Tea Pets
http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/product.php?id_product=2248 only 6 dollars?!?
Wow, I really feel badly about neglecting mine now. Perhaps I can get some gongfu in this weekend and give mine some love. It is a pair of small feet with an even smaller spider on each one. I got them from Verdant a year or two ago when they still had tea pets. Mine are really dark though, I wonder what they are made of, I always assumed clay. There is a symbol on them but I have no idea what it indicates.
They look this this (minus the gold symbols): http://tinypic.com/r/2zr451v/6
I’ve noticed that mine ‘drink up’ the water really quickly now, probably because I don’t ‘water’ them enough.
Is one supposed to tend to them in the same way as yixing teapots?
The feet look very cute (even though they have spiders on them /shudder/). Why did Verdant stop selling them?
Yes, I have neglected mine as well because I don’t have a draining tea tray, but I guess I could put them on my non-draining one too.
@Kiwi, yes I think I am supposed to treat it much like a yixing. Whoops. I don’t have any sort of a tea tray, I just use a large dinner saucer and pour some of the liquid over them, but it gets messy. Sometimes I want to cheat and leave them in a glass of tea, heh.
Verdant used to sell other teaware as well, I am not sure if they still do on occasion or not.
Dinosara – I, like Uniquity, have just been using a nice saucer since I don’t have a draining tea tray. It works pretty well for now, but I do want to find a nice tea tray one day. Right now they are just out of my budget for what I want.
Yeah, I have a flat, non-draining tray that I use but I dislike my tea pot and such sitting in pools of tea, which is why I haven’t used my tea mascots.
I’m so excited!!!! I was at a Chinese restaurant today and in their display case they had "Tea Pets ". I got a golden toad with the colored beads on its back and a lion laying on his back with a red ball in its palls, the ball spins as you pore tea on him. When I got home I looked them up on the net. They cost $50. and $42. plus I would have had to pay shipping, I got then both for $37. WooHoo! I’m so happy when I find a deal. I’ve been wanting one ever since this tread was started last month.
Wow, lucky!! The lion one sounds neat. Would you mind posting pictures?
I don’t know how to post a pictures, I’ll see if one of my nephews can help me tonight.
I love the idea of having an adorable protective tea pet. I want a cat one, thinking about this one below. Pouring tea over it to smooth and colour them sounds so very personal and sweet.
Awww! They make good companions if you’re having tea by yourself. I have yet to get one for myself. Waiting a little…
I saw a few at one of my local tea shops. They were male and they spit water from their, uhm, “nether regions”.
Are these “tea pets” rooted in any sort of real ancient Chinese tea custom? Or are they just a recent innovation, the clay doodles made with the unused bits of clay by underpaid “yixing” tea pot makers hoping to show their skill?
For the record, I’d be willing to become the personal tea pet of anyone who’d promise to pour delicious gong fu brewed oolong into my mouth every morning. After four or five cups I too tend to spray. I also change colors and make sounds if hot water is poured on to me, but having tried it once, am not really fond of the practice. I’m small and cute, at least compared to a frog.
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