(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best teapots

I'm just going to cut and paste my response to the question of cast iron at this rate...

I hate cast iron. Don't get cast iron. Unless you're collecting everything for a true Japanese Chanoyu set, don't even think about cast iron. In any normal setting they're just a chunk of inconvenient heavy hot metal and most people don't take care of them and then they rust.

Okay going past that, welcome to tea! :) There's a variety of different kinds of pots and other brewing vessels to start with. It mostly depends on what style you like best. I always recommend that people get small teapots to start with if teapots are the way they want to go. A lot of us also use gaiwans, but since you're just getting started it's fine to first find a pot with which you're comfortable and happy with. I used to have a Bee House teapot like this one that I loved. They're very easy to use, look very nice, come in many of colors, and are easy to clean. I also like these other Japanese basket style teapots too. Kutani is a famous kiln and produces a wide range of lovely teaware and other ceramics. I saw a bunch more on Amazon by them that looked really nice.

I would personally also suggest avoiding glass teapots, they really do break very easily or can get scratched etc. If the basket is glass too then it's usually a major pain to clean.

Teapots are often different from kettles, so figure out which one (or both) you want.

If you're thinking about a kettle, the electric ones are fantastic and the most efficient way to heat water. If you get one with tea temp settings or digital temperatures, you'll be perfectly set up.

Teapots come in many shapes and sizes and are good for different proposes. A 100 mL Chinese-style teapot is great for gongfu for one person, while a 500 mL is great for a party.

It's really a matter of what aesthetic you prefer. There are many styles of teapots and ways of using them. Here are some tips:

1. You want a spout that pours nicely, so avoid overly rounded ones. This matters less if you choose a tiny teapot meant for pouring into a sharing pitcher, as you're gonna totally invert the thing while pouring.
   
   
2. Use a fine filter. This could be fine mesh or a stainless steel basket with tiny holes.
   
   
3. Ensure there's room for tea leaves to expand - don't use a tea ball or similarly-sized filter.
   
   
4. Pay attention to the size of the teapot. I think 150-300 mLs is perfect, but that's just me.
   
   
5. Have a plan for timed steeps. If you're using a sharing pitcher, you just pour the liquor out at the right time. If you're keeping the liquor in the teapot, you'll need a place to put the strainer.
   
   Here are some example styles of teapots that are very nice for loose leaf:
   
   

• Japanese cast iron https://www.amazon.com/Workshop-Japanese-Tetsubin-Stainless-Infuser/dp/B01NBP0OMU. You can heat it up with hot water first and it'll keep your tea warm. Edit: I don't really recommend these unless you know the enamel inside is really good.
  
  
• Tiny Chinese teapots https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32805509797.html. This is meant to go with a sharing or fairness pitcher and fine mesh strainer that goes on top.
  
  
• Glass teapots https://www.amazon.com/Teapot-Kettle-Warmer-Infusers-Flowering/dp/B01BRVAZU0/. This one comes with a nice strainer that can also be used in a mug. These are nice for blooming teas as well.
  
  
• All stainless https://www.amazon.com/Venoly-Stainless-Removable-Dishwasher-Resistant/dp/B01M0AXSH1/. For that aesthetic. Also comes with multipurpose strainer.
  
  
• A general-purpose starter teapot https://www.amazon.com/FORLIFE-Stump-Teapot-Infuser-18-Ounce/dp/B00345U3C8/. I've heard they drip a little but everyone likes them.

This one is super highly rated and recommended.

This is nice since it will work with any mug.

Something like this looks really nice and works well.

I had one just like this that I loved.

I had one like this that was cherished until it broke. It worked amazingly well. And there's this if you want to make more than one cup!

You really want to find something large that gives the tea leaves room to expand. The cute novelty ones are adorable, but don't steep the tea very well. You can also reuse the leaves so don't throw them away after one use!!

Also if you have one near you, David's Teas have super cute stuff. There's also a /r/tea subreddit :)

Can I suggest an easy gaiwan? Something like this if you wanna stick with amazon (although yunnansourcing has a few too): https://www.amazon.com/GongFu-Porcelain-Blessings-Hand-Grabbed-Gaiwan/dp/B01LY4UIDH/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1483716012&sr=1-2&keywords=easy+gaiwan

I suggest an easy gaiwan because they are cheap, easy to learn, and great for gongfu. If you find you're using it a lot, you can upgrade to a nicer or traditional one. But honestly my easy gaiwan has been working for me for quite some time now.

I wouldn't bother with the tea warmer if you're going to get the bonavita kettle. I have this kettle and it's pretty nice. It has a hold button for keeping the temperature which is REALLY nice for gongfu. You could just get a tea cozy too if you wanted to keep a teapot warm.

For sure. Basically, it's really vague where exactly any of our tea comes from. If you go to Adagio I believe they have the actual names of the farmers and their specific farms from which they make the tea. For comparison:

• Gyokuro Imperial from Teavana: Taste? Sweet, earthy and vegetal (that's what we are told to say). Grown? From the actual training manual, it says "The finest green tea from Japan." That's it. No particular region or anything, though on the tins at the store there's a particular province it's grown in but I cannot remember it. Anyways, that tea costs about $20/2oz, or $160/lb ($144 with 10% discount for getting a pound).
  
  
• Gyokuro from Adagio: Taste? "Deeply sweet, aroma of freshly buttered greens." Grown by, as quoted from Adagio, "Nagashima Takehisa in Asahina, Japan." Cost? $69/lb.
  
  Another example:
  
  
• Monkey Picked Oolong from Teavana: Taste? "complex yet light orchid aroma". Grown? Doesn't even say. Just says "This is the highest grade of oolong in the world." Cost? $25/2oz, or $200/lb ($180 with 10%, again).
  
  
• Ti kuan yin from Adagio: Taste? "Notes of toasted walnut and tender collard greens. Intriguing lingering floral aroma, lightly orchid, and gentle astringency." Grown? "hand-made by farmer wang mei rui in an xi, china." Cost? $69/lb.
  
  Some of the teas at Teavana are priced similarly (Jasmine pearls are $12.50/2oz at Teavana; $16/3oz at Adagio; Silver Needle at Teavana is $18/2oz, or $130/lb with 10% off while Silver Needle at Adagio is $94/lb. Bottom line is that Teavana marks up their prices on the tea in an excessive manner. Also, their tins are super overpriced too. $6/7 versus a better selection from .75¢ to $2 view those here
  
  I also really get irritated that our main way of selling our tea is by sampling to passersby: those people are who we are trained to sell to. Example, though I'm sure you directly experienced this: I'm sampling to you and you like the two samples out front (generally popular teas because they're over-sweetened). Then I'm supposed to walk inside and say "Follow me, I've got one of the rarest teas in the world for you to try!" This tea is, of course, Monkey Picked Oolong and it is, of course, stupidly expensive. Over the course of the time I'll probably ask you how much tea you drink, what flavors you like, while talking about cast iron and how it's the best way to brew your tea (which is true, I feel. Even though our cast iron pots are shitty and also ridiculously expensive. To see what I mean, go to Teavana's Cast Iron selection, then look at something I randomly Google searched for and found on Amazon. But pretty much every site has cheaper cast iron pots than Teavana, like this one.
  
  I think, by now, I'm regurgitating a lot of what's already being said about Teavana on this subreddit so I will stop. PM me if you want to know more

Here is what I use, and I love it. This strainer actually lets the loose leaf tea expand, unlike little tea balls. It's also easy to clean. I get a pot because I like to brew 2-3 cups at once. I pour one in an insulated mug so it's drinkable by the time I finish the first. This set also comes as a brew-in-cup system for singles.

Infusing
1:Water temp. Either get an electric kettle like this that you can set to heat to a certain temperature, or bring to a boil and let cool to the right temperature. For greens that is always BELOW boiling. 170-190 degrees F, and it can vary by the type of tea.
2: Preheat your brewing vessel, be it cup or pot, by swirling some of the water inside and dumping that out. Starting with a preheated pot keeps the water temp. stable during brewing. You want a lid for the same reason.
3: Add loose tea leaves to the infuser.
4: Pour in your water.
5: Let steep. For green tea that is going to usually be 2-3 minutes, but it can vary by strain. Overbrewing green tea makes it bitter.
6: Remove the infuser. A good quality loose leaf tea can be brewed 2, and sometimes three, times! Let it cool between brewings, and you want to use it the same day.

7: Pour and enjoy! I like to brew in one cup/pot and drink from another. Pouring into a cold cup drops the temp of a green tea to almost drinkable right away.

Brands
I tend to order online and in bulk. I like to buy 8-16 oz of loose leaf at a time. I've enjoyed Republic of Tea, though they can be expensive and some of the flavors are a big miss. Their Vanilla Almond is to DIE for! Right now Rishi Tea is my favorite. They do greens very, very well. I recommend the Green Flight sampler pack to get started. The name is a play on taking a vacation across regions of the world by sampling greens from each.

I just ordered some Numi jasmine green tea, but I haven't gotten it yet. I'll update you when I do.

This one looks more like it.

Edit: Like looks exactly like it. I kept comparing it. I think it is the same one.

More alternatives:

Black. Looks similar, but more square.

Another black. Still more square, and has a pronounced seam.

Dark blue

Green one

Rounded green one

Black/green? Looks green and larger version

Red lid

Red rust one

Blue with bamboo decor

Blue set, with diagonal spout and an alternative website and even a green set!

Black set, with diagonal spout. Looks like the same cast as the blue set. and amazon link

Different style black, blue and green

Another black one

Shiny black, with diagonal spout set

Brown? Or maybe just rusted

Black, diagonal.I really like this one. I love the striped design a lot.

And some that are even further away from the original design, but square:

Glazed with dragonflies painted on it, set

Ceramic, with waves painted on it, set

Porcelain, with cherry blossom stems painted on it, set


If you're super rich:

So gorgeous

Just because it's pretty

Just because it's a duck


Well, I just spent an hour looking at square teapots when I should have taken a shower.

Very cool contest idea! Thanks so much! :)

Home sweet home

Here are a few ideas that I really like:

1. Three tier cake stand
   
   
2. Love this teapot
   
   
3. Love this tea cup and saucer!
   
   
4. This is a print of Old English Tapestry - so pretty!
   
   
5. This paisley pillow is really neat.
   
   
6. I really like this utility crockery too.
   
   Ok, I think I've flooded you with enough links. I hope you have fun checking out what everyone sends in! :)
   

i haven't tried any, but i have a gorgeous teapot i think it would be pretty in.. lol Beautiful tea pot it's beautiful in general with loose leaf tea in it.. at some point i'll find some flower ball tea..

the asian market here occasionally has flower ball tea, i never seem to be there when it's in stock, i'm assuming that means it's pretty tasty since it's always sold out.. but i'm sure i will find a box or two in stock some time.

Well I can give you an answer that describes my personal preference. First of all I stay away from plastic ceramic and porcelain as they all retain bacteria more than glass or some bpa and bps free plastics. Second is If I am brewing a pot of tea and not just a cup I probably want something a little bit bigger than this one seems to be so I can have at least two or more cups. Also I can't recognize the filter in the pic so I am not sure how you actually infuse and filter with this set.
All that aside if you are looking for a cute and what looks to be a well detailed tea set you can use to serve guest small cups of tea with, this might be great and worth the price. I however have abandoned collecting cute and expensive tea sets (I move a lot and they break etc) a longtime ago in favor of spending a still good sum of money on a pot that will last me a while.
These are the types of sets I like. :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00325MS3M/ref=pd_aw_sbs_2?pi=SL500_SS115&simLd=1

Source: daily tea drinker and manager of a tea shop.

I just finished my first experiment with ABV brownies. They were fucking incredible tasting and I got so zonked I have to cut each piece into eighths if I want to get any work done. Here are the steps:

1. First you gotta get the burn taste off of the ABV. Following advice I got here somewhere, I took 1/4 cup of ABV and soaked it loose in a pot of water overnight. I strained the water off into the finest mesh I have (you can't use just any screen strainer or you'll lose too much shake). A french press will probably work okay. I have one of these tea pots and it was perfect. Re-soak and strain until the water runs clear.
   
   Then you have to dry the ABV if you're going to oil-extract the good stuff. If instead you want to just add the ABV directly into your brownies (but never skip the soaking step!) just toss them into your favorite recipe, but in my opinion they always turn out gross. I wanted delicious goddamn brownies so I did these next steps.
   
   
2. Spread the damp ABV onto a baking sheet. I lined mine with parchment/baking paper and I recommend it. Stick it in the oven at 150 degrees(F) with the door a bit open. Stir it around every hour to get it to dry evenly. This took just a few hours. It'll stink up your kitchen so beware if that's a concern.
   
   
3. Next you turn it into oil for your recipe. Using your handy parchment paper, you can funnel your dry ABV into a glass jar. Because you started with just 1/4 cup, you'll have an easy time soaking it all in oil. Add 5 Tablespoons of melted (not hot) coconut oil into the jar over the ABV. Stir it around. Now place the jar into a pot with an inch or so of water in there - NOT enough water that the jar bobs around, since the whole thing could fucking spill in there and you're back to step one. Heat that on low for several hours. I did five hours. No clue if that's the correct amount of time or not, whatever. But no simmering - it's just supposed to be enough heat to help extract the oil from the ABV.
   
   
4. Next you collect your oil from your ABV waste. I used a regular screen-mesh kitchen strainer for this part since getting some shake in your oil isn't so bad. Strain your oil into something you can store in the fridge - If you choose to make your brownies less potent than I did, you'll want to save the rest for the next batch. I squeezed and squeezed the AVB and I got 4 Tablespoons of coconut oil out (one Tablespoon is lost). My oil was really green, smelled green, but didn't have any of that burn smell left over. I threw out the remaining ABV.
   
   
5. Now you bake! I chose this brownie recipe for my dietary restrictions but it's surprisingly perfect. If you just use a boxed recipe, find one that you're supposed to add oil into. My recipe called for 5 Tablespoons coconut oil so I had to add one for the Tablespoon I lost in my ABV waste. But, like I said, this batch turned out SUPER potent so be warned. If you want to enjoy a whole brownie and stay on earth, I recommend fewer Tablespoons of your extract-oil. Next trial I'm only adding 2.
   
   The whole process took a couple days but it was really passive. Probably only 1 hour of actual work in the kitchen.

1. Get/make a tea cozy. It's basically a teapot blanket, but it keeps the pot warm for your second or third cup.
   
   
2. Cast iron/clay are best if you're going to drink the same type of tea (Green/Black) over and over again, as they're seasoned like a skillet. If you change your tea up, get a get a glass pot or a porcelain pot. If i were buying a glass teapot today I'd get this Hario http://www.amazon.com/Hario-Chacha-Glass-Teapot-23oz-700ml/dp/B0007WTBQ0/ref=zg_bs_367229011_4
   
   
3. The real key is to warm your teacup while you steep the tea . Most tea only require 3-5 minutes so the pot shouldn't have time to cool too much, especially if the lid is on.
   
   
4. I'm a little more fond of the tea basket in a cup http://www.amazon.com/Bodum-12-Ounce-Double-Glass-Strainer/dp/B003D3NC1A and making new hot water for every cup, but I have easy access to hot water, I'm not sure how your dorm situation is.
   

If this is for a bridal shower I think tea bags, even really good tea bags, are likely to be insufficiently special. The ritual associated with making tea in a loose leaf tea in a pot is good for the soul.

If you want to keep the pot warm, it's important to make sure that the pot is properly warmed through before you fill it with hot water. One good way to do this is to put a cup of water in the pot and then put the pot in a microwave oven for two minutes. That will warm the walls of the pot all the way through and give you enough latent heat to keep the contents hot towards the bottom of the pot.

The other thing you can do is put a tea cozy on the pot. That's just a fabric covering that insulates the pot against the cooler room. Etsy has a rather nice selection of interesting tea cozies, and I expect some of the sellers there would make to order, too.

Finally, the modern option would be to go for an insulated tea pot of some kind. I visited an Urban Tea in downtown Vancouver and they used a tea pot like that, which kept the liquid hot all the way to the bottom, which lasted about 40 minutes.

I have two, but I really only use the big one that looks like this. I'm not sure what brand it is because my husband put it on top of the refrigerator and now I can't reach it. Anyway, I only use it when I've got folks over and we all want the same tea. I have another one that's a little cuter, but it doesn't hold as much tea, so it defeats the purpose for me. If you just want tea for yourself, though, the squat ones are fun.

https://www.amazon.com/Luxtea-Double-walled-Borosilicate-Heat-resisting-Teacup10pcs/dp/B018VIVXJO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1539342368&sr=8-3&keywords=luxtea+double+walled+glass

It's a really fun cup for blooming tea

This looks like the cup: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018VIVXJO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Hfz0xbVHHNHW2

$27.60 on Amazon: Dragonfly Design – 26 oz. – Green https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OOWKE4/