Teaware Preferences

I am currently obsessed with tetsubin! Not only do I find them aesthetically pleasing, I also find them perfect for instantly diminishing the temperature of boiled water for the preparation of green tea, which I drink nearly every day right after lunch.

I also love the heft of cast iron. Somehow it imparts a feeling of security. Maybe I am just remembering times in the past when I broke English-style ceramic pots. Not going to happen with a tetsubin. Ever. lol

I have become so enamored of these cast iron pots that I even gave away my English pots! One reason for doing that was that I have too much stuff, period. Another was that the larger pots (with more than one cup capacity) do not keep the tea warm at all, so I have to microwave the subsequent cups, which I prefer not to do. A third reason is simply that I love tetsubin so much that I have been reaching for them exclusively for a few months now!

I used to only brew in my ceramic tea pot, I have a medium sized one and a little one, and a bunch of small tea cups. Occasionally I would just stuff some leaves in a mug and water on top. When I really started getting into different types of tea I went through a phase with my IngenuiTEA, which I still love, but doesn’t get used 4-5 times a day anymore. Right now I’m really liking thermos steeping for when I’m at work/away from home, and mugs that I can put steepers in and pull out for while I’m at home.

I feel like cast iron is a good idea, but my teapot doesn’t get much use these days just because I’m cycling through alot of different teas. I don’t mind the ceramic mostly because I do finish it before it gets cold, and it’s microwave safe so I’ve no qualms about sticking the whole teapot into the microwave, which is what I did sometimes in college. All my tea ceramics (that aren’t mugs) are currently Chinese or Japanese, but I’ve been looking into English tea pots and bone china.

I’ve pretty much always used giant mugs. First with bagged tea, and then I discovered loose tea and steeping baskets. I have a DavidsTea steeper I use for making iced tea, and a couple small tea pots I use when I have company or am making tea to go, as my baskets don’t fit into most of my travel mugs.

I have a Takeya pitcher I use for cold brewing tea. It’s great because it seals, so I can lay it on its side.

The tetsubin I have is too big for me to use a teapot, so I might just make it a hot water holder. It would be nice to have a smaller one though.

I’ve gone through so many different variations of brewingware since diving into loose tea and it’s still changing all the time it seems.
Started with a tea ball, but I didn’t like how I kept getting bits leaking out the sides. Then I got a 3 (or maybe it’s 4) cup personaliTea pot that I used, but I moved out of drinking that much and the strainer didn’t reach to the bottom so one cup was out of the question.
Then I got an ingenuitea and I thought that was the cat’s meow. So easy to use. I used it everyday. But strong smelling teas required a baking soda soak and scrub after and it was a pain to clean.
So I found a little round 2ish cup glass pot with a metal strainer that I used, but then the strainer fell apart. So I ended up getting a cup infuser from DavidsTea. And for awhile I was using it in the pot, then pouring the tea into my mug. It finally dawned on me to just use the strainer in my mug and bypass washing the extra pot. Lol!
I still use the ingenuitea from time to time, but not as much as I used to. I’ll probly just use it when I’m travelling so I don’t have to worry about breaking anything.

I’m glad Shadowfall said something about just using a mug, because that is pretty much what I do. I like to collect ceramic tea pots and accessories but I really don’t like to use them. It feels like one more thing to clean, plus I always end up wasting tea. I just use my big mug and put a small plate over the top to stop the heat from escaping too quickly while steeping. So far it seems to work for my purposes.

Usually I end up hastily constructing a coffee filter tea bag like this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Loose-Tea-Bag-from-a-Coffee-Filter/ I make them a bit roomier to make sure the tea can do its thing in there and I find keeps more leaves in than any of the specialized tea equipment I’ve tried. I recently bought some T-sacs but haven’t given them enough of a try to say if I like them or not.

What I’m really wanting is one of those stove top kettles that whistles.

Lazy (and lucky) person that I am, I use my Breville. I often put it one of several teapots. I use a variety of cups, tumblers, mugs, bone china, handmade pottery. I have an iron teapot but I hardly ever seem to use it. Maybe I should put in a more convenient place rather than as a pretty kitchen accessory. :-)

For Western style brewing, I have 5 brew baskets (4 from DavidsTea, metal, and one Finium) and I just put them in mugs. I have a large tea pot that I have yet to use for when company comes, but usually when people visit they all want a different tea from my stash so I end up using the 5 steepers instead LOL. I also sometimes use a small teapot (possibly ceramic?) that my mom got me, but it has a tiny spout and leaves tend to get stuck in it easily. It’s very pretty though, so I like to use it for special teas :)

For straight teas and a few Verdant blends, although mostly straight teas, I will use my gaiwan if I want a different experience than Western. I have a Verdant gaiwan that I love, unfortunately the saucer broke so it’s just the gaiwan and lid, but it works wonders. Before that I used the small glass teapot from DavidsTea for gongfu brewing, I should take that thing out sometime and use it again lol.

I also have a very special Yixing teapot, my first one, that I NEED to use more, but I need to have time to fully enjoy the experience and relax, which is hard to come by lately. It’s seasoned only for 2 teas – Mi Lan Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong and Shui Xian Wuyi Oolong. It’s my most prized brewing device I think.

Oh, and for work I have a plastic gravity steeper to make tea for my Timolino because the steeper sucks in it, and the gravity steeper works far better than any of my steepers for the Timolino.

So yeah – mostly brew baskets and my gaiwan. I would like to try cast iron sometime as well as a Kyusu, but I need to drink more Japanese greens for the kyusu I think. Oh, and I guess I have a matcha bowl for matcha lol, and a whisk. That’s the only thing I like to make matcha in now haha.

I don’t know if I prefer one style over another, they all have their benefits for certain teas. I love that there is such a variety of ways to make tea though! :D

I have a little 8 oz porcelain crackle glaze teapot that I use when I want the whole “tea experience”. It’s gorgeous and feels nice to touch. I also use my libre glass to make cold brew tea for work, and I love the glass for cold tea even more than hot. If I am tasting new teas and just want to make a small amount without any fuss, I use my 4 oz. competition cup.

More and more, though, I just find myself brewing grandpa style, especially if I want hot tea at work. So I guess my favorite “teaware” is my Dr. Who mug. I like the ease, and I enjoy watching the leaves float around as I drink. I call it my lazy brew. :p

I use a glass carafe for boiling water (because I need to be able to see the water to gauge less than boiling temperatures for green tea).
I bought it on Amazon for like $13 Prime.
Nothing fancy, but does the job.

For my infuser, I use two Iced Ingenuitea’s from Adagio. I absolutely adore them. They are the best infuser ever in my opinion and I will buy more when these are worn out (which may be a long, long time as I’ve had one for two years with almost no noticable wear and tear).

And I use cheap black mugs because I’m not fancy.
I would get a special nice mug if I ever found one with something to my geeky tastes but I haven’t yet, so nothing fancy there.

The only other things I have that I consider “teaware” are my little copper teaspoon I use for measuring, my tea tins which are mostly purchased for $1 or less when clearanced after holidays (I get Valentines and Halloween tins etc) and my tea cabinet which we just got. It’s a standing wood cabinet with three shelves on top, a tray drawer, a bread-box, then another shelf on bottom. We use it to store all the tea and other drinks as well as the bread. It’s lovely and my sister’s hubs found it at the Thrift store along with another just like it and a dresser that were being weirdly sold as an “Entertainment center” for a steal of a price. Absolutely adore it. ^^

So my ingenuiteas now sit in the tea cabinet and everything except my carafe hang out in the same spot. I keep the carafe by the stove. :)
One day I may get an electric tea kettle. I haven’t decided which I’d like yet.