How much does teaware contribute to tea quality?

[Evan Draper]

I keep seeing posts about "what teaware is the best," and I wondered how people rank contributing factors to tea quality. Here's mine:

1. Practice. If you understand the factors involved, you can compensate and bring out the best of any tea situation.
2. Tea. Good tea makes good tea.
3. Water. The right mineral balance can showcase or disguise a good tea.
4. Atmosphere. Attention, care, and focus will heighten everyone's experience. No one is immune to the power of suggestion.
5. Teaware. Properly chosen tea ware contributes to taste and atmosphere. But you can chalk a lot of this up to practice.

What's that anecdote about the Zen butcher who uses a rusty knife? As they say, a poor craftsman blames his tools....

[bonescwa]

Yes, after getting a bit caught up in yixing, whileit does great things to specific teas. some quality teas are better off thrown in a cup to sit with hot water for a while. At least for me. Lots of beginners are very much putting the cart before the horse, you can enjoy high quality tea if you have good water and a variety of sizes of cups, you pull off some ghetto gong fu and it will probably teach you a lot more than just rushing in and buying everything in sight.

[Poseidon]

I think what youve listed is what is "needed" for a all encompassing expirence. At a bare minimum: Quality tea, clean water, and a vessel for brewing. A vessel could be something as simple as a bowl or standard glass. The rest is just icing on the cake!

[Chris418]

The thing some people forget is : in the word teapot the "tea" is before "pot"

[hopeofdawn]

Artisan teaware for me is primarily about aesthetic enjoyment, and secondarily about quality/ease of use. A beautiful teapot that doesn't dribble, leak, or pinch or scorch my fingers while brewing is still a benefit to my tea drinking, even if it doesn't necessarily change the taste of the tea itself.

Just my two cents, anyway.

[kyarazen]

i think of tea to be a more "holistic" experience sometimes, it is not only the brew that counts, but the overall enjoyment of the aesthetics of the wares, process, the "history/source" of the leaves, and the company of the right peoples.

due to cultural differences, tea taste, aromatics, and quality is perceived differently by different people. all in all i still feel that many, including myself, even the merchants are still swimming in murky waters. it leads to an even bigger question, what/who is actually a tea master, and how can that be qualified? its essentially almost the same as what is quality tea, and how can it be qualified either?

personally i divide tea into several parts
1) The setting for tea, right environment, right time, right people, good occasion
2) the tea leaves quality, can be pure, can be blended, but most importantly is that the "intent" of the maker must be clear, it must be an embodiment of a "Craft" in itself, you either see the artisanship in the tea leaves, or the aspirations and commitment of the factory owner in delivering a certain product. If its slipshod, poorly made, poorly stored, it can be obvious but the final judgement should come only in the taste
3) water - distilled to allow for the tea to present its original nature. filtered or still water to enhance textures, aromas if needed
4) tea ware - this is of big importance in my enjoyment. I generally only use pots that are "gifts" from friends despite having hundreds of tea wares that are self bought, some branded, some nice clays, good eras. These pots are not only brewing vessels but companions, with the good intentions, encouragements of kind friends, money cant buy these things.

cups, i use a variety of different thicknesses, lip type for different teas to help deliver the brew in a preferred state/texture but am still exploring and learning.

with all these variables fixed, its now how one plays around with the brewing process to create the desired brew. (that is if one knows what he/she is looking for in the brew, than going around doing regular timed steeps)

[Noonie]

Evan - I agree that practice is number one (actually, agree with your list in that order). Though I would expand practice to include making mistakes (and learning from them), trying different techniques and brewing parameters...all this 'practice' is continuous and as you do more of it you get the most out of the number two factor: tea.

[daidokorocha]

I think it is important to start off with poor wares and poorer tea. Some teas are difficult to get a good tasting finished product if it is too poor of tea, but if you can continuously improve the quality of the mid-range you buy with basic wares, then that holds good things for your future. How can you properly assess what difference water quality, certain teaware, high quality leaf, etc. make if you haven't experienced being without? I think it can bring greater appreciation of the tea experience you have later when you have a clear understanding of the range of a tea and have a reason for WHY you decided to buy that higher quality leaf, that yixing pot, or a certain kind of water for your tea instead of merely doing it at the start because you read that you SHOULD do that because it produces the best cup. You may be able to recite why because you read why someone else chose to use that method, but you will not know why through your own feeling and experience, which are two completely different things. Becoming intimate with tea should be a growing process instead of jumping through a shortcut. As an anecdote, most people I meet who are passionate about tea went through stages, while many people I know who jumped in too fast ended up not sticking to it.

[Chip]

Since I enjoy the act of brewing and serving tea as much as I do drinking ... the teaware is almost as important to me personally as the tea itself ... almost. Thus the handmade aspect of teaware I use becomes very important as well.

[ethan]

I cannot make a wonderful beverage of awful tea infused in terrible water in beautiful, functioning teaware. I can make a wonderful beverage of good tea infused in good water using the water glasses of a cheap hotel. I agree w/ Evan though I own & enjoy using some beautiful artisan teaware.

[Chip]

I cannot make a wonderful beverage of awful tea infused in terrible water in beautiful, functioning teaware. I can make a wonderful beverage of good tea infused in good water using the water glasses of a cheap hotel. I agree w/ Evan though I own & enjoy using some beautiful artisan teaware.

... heh. On the way to WTE in Vegas several years ago, I brewed my first shincha of the year in flight using crude instruments available including a napkin as strainer/infuser and cardboard or Styrofoam cups as yuzamashi, brewer, and yunomi. Since it was our first taste of shincha that year, it was pretty darn good.

I have a photo of it that I wanted to post on the forum ... must find it. I called it "shincha at 40,000 feet". A play on the twilight zone's "terror at 20,000 feet".

This was perhaps the worst teaware experience for me in over a decade, but we surely enjoyed the shincha, nevertheless.

[Muadeeb]

I have a photo of it that I wanted to post on the forum ... must find it. I called it "shincha at 40,000 feet". A play on the twilight zone's "terror at 20,000 feet".

This was perhaps the worst teaware experience for me in over a decade, but we surely enjoyed the shincha, nevertheless.

At least now you can say that you're part of the Mile "Chai" Club.

[chrl42]

i think it also relates to the type of tea..i can't imagine drinking DHP in a travel mug

[Chip]

i think it also relates to the type of tea..i can't imagine drinking DHP in a travel mug

.... unless it was "DHP" ...

[Chip]

I have a photo of it that I wanted to post on the forum ... must find it. I called it "shincha at 40,000 feet". A play on the twilight zone's "terror at 20,000 feet".

This was perhaps the worst teaware experience for me in over a decade, but we surely enjoyed the shincha, nevertheless.

At least now you can say that you're part of the Mile "Chai" Club.

... thank you for mentioning this. Saved me the trouble. Though technically it was more like the 8 mile CHA club.