What's your splurge: Tea or Teaware?

[Puk]

What is your sweet(er) spot? The tea? Or the teaware?
Transience? or Permanence? =P

I will cheat at my own question and say my desires are equal. I spend as much on both, though I am more likely to admit to transience. I'm a little embarrassed to admit to my materialistic love of teaware (bury me with my teapot). Maybe I joined Teachat because I like reading about other people as devoured by tea and teawares as I am. It is humbling (and gleeful) to accept my greed.

I also realize that this priority changes throughout our tea lives. If you don't have yet a pot/tool/setting that pleases you, and you accidentally bought 500g of your favorite tea, that will probably make the teaware take precedence.
(true story... about a friend of course :X )

So where are you right now? And why? I love a good story. Wax on.

[Fuut]

Pretty much both for me as well, however my esthetic love was ignited by a chawan. Now that my collection is starting to outgrow my tea room I'm moving more towards trying different tea's. However keeping in spirit (somewhat) of chanoyu, or the tea ceremony usually I drink matcha.

Sorry not that long of a story;)

[Poseidon]

I am equally as into teaware and tea. Although my quality standards differ greatly! Ill buy $1 cups all day on ebay but I wouldnt ever buy $1 quality tea.

As a (about to be) returning college student, I have to keep funds tight. As anyone would do with a small tea fund, I "splurge" on the tea and whats left over is dedicated to teaware.

[BW85]

I lean more towards tea most of the time, but I definitely go through cycles. Since July I've spent a ridiculously large amount of money on teaware; mainly vintage and a few modern yixing teapots, and I just bought another one today which makes eight in three months.... Oh well... Most weren't planned, and when opportunity knocks! I imagine the next several months will go toward my tea stash... Mostly adding to my sheng collection with some yan cha here and there, and anything else the catches my eye

[bonescwa]

Spend it all on tea and just drink it from pyrex glass vessels. Use strainers as needed

[tinols]

Splurge on tea(aka stock up). Wait a couple weeks to recover wallet, then splurge on teaware. Repeat.

[Noonie]

Tea. I will buy Gyokuro and higher quality Sencha when I'm feeling frisky...or when it's on sale

I will buy expensive (foe me) tea that I've not retried before, like single bush dan congs or dayuling...but unless they blow me over I will not buy again.

[yalokinh]

right now I am happy about the teaware I have, so I will now just spend it on good tea

[jayinhk]

Neither right now, I'm well stocked and need to make a dent in my tea stash!

[Rui]

Tea as I work long hours and therefore no time for me to use fancier teaware.

Usually I use a Piao I double tea pot setting where the top one keeps the tea leaves and the bottom one is for the resulting tea.

[Evan Draper]

This is a great question--props to OP. I have low funds, though I also have several generous tea friends. So a good amount of tea walks into my life, and I try greet it all with gratitude, attention, and compassion. Only a couple times a year do I hunt down and acquire tea. I am much more likely to seize good opportunities to buy teaware, and I think I am succeeding in letting more of those opportunities pass as my arsenal approaches completeness.

I used to like tea drinking because of its impermanence, but then I became immersed in the worlds of wulong and puer. It is easy to hoard good specimens, and to subsist on a pedestrian lifetime of pedestrian tea, with no limit in sight. As my family income goes up, I imagine it will become easier to buy more good tea, though perhaps no easier to drink more good tea. And if my present teaware acquisitions have not helped me drink this surfeit, why buy more? Of course, see my hierarchy of tea needs here.

[Arioche]

More on tea than teapots.

[chamekke]

I used to splurge mainly on teaware. (Especially chawan-s and other utensilsss... my preciousessss....)

But nowadays I'm downsizing on teaware, upsizing on tea.

[Evan Draper]

But nowadays I'm downsizing on teaware, upsizing on tea.

Given your photo, I can't imagine you downsizing much further.

[Chip]

But nowadays I'm downsizing on teaware, upsizing on tea.

Given your photo, I can't imagine you downsizing much further.