Teapots as pitchers

faj
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 11:23 am

Most often, I make tea for a single person (aka "me"). I drink tea from double wall glass cups, and I have them in a couple of sizes, so I just pour everything from the teapot to the cup. However, I regularly make tea for two (my partner typically joining me), and then I always use a glass pitcher. From the pictures on the forum, I see some of you also use glass pitchers. In my experience, they have a strong tendency to drip and spill, and I have not seen one I like.

A while ago, I purchased a glass teapot to use as a neutral vessel with more capacity than my gaiwan. After finding out it has a decent pour, I started using it as a pitcher, and I have just gotten a second one so that I always have a clean one on hand.

Out of curiosity, do some of you use teapots (glass or not) as pitchers? Are the glass pitchers you use less messy than those I have?
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mbanu
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 11:37 am

I want to say that this is an old British trick, having a brewing teapot and a serving teapot, but maybe it is just mistaken for British. :)

I do wonder what caused the split; when the fairness pitcher was invented, why did they go with a pitcher rather than another small teapot? My best guess is that they were worried about the tea staying too hot in a closed teapot, but then why not just have a lidded and lidless teapot?
Ethan Kurland
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 2:28 pm

I use teapots as servers. The size and/or pour of a pot may be perfect for a session & heat retention from the lids is useful. Tea stains on my glass servers take away their appeal & scrubbing them gets tiresome.
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Victoria
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:23 pm

I use a few different vessels to hold steeped tea;
  • A couple of glazed Seto-ware vine handle teapots that I use with roasted oolong and some blacks. The interior glaze bounces off roasted aroma nicely, and the slight thickness of the ceramic pot maintains heat well.
  • A porcelain Arita-ware, Inoue Haruho kyusu 井上春峰 急須 works well with most teas since it is porcelain.
  • A stoneware Hokujo sake pitcher works well for serving tea, except aroma gets lost since it is not glazed. Retains heat and or cold well though.
  • Various glass pitchers I like to use because I can enjoy seeing the color of the steep, and aroma bounces off nicely from the glass surface. Also, poetic that vitrified glass is an amorphous solid with a memory of its liquid state. Here is a Hoya twisted crystal sake pitcher that I also use. None of my glass pitchers drip.

A few of us here have had an ongoing discussion as to why sometimes older kyusu were sold as a pair. Some of us think it may be so that one kyusu is used to steep the tea, while the other is used as a pitcher. Another theory is that they were sold as wedding gifts, one for her, one for him. Here is a pair by Yamada Jozan III (not mine).

Jozan III kyusu pair IMG_5268.jpg
Jozan III kyusu pair IMG_5268.jpg (233.23 KiB) Viewed 4586 times
faj
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:42 pm

mbanu wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 11:37 am
I do wonder what caused the split; when the fairness pitcher was invented, why did they go with a pitcher rather than another small teapot?
If I am going to be making up an unsubstantiated theory, I would propose the idea that the general shape of a vessel used to pour liquid was settled in the collective unconscious before the teapot appeared. Drip-resistant, teapot-shaped containers would be great to pour water or other drinks, probably better than most pitchers, yet to the best of my knowledge this is not something you tend to see. I guess there is a strong tendency for people to buy a product that fits the mental image they have, and for producers to make what people buy.

It so happens that some teapots have a precise and smooth pour, and when you use them often you get to appreciate that, and maybe, like me, wish pitchers were more like them. But people who would like their pitcher to pour like a Hokujo kyusu are, shall we say, a very, very small portion of the market...
faj
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:51 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:23 pm
A few of us here have had an ongoing discussion as to why sometimes older kyusu were sold as a pair. Some of us think it may be so that one kyusu is used to steep the tea, while the other is used as a pitcher.
The idea of buying a second teapot of the same clay for use as a pitcher has crossed my mind, I must admit, but my TAD has not reached the level yet where I would act on that idea... I am sticking to glass for the pitcher, for now at least.
faj
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Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:58 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 2:28 pm
I use teapots as servers. The size and/or pour of a pot may be perfect for a session & heat retention from the lids is useful.
Out of curiosity, do you use vessels made of the same clay? Do you preheat your "pitcher" teapot?
Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 2:28 pm
Tea stains on my glass servers take away their appeal & scrubbing them gets tiresome.
All of my glass teaware is borosilicate, nothing elaborate or expensive, so I throw everything in the dishwasher. No issues with tea stains.
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Balthazar
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:31 am

faj wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:58 pm
All of my glass teaware is borosilicate, nothing elaborate or expensive, so I throw everything in the dishwasher. No issues with tea stains.
Where did you get the teaware from? My glass pitchers were both cheap (one from YS, another from a local shop) but supposedly made of "cooking glass" (whatever that means beyond withstanding thermal shock). They have stained in the bottom (baking soda doesn't help).
faj
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 6:51 am

Balthazar wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:31 am
Where did you get the teaware from? My glass pitchers were both cheap (one from YS, another from a local shop) but supposedly made of "cooking glass" (whatever that means beyond withstanding thermal shock). They have stained in the bottom (baking soda doesn't help).
The double wall cups I got from a couple of places (including Amazon). Quite typical.

The glass teapot is Hario QSM-1. A bit expensive for what it is and not the most elegant teapot, but there does not seem to be much else on offer that is available in smaller sizes.

I also have pitchers that are shaped like lab beakers (with handles) that come with a lid that has a mesh filter. I have gotten those from Camellia Sinensis. I can't seem to find them on their website now, maybe they are not selling those anymore.

Those are not items I treat with a lot of care. The glass will scratch a bit with time (especially the bottom), and as all glass there may be some slight cloudiness when they come out of the dishwasher (e.g. minerals from water), but I have not seen anything I would call stubborn tea stains or felt the need to scrub. I would hesitate to use baking soda on glass for fear of scratching it.

Everything I have was advertised as being made from borosilicate glass, which is resistant to thermal shock. It is the stuff used to make lab equipment.
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Balthazar
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:32 am

faj wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 6:51 am
The glass will scratch a bit with time (especially the bottom)
Yeah, this is probably the case with mine (i.e. not actual "stains", but scratches)
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:56 am

Do I match the clay of the teapot with the clay of the pot being used to serve? I don't match. The table used for tea preparation also has a toaster oven on it & clutter. (I enjoy the look of cups & pots etc. when held high above the spread of.....)

I admire photographs of teaware that looks beautiful together: table, tray, cups, servers, etc., but I choose by size & feel for how much I want to drink, hold in a vessel, & hold in my hand. I also want to make use of all of my teaware throughout the year. I feel silly owning things that don't get used & like change.

My glass servers that need to get washed often are made of thick cut glass. The outsides get brown & need more than a quick wipe on crevices of the designs. These pieces are from relatives who inherited them & then did not use them. (I do not know if they are dishwasher safe, I don't have that appliance.)
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OCTO
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:03 am

I do it very often. I often try to match them based on the character of the two pots that brews the tea I’m going to drink. By doing so, I’m minimizing the possibility of the tea profiles being diminished by poor matching pots. I also sometimes do it when I acquire a new pot which I wish to season. When the purpose is to season, I would not place emphasis on the match and often will brew a simple daily drinker.

Cheers!
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Victoria
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:50 am

faj wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:51 pm
Victoria wrote:
Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:23 pm
A few of us here have had an ongoing discussion as to why sometimes older kyusu were sold as a pair. Some of us think it may be so that one kyusu is used to steep the tea, while the other is used as a pitcher.
The idea of buying a second teapot of the same clay for use as a pitcher has crossed my mind, I must admit, but my TAD has not reached the level yet where I would act on that idea... I am sticking to glass for the pitcher, for now at least.
The nice thing about a glazed or glass surface on a pitcher and cup is that aromatics bounce off and swirl around, enhancing a sessions sensory experience.
On that note, I always hand wash all my teaware, never using soap, because it leaves behind a residue. I’ll just use baking soda with a little water to remove any staining, followed with a splash of white vinegar. With pieces that are more stained I’ll let the baking soda sit with the piece a while. Haven’t had any scratching on the surface of glass or glazed pieces.
faj
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:54 am

OCTO wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:03 am
I do it very often. I often try to match them based on the character of the two pots that brews the tea I’m going to drink. By doing so, I’m minimizing the possibility of the tea profiles being diminished by poor matching pots.
Thanks for the comments. Do you feel using a teapot as a pitcher (made with a clay of generally similar character to that of the teapot used to brew) increases the potency of the effect the clay has on the tea? Does it, for instance, have a cumulative muting effect?
faj
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Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:05 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:50 am
On that note, I always hand wash all my teaware, never using soap, because it leaves behind a residue. I’ll just use baking soda with a little water to remove any staining, followed with a splash of white vinegar.
I guess that is the best thing to do. That being said, I can't say I have perceived any aromatic notes from soap residues. Also, I always rinse my glass teaware with hot water before using them.

One thing I forgot to mention : I also have glass teaware at the office (times being what they are, it is easy to forget about this) that I hand wash. These do accumulate a thin, barely noticeable layer of tea residues (and probably minerals) with time that can be scratched with a nail but cannot be entirely removed by hand. Once in a while I will bring them home to give them a run through the dishwasher. So yes, I see how scrubbing that away by hand could be a bother as @Ethan Kurland said.
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