A Guide/Advice on Purchasing the Best Teapot Online

Recently after the breakage of two of my only yixing teapots I set out to find some suitable replacements.  I quickly learned that buying a teapot in person is very different than purchasing one online.

Firstly, you cannot accurately see the quality of the teapot online.  Any imperfections that a trained eye can easily spot can be hid or cannot be determined with pictures online.  Also the size of the lid hole, tightness of the lid, any rough clay inside the pot that might cause potential problems, testing of the pour, general thickness of the teapots walls, the weight of the pot, etc, cannot be reliably determined with photos online. 

Obviously, the tactile feeling of the pot also cannot be determined online either.  More importantly, the overall feel of the teapot, its energy, its Qi, the way it feels in your hands and the way it makes you feel cannot be accurately assessed.  For someone who has an eye for, experience with, and a background in such things, buying a teapot online put me out of my comfort zone.

I think it’s always a good idea to first make sense of your tea drinking.  I did this and I think it will help give you a better idea of what exactly your teapot needs are before you go out a buy one.  It should be noted that really you don’t really need a teapot at all.  However, if you hope to practice gong fu cha “skillful tea brewing” and feel like using the brewing vessel as a way to refine your tea steeping skill or feel that the esthetic of a teapot elevates your tea experience, then you might want more than a cup and some loose leaves with a fork as a filter.  But really, it isn’t at all necessary to own a teapot and still enjoy tea.  In many ways adjusting water parameters, leaf to vessel ratios, water temperature, and steeping times will probably give you much more out of your tea leaves for less money.  But to me, I felt that the teapot was a needed esthetic and a convenient necessity.

For me I determined that I need a teapot that:

1-      Would be for drinking tea with my family in the morning

2-      Would be mainly used for and enhance the flavor of aged/ semi-aged sheng puerh which we almost exclusively consume in the morning

3-      Should be of relatively large volume 200-300mL due to the short time period and the higher output our family demands while gong fu steeping in the morning

4-      Should be of durable and study design and feel, preferably with thicker walls (will withstand potential toddler throws)

5-      Should be a functional design and easy to use because it will be used daily

6-      Should exude the feeling and energy of dynamism, action, movement and the Fire Element which matches the energy of the mornings in our house, preferably red clay

7-      Should be of yixing clay

8-      Won’t break the bank

After I determined exactly what I was looking for then I went shopping at some reliable Western puerh vendors.  Browsing online, is the first step if you think you know which pots will improve the tea you hope to steep in the new pot.  I think if you contact the place where you are buying a majority of your tea this is a good logical place to start.  This makes sense because the vendor should ideally have the best teapots to bring out the best in the teas which they sell.  It seems reasonable that this would benefit both vendors and buyers alike.

Here are a few that I would recommend and trust and places that I actually went looking for a teapot.  They are all old bloggers that I have had personal connection to for over 10 years.  They are also dealers that focus on aged and semi aged puerh (on the tea that I will use the pot for).  They are also places where I commonly buy tea as reflected by frequent reviews of their teas on my blog:

Stephane- Teamasters

Stephane has been writing about yixing teapots transmitting knowledge from his teamaster, Teaparker for over a decade now on his blog.  He often helps his patrons chose the best teapotfor the tea they are drinking.  He has anextensive catalogue of yixing pots, many which are quite beautiful and are priced accordingly.

Wilson- Adventure In Every Cup

The title of his blog Travelling Teapot pretty much tips you off that this might be a great spot to look for teapots.  His teapot inventory has dwindled down over the last few years but his knowledge of love of yixing teapots makes Wilson a good person to go to.  I feel his selection of drinker quality semi aged puerh matches closely the tea I would be drinking in my future teapot.

David- The Essence of Tea

The new the Essence of Tea site has by far the best pictures.  It allows you to really zoom in and look at the details of the pot.  He bought up huge amounts of factory 1 yixing pots and quality private commissioned yixing while living in Malaysia.  Its super fun even to just browse at those beautiful shapes and forms.

I actually ended up checking the sites of Yunnan Sourcing and white2tea as well as pretty much all the western vendors I could think of but many of these sites didn’t have anything or very little that met the above criteria.  However, if you reach out by email or message, the vendor that you most frequently purchase from should be able to direct you to a teapot that they feel will work best for the teas they sell.  If they don’t have one that you are looking for they probably will be able to track one down.

Another great place to look is the used market.  Nothing I found met my above criteria but I would have much preferred to buy used and save the money than buy an unused teapot.  That’s just me.

I hope my personal experience in searching for the right yixing teapot online will help any readers to find the right pot for them.  If there are any readers who wish to share any other tips or their experience feel free to do so in the comments below.

So, did I end up buying?  Yes.  I ended up getting two old and beautiful yixing teapots that I feel are the right fit for my teas and tea drinking.  So far, I’m happy with them and feel no need to buy anymore.

Could have I just used an empty cup and a fork to hold in the leaves and gong fu-ed the tea in this make shift, minimalist, gaiwan type of brewing vessel? Yes, it probably would have done the trick just fine.

Could I blindly tell the difference of tea made in one of my yixing pots verses in a mug with a fork strainer?  Who knows, but I certainly hope I’m at that level.

Peace