Tea utensils

Tea is brewed in the vessel and poured through the fair cup into the cups. Utensils handle the rest: heating water to the right temperature, measuring the leaf, lifting hot cups and catching stray leaf.

A bamboo holder with tea tools, a pewter tea caddy and a cast-iron kettle — Illustration

Boiling water and a gaiwan are enough to brew tea. Utensils make a good infusion easier to repeat. A kettle holds the set temperature, a scoop and scale measure the same amount of leaf each time, tongs lift hot cups off the tea tray, and a strainer catches fine leaf on its way into the fair cup. You heat the water on a hot plate, burner or charcoal, check temperature and weight with a thermometer and scale, and keep dry leaf in a tea caddy.

After the gaiwan, the first purchase is usually a kettle with temperature control: the water shapes the liquor as much as the leaf does. The rest can wait until tea becomes a habit.

In this section

Water kettles 煮水壶 Water kettles for tea: the Chaozhou clay shadiao, glass, stovetop steel and electric models with temperature control. What to buy, how to care for it.
Tea tools 茶道六君子 Small tea tools: the six items of the "six gentlemen" set, the chahe, pu-erh knives and awls, and tea pets. What each one is for and what to buy first.
Strainers and tea bags 茶滤 Strainer, tea ball, basket, press-button flask and tea bag: how they differ, where they came from, which tea each one suits and how to pick the right one.
Heat sources What to heat tea water on: the Chaozhou charcoal brazier, alcohol burner, electric kettle, induction. Which charcoal to buy and why a closed room is risky.
Scales and thermometers Scales, thermometer and timer for tea: how much accuracy you need, why a spoon misleads, how to check a thermometer and where to start the clock.
Tea caddies 茶叶罐 Tea caddies for dry leaf: pewter with a double lid, tinplate, clay for pu-erh, Japanese chazutsu and chatsubo. Materials, and which tea suits which.