TeaForum.org

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."
Guillaume Apollinaire
The same can be said of life and living. To pause in the pursuit of meaning just to live. The rest is commentary.

Could we expand the word meditative to include calm in the midst of the quotidian? I recall being invited to a cup of sencha and in the silence of not sharing a common language enjoyed the cup as a gesture of kindness. However ocha is magnetic; just as it pulled me to the table, a few minutes later ...

Japanese teaware can be expensive, but to invest in a new set that you buy (together) and know the artist and remember the day you received them, as the years pass happily and they fill not only with tea but memories. However, your pictured set are beautiful cups and for that reason alone they will ...

I don't mean to sidetrack from highlighting these Chinese potters, and apologize if this is the wrong place, but I will just put the suggestion out there that Suzuki-san at Kugogama, Daisenyaki can be contacted, or possibly through magokorodo on ebay, if purchasing the Chinese teacups isn't practica...

you're not thinking about translation. we in english don't use, currently, a word, nor have the will, to imply the age and often marital status of a woman. in chinese they do.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, making Daisenyaki, has been researching centuries old techniques that are presently not fully understood. Here is a sake cup I purchased from him during one of my visits.
Very interesting article, thanks for posting.

Upton Tea is working with Hall China and Homer Laughlin to produce their teapots. When they first announced the collaboration they did a really interesting historical write up of these companies until the present. mbanu, I have been enjoying reading your research and discoveries that you have been p...

I'd like to venture an answer from the knowledge I have gleaned over the years. All pottery is made with great aesthetic care and attention. Different pieces have different challenges. But when you consider a chawan, that object is in a class by itself. I know potters will sit in front of their whee...

I'd like to clarify my use of the word "blend." I agree with Ethan Kurland that consistency in taste is maintained by blending teas. I was referring to tea type blends like Scottish Blend. To quote from the Adagio website: "Richly blended with Assam, Keemun, Yunnan, and Sri Lankan full-leaf teas, yo...

Interesting topic and responses. I appreciate the guardians of the leaf, and the historians replied, but to my mind British style is no more than a larger pot, oxidised tea steeped 3 minutes or so, and not re-steeped. Sugar, milk, lemon may be added, but never by the purist. And neither will teabags...

I read something interesting in Tom Standage's A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Wedgwood was able to out compete Chinese porcelain, which then stopped being imported in 1791. Anything after that could be, whether copied, influenced, or based on, be considered British. Teapots included.

Also how long do we soak hagi ware before using them on a daily basis? And is it hot, lukewarm or cold water? Or do we just rise it with hot water afterwards? In my own use of Hagiyaki I have only followed the instructions of soaking a new piece before the first use. After, I have only rinsed the c...

Bok, The Brown Betty, as I referenced above but wanted to point out again as this is what I find most interesting. The local red clay that was discovered to best retain heat, that attention to and advancement of clay in the preparation of English style tea. It was always a passion and science. It s...

Bok,
The Brown Betty, as I referenced above but wanted to point out again as this is what I find most interesting. The local red clay that was discovered to best retain heat, that attention to and advancement of clay in the preparation of English style tea. It was always a passion and science.

From wikipedia: "...red clay that was discovered in the Stoke-on-Trent area of Britain, in 1695. This clay resulted in a ceramic which seemed to retain heat better and so found use as the material for the teapot as early as the seventeenth century..." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Betty_(tea...