---
title: 'Teaware materials'
url: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials'
markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials.md'
lang: en
date: '2026-11-03'
description: 'Teaware materials: Chinese pottery and porcelain from Chaozhou to Dehua, heat-proof glass, cast iron, silver, tin and copper. How each one behaves in use.'
---

# Teaware materials

The material decides how fast a vessel heats up, whether it picks up smells, and whether you can see the leaf through the wall. That is how it gets matched to the job: clay for [oolong](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong), glass for [green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green), iron for water.

 ![Clay, porcelain, glass and pewter: a Yixing teapot, a porcelain cup, a glass pitcher and a tea caddy](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-fcece58d.webp) Illustration 

Most teaware is fired clay, and in China it falls into two families. [Pottery](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics) (tao) stays porous and holds heat: Chaozhou shoula teapots, Jianshui zitao, [nixing](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/nixing) from Qinzhou, Rongchang ware. Porcelain (ci) is fired hotter, so the body vitrifies and absorbs nothing. This family includes [Jingdezhen porcelain](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jingdezhen), made there by the imperial factory from 1369, Dehua white porcelain, the celadons of Yue and Longquan, and the black jian zhan bowls of the Song.

[Glass](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/glass) is chosen for transparency: you can watch the leaf open and the liquor darken. The oldest find, a tea set from Famen Temple, dates to 874. Borosilicate 3.3, marked «耐热», takes boiling water, while a thick tumbler of ordinary glass may crack. Glass works best for delicate green, yellow and jasmine teas.

At the tea table, [metal](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/metal) mostly means boiling water: in a Japanese cast-iron tetsubin, or in silver and hammered copper kettles, the copper ones always tinned inside. A tetsubin adds up to 0.03 mg of iron per liter. Tin melts at around 230 °C and never goes on the fire, but a tin caddy keeps dry leaf well.

In this section

- [![](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-c87b5329.webp) Chinese ceramics 陶瓷 Chinese tea ceramics and porcelain: Chaozhou, Jianshui, Qinzhou and Rongchang pottery, celadons, the Song kilns, Jian bowls, Jingdezhen and Dehua. ](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics)[Chaozhou hand-pulled teapot (shoula)](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/shoula) · [Jianshui pottery](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jianshui) · [Qinzhou Nixing pottery](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/nixing) · [Rongchang pottery and other clay centers](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/rongchang) · [Yue and Longquan celadons](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/qingci) · [The Song Kilns: Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/song-yao) · [Jian zhan: black Song tea bowls](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jian-zhan) · [Jingdezhen porcelain](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jingdezhen) · [Dehua and Chinese white porcelain](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/dehua)
- [![](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-3949a475.webp) Glass 玻璃茶具 Borosilicate versus ordinary glass, which vessels come in glass, which teas suit it, and how to keep boiling water from cracking it. ](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/glass)
- [![](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-a11f6d45.webp) Metal Tetsubin, silver, tin and copper tea vessels: how they are made, tetsubin versus tetsukyusu, what metal does to water, and how to avoid fakes. ](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/metal)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [Teaware](https://howtotea.me/teaware.md)
- Previous: [Tea utensils](https://howtotea.me/teaware/utensils.md)
- Next: [Teaware by region](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region.md)
- Children:
  - [Chinese ceramics and porcelain](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics.md)
  - [Glass teaware](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/glass.md)
  - [Metal teaware: tetsubin, silver, tin and copper](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/metal.md)