Within 30 minutes of Crimson Lotus Tea notifying social media, I swooped in on their new Dark Texture Silver tea cup. They only had a couple cups locally, so I had it in my hands the next day instead of waiting for shipping from China. This cup is 50ml, lined with silver. I jumped on this cup over the others as I really like the flare shape, as I find it has a natural placement for the fingers.
I am also on a strange Star Wars kick since January, so the dark colour with the light streaks, combined with silver reflecting glowing tea, makes the Sith in me happy. I also like the more modern look. You can’t tell in photos, just only with feel, that this cup is quite weighty in the bottom. This heavy bottom is an additional bonus as I find it less likely to tip over on my tea table, despite the tall bowl shape and foot.
Man, silver makes the tea glow!
I go into a lot more detail with my Silver Tea pot testing, but I am happy to report that the silver tea cup does make a big difference, very quickly. Over the weekend, all my tea drinking I did with both the silver cup and a non-silver cup.
The black tea was much sharper, more bright, a bit more clean and sweet in the silver cup. The ceramic cup was more mellow in flavor. I played with four oolongs, all in the roasted/more oxidized variety, and the extra brightness did wonders for them, by brightening tea flavor and taming bitter roast. I did avoid silver’s weakness (citrus/floral teas), but overall had excellent tea with preference to the flavor off the silver tea cup.
What I can’t answer right now is what makes a bigger difference – silver kettle, tea pot, or cup? I’ll need to play with the silver tea pot again and compare again to get that answer. I am thinking there is extra influences in play with this specific cup as due to the design of the silver being folded over the edge, as I can feel the cool silver as I drink. The silver cup was way easier to test – just a cup I can work into my session, rather than dedicated brewing or worrying about tea pot pour times.
That said, I can certainly confirm that if you like the idea of silver with tea, but don’t want to shell out the big $$$$ of a silver tea pot, a silver tea cup is the cheapest way to go. If you run the math, a full set of cups is cheaper than a silver tea pot, likely due to less expensive silver needed and easier crafting. I am just sticking with one cup though, my guests can bring their own fancy cup!
The Dark Texture Silver tea cup I got from Crimson Lotus Tea is quite nice. The silver is folded over the edge tightly, so there is no weird edges felt while drinking. They got a couple other designs, but the style and size were perfect for me – important when shelling out $50 for a single tea cup. Ouch.. this is the most expensive tea cup I’ve purchased to date and I didn’t even bat an eye as silver is amazing.
