Invader Zim

Cute yixing! Did you get any special cups to drink out of?

I did order the small flower pattern porcelain cup from Verdant the first day they started selling teawares. That should be shipped out the middle of this month. But aside from that I don’t have cups smaller than 5 oz yet. I’m working on it, my teaware collection is starting to grow!

since it’s going to be a dedicated yixing you could get yixing cups!

I could, but I really like the look of painted porcelain cups a lot. I don’t know if I really need to get a lot of cups though, it’s not like I have a lot of company, and what company I do get doesn’t really drink tea, and those that do just like their bigger cups. Essentially, it’s just going to be for me, we’ll see though, I have time to decide!

Sooo cute! I have a couple Yixing cups and I had to season them which was easy since the instructions are on Verdant and Youtube etc. If you don’t season them, the taste is ick! Clay! At least, I can smell the clay.

I get what you mean Zim. I’m a tea enthusiast but must people I know just give me a grin and a fake British accent when I tell them I love tea. LOL. But to each its own. I will get a Yixing cup but for all general Ripe Puerh.

Bonnie, this happened to be. Though is not the case for all Yixing, some ‘High Quality’ Yixing wears almost no scent whatsoever… but I can’t really afford those lol. But the taste part is true 100%. The pot takes 60% off the taste if you don’t season it. This was my mistake with my first pot. If you get a Yixing that has a heavy scent do one or two ‘washings’ which is just letting it sit on hot water and dry and then season like you would normally do.

Bonnie: The Verdant site has such a great video for seasoning yixing. I’ll definitely be looking at that while trying to do mine. Perhaps this weekend I’ll do it. Give myself a whole day to play around with it.

JC: I’m pretty certain my family and friends will just look at me weird at the small size of gongfu style brewing. Do you have a larger cup for your ripe puerhs or do you use a gaiwan and pour into the smaller yixing cups?

Yep, that’s what I did. Now they’re fine. I just use them with my Yixing thermos for pu and my purple clay gaiwan for pu.

I have several porcelain cups. a set of 6 1oz cups, two 4oz cups and normal cups for when I’m just in the mood for drinking tea and relaxing. For the ripe puerh I use the small ones when tasting the large ones when just drinking, but I saw a 4oz yixing cup that I’m interested in. It sounds great to have a cup that will season just as your yixing.

I might get a gaiwan and some 4oz yixing cups once I know what teas I’d like to dedicate them to. I wonder how people who have so many yixing items can remember which ones are dedicated to which teas?!

Curious, where did you acquire your porcelain and yixing cups JC?

Adorable pot! I love the teaware at Zen Tea. I have several things from them on my Christmas list!

the pot and the mugs are really cute

Several places. Some I’ve loved some not so much. I have the really small cups from a set that Silk Road teas used to sell (not so good, descent). I have the two larger Porcelain cups from Phoenix collection with I use most of the time. They are small enough to help me pace myself but large enough to keep the liquid warm while I write notes. And I have a ‘aroma set’ from Yunnan sourcing. These are all Chinese style saucer-cups. My normal cups I’ve bough from etsy directly from different artists. When I get home today I’ll send you a link with a picture of them so you have an idea. :)

Thank you ashmanra and Ysaurella! I like another 2 or 3 of their yixing teapots, but I’m starting with this one to see how I like it.

JC: I’ve seen the ones from Yunnan sourcing and the Phoenix collection, they didn’t wow me. I prefer the ones from JK tea,at least the porcelain cups and the unlined yixing cups, even if they are a little more expensive . I’ll have to check out Etsy and your pictures when you send them. Thank you for helping!

I know what you mean. I prefer simpler tea ware because I feel like for (at least tasting new teas). Colorful cups don’t let you enjoy the color of the tea itself. I know Phoenix collection has several painted porcelain cups but I haven’t seen them yet. Yunnan Sourcing has some beautiful saucer-cups that are painted or have calligraphy. But I’m not sure if you are looking for a cup meaning a tall one or a more traditional flatter/saucer-like one. If you are looking for taller then yes go for JK tea. Or search for artists, I have some cups and they are beautiful and basically unique since they are hand made and this doesn’t make them expensive at all. I have a few and all of them are under $20. My only recommendation is… get a glass pitcher! Nothing beats being able to see your tea in its natural state. :)

I definitely plan on getting a glass pitcher, especially if I’m going to get small cups. As for cups I was looking for the smaller ones, not the taller ones. I like the ones with small designs on them, not calligraphy or paisley style. I’m a little unfamiliar with etsy, never bought anything from there, what artists would you suggest?

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Hey Zim! Well etsy I recommend more for taller cups. I haven’t really found Chinese styled there. If you post a link of a cup that resembles what you like I can help you look.

For now http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/accessories.html (go the the tea accessory tab); http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/category.php?id_category=19009153 ; http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/category/all_teaware (a bit pricey but some cups are at good price); http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/ ; Hope this helps. I’d recommend looking at purepuerh, yunnan sourcing and esgreen.

The ones from esgreen are beautiful and just what I’m looking for! I’m not sure which I like more! Thank you for the help!
http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/hand-painted-blue-and-white-porcelain-tea-cups-seasonal-flowers/#!prettyPhoto2611/0/

http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/hand-painted-blue-and-white-porcelain-cupsx4-the-lotus-pool-by-moonlight/#!prettyPhoto2702/5/

I was looking through etsy earlier and found that if you type in sake cups that you will find some nice small cups you could use for tea.

I’m glad it was helpful. And great find with etsy. I’m looking in there myself. I’ve seen some beautiful cups. Esgreen has a blue/green celadon cup set and a ‘translucent’ porcelain cup set that I just go there, put the pictures and stare. (I must have you) I think. lol If I find anything else I’ll let you know.

Lol I’ve been staring at the porcelain-ware from esgreen too. I’m might ask for some for the holidays, but I’m undecided as to which ones I want!