilities for a set up - i use some very old ming or song bowls as a tea boat, and qing blue and white plates of different sizes as a plate/saucer for my cups. I have different vessels i use as a wastewater bucket - the nicest one are village style bowls of rough clay with a green rice glazing which were used here in Thailand until a few decades ago to store fermented fish, made by village crafts men.

I have seen others use old Yixing clay plates to hold the cups (they are nowadays quite expensive though).

For my tiniest and pocketable traveling set ( http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=231768 ) i use an old tin saucer to hold the cups. I recently found another tin saucer to replace to fragile porcelain saucer i use as a teaboat.

My tea teacher is very particular about the saucers, plates and tea boats he uses as the material and age of the material can influence the taste of the tea as well (my taste buds are not so far developed, yet when he showed me, and i concentrated, i could taste the difference - very slight though). Consequently - he rejects these bamboo trays.

Anyhow - the possibilities of combining different vessels is almost endless, especially as also things not originally made for tea can be converted as well.

[tingjunkie]

There endless possibilities for a set up - i use some very old ming or song bowls as a tea boat, and qing blue and white plates of different sizes as a plate/saucer for my cups. I have different vessels i use as a wastewater bucket - the nicest one are village style bowls of rough clay with a green rice glazing which were used here in Thailand until a few decades ago to store fermented fish, made by village crafts men.

Sounds awesome. Photos please!

My tea teacher is very particular about the saucers, plates and tea boats he uses as the material and age of the material can influence the taste of the tea as well (my taste buds are not so far developed, yet when he showed me, and i concentrated, i could taste the difference - very slight though). Consequently - he rejects these bamboo trays.

I really don't mean to start an argument, but is the placebo effect widely understood in Thailand? I'm not seeing how items which never come in contact with the tea could have any effect on the taste, unless they are changing the temperature or heat retention in the brewing vessel somehow.

[teaisme]

but is the placebo effect widely understood in Thailand?

The train of thought that what you put underneath your cup is important is not only from Thailand, I have heard this more then a couple times from older folks in Taiwan as well. I think it was also mentioned in an article in the Globalteahut a few months back. Why would it have an effect on the liquid? No clue, I'm a newb and haven't run into any further insight yet or been bothered to conduct my own comparisons yet with a tea pal.

...Perhaps it goes into the general territory of "everything is interconnected on this earth" kinda thought. Everything gives off its own specific vibration, some conducive to a good cup, some not so much. etc etc etc so on and so on.

[Drax]

I think it only matters if it's a $96 table, as opposed to a $48 one.

[AdamMY]

I think it only matters if it's a $96 table, as opposed to a $48 one.

I take it 12 dollar ones are out of the question?