I recently have acquired some new teaware, and today I finally had the time to pull out one of my new pieces, an absolutely adorable tiny little 200ml bronze-glaze pumpkin with a matching glazed cup. I’m still working on my old, past-the-best-by pure teas so I decided to brew this oolong sampler I had from Dazzle Deer… a May 2017 harvest that I still had in a sealed pouch. Oof. Used 110ml of 205F water for the 7g, brewed gong fu style.
110ml miniature teapot | 7g | 205F | Rinse/30s/35s/45s/55s/65s/80s/90s
This was a roasty oolong, with notes of wood, char, smoke, roasted nuts, and walnut; not my favorite flavor profile, but it didn’t have a level of roast that breached into that level of sooty uncomfortableness I can easily get from roasted or smoked teas. The flavor didn’t change much throughout the session, though as the leaves opened up more in later steeps, it did gain a very subtle floral quality and the tea smoothed out a bit more, becoming a bit more rounded and sweeter during the early portion of the sip, with the end sip and aftertaste retaining a stronger roasted/char quality. By the fifth steep the flavor was starting to wane, and I decided to stack my sixth and seventh steeps together to use up what was left in the thermos of water I had prepared.
Wasn’t particularly excited by the tea, but I loved the little teapot which was so easy to use for gong fu, did a good job of keeping sediment out of the pour, had a smooth pour and didn’t burn my fingers like I have trouble with using gaiwans, and the cup also felt very silky smooth in my hands and didn’t have uncomfortable heat from the hot tea. It felt really good to use the new teaware and I’m looking forward to using them in many more sessions!
Flavors: Char, Floral, Roasted, Roasted Nuts, Smoke, Walnut, Wood
Preparation
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If I might ask, where did you get your mini teapot? I’m always on the hunt for glazed teaware under 120 ml, even though I have a few teapots already.
This one holds 200ml total, I just filled it only to 110ml. I got it from Tangpin on Etsy. They had free shippig from China and the packaging was impeccable (I got the mini pot and two tea cups).
Interesting! I’ve never heard of that vendor; I’ll have to check them out to see if they have anything smaller. Enjoy your new teapot and cups!
The pot sounds adorable!
@ashmanra: It is! I’m really pleased with it!
@Leafhopper: I just checked through Tangpin’s teapots and while most seem to be in the 150-250ml range, there are some outlyers in the larger or smaller category. I have seen a few 120ml and 100ml so far, and even an EXTREMELY tiny (yet adorable!) 25-35ml pot that almost looks like a dollhouse kyusu to me (and now I kinda want it…)
This is their shop page, and you can look just under “Ceramic Teapots”: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Tangpin
I’m not sure if it’s the same for Canadians, but for my US Etsy account the shipping from China was free, it arrived in the estimated time that Etsy provided, and the packaging on the teaware in the boxes was really impeccable; it would’ve been extremely hard for that stuff to break! And at least with my order they gave me free leaf tongs and a shop-branded tea towel, which I felt was a nice touch (and I did use them!)
Thanks for the link to their shop. Their prices are quite reasonable. And yes, I kind of want that dollhouse-sized kyusu now, too!
I like your teapot, Mastress Alita.
I guess I will need to place an order over there :D
@derk: Thanks! I am enjoying using it.
@Martin: I know that if I get a hankering for more teaware (and there is always another hankering!) I will probably be a repeat customer because I had a really good experience there.
And another thanks for the link!They have a really cute teapot(and matching cups) with kittens painted on it/them^^
If I might ask, where did you get your mini teapot? I’m always on the hunt for glazed teaware under 120 ml, even though I have a few teapots already.
This one holds 200ml total, I just filled it only to 110ml. I got it from Tangpin on Etsy. They had free shippig from China and the packaging was impeccable (I got the mini pot and two tea cups).
Interesting! I’ve never heard of that vendor; I’ll have to check them out to see if they have anything smaller. Enjoy your new teapot and cups!
The pot sounds adorable!
@ashmanra: It is! I’m really pleased with it!
@Leafhopper: I just checked through Tangpin’s teapots and while most seem to be in the 150-250ml range, there are some outlyers in the larger or smaller category. I have seen a few 120ml and 100ml so far, and even an EXTREMELY tiny (yet adorable!) 25-35ml pot that almost looks like a dollhouse kyusu to me (and now I kinda want it…)
This is their shop page, and you can look just under “Ceramic Teapots”: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Tangpin
I’m not sure if it’s the same for Canadians, but for my US Etsy account the shipping from China was free, it arrived in the estimated time that Etsy provided, and the packaging on the teaware in the boxes was really impeccable; it would’ve been extremely hard for that stuff to break! And at least with my order they gave me free leaf tongs and a shop-branded tea towel, which I felt was a nice touch (and I did use them!)
Thanks for the link to their shop. Their prices are quite reasonable. And yes, I kind of want that dollhouse-sized kyusu now, too!
I like your teapot, Mastress Alita.
I guess I will need to place an order over there :D
@derk: Thanks! I am enjoying using it.
@Martin: I know that if I get a hankering for more teaware (and there is always another hankering!) I will probably be a repeat customer because I had a really good experience there.
And another thanks for the link!They have a really cute teapot(and matching cups) with kittens painted on it/them^^