Everlasting Teaware Kickstarter

That’s a bad-ass looking teapot!

Do they mention anything about the clay besides?

“Clay Type – Taiwanese Stoneware – there is NO heavy metal leeching in the clay we use and no toxins used in the process so rest assured!”

I wish the Alpha Solo pot was truly solo. 200ml is just way too big for me to gongfu. This is like clay for western steeping or maybe doing grandpa. That and for workplace tea I would want a vessel that can steep more than one type of tea (though it would work great for people who drink the same tea at work).

Annoyingly, the high roller share pot is smaller (by 20ml).

I like the design but wonder why the one pot doesn’t have a lid. And like Oolong Owl said it is too big for gongfu at 200ml. I do sometimes brew black tea in a vessel this size when I am only expecting to steep it four times but for puerh I generally want something smaller. I do think he has a winning design in the looks department. The question is how well does his design brew tea.

Yeah I was wondering about the lid thing as well, with oolongs and Pu’s you really dont want to be losing that much heat.

This does look interesting but I am always wary of these kickstarter campaigns. There was recently an update to a thread about another tea kickstarter where I guess everyone lost all their money.

Eh, not a fan of the design. The clay looks rather dull and rough, and like others mentioned, where is the lid? The design isn’t terribly innovative either… there are quite a few pieces of attractive teaware on Taiwan Tea Crafts with a similar look and function.

I’m just seeing this. This is Sammy, owner of Everlasting Teas. I just posted on here about our kickstarter, and you already beat me to the punch. haha
Thanks kaylee for posting and backing!

Thanks to all of you who have voiced your thoughts on this thread! (some good and even some harsh! I like honesty so that’s great )

Especially with serious tea drinkers as most of you are, these are all valid questions and comments. I will try to give you my humble response to these.

The LID

well, in a perfect world, yea I guess there would be a lid. Do you lose some heat? yea of course a little. Does it affect the taste all that much? I don’t think so.

And remember, the initial vision was to create a simple, yet functional set for the workplace. Most of you would never break the lid at work cause you are super duper careful but ya know the drill….it does happen to quite a few people.
So for me, i would never usually use a pot without a lid, but I wanted to make brewing loose leaf available to all.
And after testing it over the past year, I have come to actually enjoy using this pot with no lid for two reasons:
1. I enjoy the aromas that come up while brewing. I’m a daily baozhong drinker and for those of you who know the aromas of baozhong, having no lid only heightens my experience and hasn’t changed the taste at all.
2. no lid does make it easier, both the pouring and rinsing/cleaning and so for in a work environment, i found it to work great.

THE DESIGN

Is it innovative? not really, but what teaware these days is really innovative? most yixing pots look fairly similar. Our vision was to blend traditional and modern so we used both curves and straight edges in our design. We also wanted it to be minimal enough for all levels of tea experience and keep everything raw. Inside is a bit more rough than the oustide. The outside is actually smooth but not glazed because we just used a brush to polish. I fell in love with the natural raw stoneware color and wanted to use this for the design. I wanted the colors to change over time aligned with each person and their brewing styles.

THE CLAY

Our stoneware is fired at very high temperatures so it is able to brew any type of tea without the clay absorbing much over time like other clays fired at lower temperatures.
Our partners have high standards for the clay we use and like previously stated, no metal leeching or toxins are used. If anyone has any specific questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

For multiple brews, it still works great. We wanted a size that spoke to both the share crowd and the solo crowd. It’s not too small so that a person can’t have it in the mug, but it’s not too big so now that same person can steep at least three mugs. For the share crowd, it’s the perfect size to share with friends. You could definitely get 5 or more brews of a good tea (obviously depending on amount of tea and temp), which would yield 5 rounds for you and your friends. (perfect for a work meeting or having company over)

@allanK I totally understand people’s worries about some kickstarter campaigns and sorry you have had a bad experience. I’ve backed many and have had great experiences with most. Some do delay but I’ve always gotten the product. You will have no worries with our project at all! I’ve been working with our partners for the past year, visiting the pottery house and we are ready to get these into production. No one will lose their money without getting the teaware!

Any other questions let me know. And thanks for all your comments! appreciate them all!

I just purchased the Alpha Solo. :)

I love the design and the fact that it is stoneware. For me a lid would just be one more thing to keep track of while I am working.

Looks great, I just backed at the Alpha Share level. I can see why the lack of lid would be a concern but for gong-fu style brewing the steep time is usually so short I can’t imagine there would be much significant loss of temperature there. Perhaps a future design decision could be to have the mug and/or fairness cup fit over the pot(I imagine you can probably do this already with the flared top) thus providing a makeshift lid while not going against the design philosophy of simplicity and not having an extra moving part.