The Porcelain Thread

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DigitalSparks
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:47 pm
Location: Louisiana

Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:33 pm

My granddaughter is the only person in the house who will drink tea with me. While she's been very good at holding the cup properly and being mindful, I still worry that she may accidentally drop some of my better, more favored cups. So, I have been looking around thrift stores for something she could use that was still nice, but not so lovely that I would be afraid she might break it unintentionally.

Today, I found these sets of 4 cups for $10.00. They have a few blemishes here and there and aren't my favorite, but I feel they will serve the intended purpose. They are light, well-made, feel good in the hand, and have a nice thin lip, which I seem to enjoy the most in my porcelain cups.

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DigitalSparks
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:47 pm
Location: Louisiana

Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:49 pm

These are my newest addition to my Senchado teaware arsenal, I really like this particular cup shape, I tried to sort out what to call this shape and best I can tell it seems to be referred to as くみだし (Kumidashi). If anyone has more input on this particular style/shape cup feel free to let me know.

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DigitalSparks
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:47 pm
Location: Louisiana

Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:56 pm

This is one of my rarer pieces, I don't use it often because for me it's quite a bit larger than my other cups that range between 40-70ml, and this one is 100ml which isn't super big, but still much larger than my other cups.

Sakaida Kakiemon (12th or 13th I believe not positive)

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Baiyun
Posts: 154
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2022 1:12 am
Location: Australia

Fri Jul 21, 2023 8:18 pm

Thanks @LeoFox and @DailyTX. I do not enjoy hunting on auction sites so I will likely continue to wait for releases from tea vendors I trust and expand this search to Japanese ware. Underglaze decoration with intact glaze is a must for me in that vintage segment.
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Baiyun
Posts: 154
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2022 1:12 am
Location: Australia

Fri Aug 04, 2023 9:53 pm

I've been experimenting with back to back tasting in a few cups I've got flying around and this shape uniformly works well for me for what I generally drink. Granted, all examples I have so far are modern porcelain, stoneware, or even borosilicate, as I have not yet found a vintage porcelain example, but the differences are more noticeable than I thought.
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I think I am settling on middle of the road cups in terms of taste because a lot of teas seem to flatten (through a larger oxidation surface?) noticeably in wider and shallower cups, although I would otherwise prefer the faster cooling characteristics and aesthetics of wider, shallower cups. Especially roasted oolongs seem to change to their detriment in wide cups.

I am also under the impression that straight lips produce more aroma as the liquor is aerated more when slurping than on flared lips where the liquor flows into the mouth a bit more directly instead of pulling it over the edge.

Perhaps there is also an element to the slope of the vessel wall that contributes a little bit to perceived texture, although I don't have enough otherwise similar cups to verify this with, maybe it is a temperature gradient thing that produces a bit of variation that makes it richer.

The pictured cups are Jingdezhen with tianbai glaze but I wouldn't know how the glaze specifically compares to others.

One element I noticed is that I like the vessels to be translucent enough to spot whether there is any liquor remaining across the table when serving tea to others, instead of having to glance into their cups from above, to see if a refill is in order.

ultra late infusion of the 2005 Ban pen sheng from farmer leaf
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pepson
Posts: 60
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:26 am
Location: Slovakia

Sat Sep 16, 2023 7:42 am

Handmade Jingdezhen porcelain cup (Peaches).
This shape and size is nearly useless but I had to buy it because this is lovely tiny pet :)
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