White porcelain teaset

[Jayaratna]

Hi all,

Waiting to be able to find out a way for purchasing the teaset of my dreams, I am looking around for a simple white porcelain gong fu tea set.

I cam a cross the following two, and I would appreciate any comments, suggestions. The second, in particular, comes from a chinese website and I really don't know how to purchase it as well.

http://www.enjoyingtea.com/pogoteaset.html

http://www.gzhengfu.com/productShow.asp ... 3&SID=1119#


Thanks!

A

[ABx]

The second link is broken, so can't comment. However, I've generally found sets to be pretty cheap quality, although the one from Enjoying Teas looks okay. I would really recommend buying the pieces separately, however. You might look at Dragon Tea House on eBay - he generally has plain white stuff that is both decent/good and inexpensive (usually less expensive than just about anywhere else).

Gaiwans:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Zhen-Chang-Shun-Whi ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Traditional-Chinese ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Whorl-Chinese-White ... dZViewItem

Cups:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Chinese-Porcelain-S ... dZViewItem

Faircup:
http://cgi.ebay.com/White-Porcelain-Cha ... dZViewItem

Even though you're going for all white, you might also look at some of the other stuff he has because there are plenty with fairly subtle designs that you might like. I'm not much for the blue and white motif, but I kinda like the white cups with the little blue fish, for example.

[wyardley]

The Tea Gallery cups and Gaiwans are good quality, but they don't sell faircups as far as I know. I think the first set looks at least decent. There's a shop in LA that has a similar one, but only so-so quality, for $20. That was one of my first sets, and I still use the cups frequently. They also have a nicer quality hand-painted gaiwan / cup / fair cup set for $50.

[Jayaratna]

I thought of a set because I wanted to spare the pain of matching things together: it's difficult to check differences in colours from pictures. Maybe I could ask Gordon to match things for me...

Thanks for your advices.

[tjkoko_off]

I, too, am searching for teacups having a white, procelaine interior with a capacity of 100ml approx.. Can someone please help me find some of those.

[Oni]

It is kind of racist that you only search for white porcelain teaware.

[tjkoko_off]

White porcelaine so that I can appreciate the natural color of the resulting tea.

[teaguy]

The first set seems a bit cheap for 'high quality bone china', but it probably is the easiest route to go. I tend to agree with ABx - sets tend to be a bit lower on quality, as they're usually produced in larger batches (unless they're really high-end specialty sets).

If you're not in too much of a rush, I can check around for stuff here. I am very busy this week because of Chinese New Year approaching, but will be going out to Ying Ge (Taiwan's primary pottery-production area) to do some sourcing sometime before the end of the month. I'll also look for the 100ml white cups tjkoko wants when I'm there.

Hey Oni - is it still racist if tjkoko drinks black tea in the white cups??

[tjkoko_off]

For crossing bridges, I enjoy Ms. Darjeeling!!!!

[tjkoko_off]

What's the opinion of this competition set offered by Dragon Tea house:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0287183976

[wyardley]

What's the opinion of this competition set offered by Dragon Tea house:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0287183976

These are all pretty much the same, other than the type of filter (teeth, just the rim of the lid, or none), and of course the quality of the porcelain. I haven't tried these ones specifically, so can't comment on the quality of the porcelain (if I had to put my money on something, I'd personally be more likely to order one from J-tea in Oregon or Stéphane from teamasters.blogspot.com). But really mostly good for competition tastings rather than day-to-day brewing (unless you want to practice your skills at competition tasting).

These things are pretty cheap in China / Taiwan. We were brewing competition style today, and the ones bearsbearsbears had were from the "dollar" store in Taiwan, and had price tags on. I think his said 70元, so probably about US $2... maybe a little more or less depending on the exchange rate when he got them.

[tjkoko_off]

What's also looking good to me is this combination of cup and aroma cup; the cup itself has a 3 oz capacity:

http://www.imperialtea.com/Aroma-Cup-Ta ... -P718.aspx

[Chip]

You have just entered a controversial, or at least debatable realm. I greatly enjoy using aroma sets such as the one you linked, though I personally tend to prefer all porcelain versus the lined Yixing.

But use of these is not unanamous here.

Here is one discussion. TeaDay discussion on Aroma/Tasting Sets

[wyardley]

What's also looking good to me is this combination of cup and aroma cup; the cup itself has a 3 oz capacity:

http://www.imperialtea.com/Aroma-Cup-Ta ... -P718.aspx

BTW, I think these ones:
http://www.imperialtea.com/Porcelain-Ta ... -P670.aspx

are actually bigger than 2 oz. I had a couple and they're pretty large.

I would personally suggest getting a ceramic only (rather than ceramic lined yixing) set if you're going for aroma cups.

[tjkoko_off]

Ceramic only since porcelain lined yixing clay cools too fast?