Years back, I borrowed two silver teapots. With those pots, I did plenty of testing to see what teas tasted best in silver teapots. Eventually, I returned those teapots and made do with a silver tea cup and my silver gaiwan. Thankfully, silver teacups also influence the tea’s taste.
I never bought my very own silver teapot as they tend to be:
- Expensive. $300 to $500 is a lot to drop on a single teapot. Silver teapots influence tea enough to make a large difference, but still not worth the price. Honestly, it is best to buy better tea and learn by drinking more tea. Most teaware is min-maxing flavor, ambiance, or a collection hobby. However, I hit that stage of I have plenty of tea so I’m not buying as much, so the budget can go towards larger purchases.
- Too large for a solo drinker. My favorite teapot and gaiwan sizes are 75ml to 100ml. Most silver teapots tend to be the 150-200ml. The large size makes sense. Likely most will want to flex and use a silver teapot in group tea sessions. Also, making a larger pot is easier to construct and is sold by material weight.
Yunnan Sourcing finally dropped some small silver teapots in the 50ml to 100ml range. In the past, they have had plenty of 120ml, but that is still too big for me.
I quickly sniped a 100ml Persimmon Silver teapot. No hesitation. I didn’t even check the site to add more things.
A gorgeous teapot, wow! Just the right shape that I like. Besides looks, this silver teapot performs well with an airtight lid, ball filter, and smooth pour. This is actually the nicest silver teapot I’ve used.
However, this teapot has some quirks. It actually isn’t 100ml. Filled to the brim it is 90ml. Once I pop the lid on it pushes out another 5ml, so it is more like 85ml. I lucked out as 85ml is even better! Though if I do have tea in a group this small size is pushing it. Yunnan Sourcing lists +-10ml error, so pretty much within range, I’m sure most don’t bother checking the lid spill. But this error is something to consider if you are particular about your teapot size.
With 85ml, a 1/15ml tea ratio is 5.5g, and 1/20ml is just over 4g of tea leaf needed. It was difficult to stick to a ratio on the other silver teaware as they were all too large and I was underfilling. I found underleafing to 3.5-4g worked well as this pot runs hot.
The second quirk of this silver teapot, which is the only con in design, is the silver pin on the top of the lid. I pour by holding the handle and a finger on the top of the lid and on this teapot it is a searing hot pin. So I’ve had to adjust my finger placement, but it seems best to use the other hand to hold the ball. So this isn’t the perfect teapot, but works fine.
Would I get another silver teapot? Probably not. I could see myself getting more cups, maybe a pitcher if I like the look of it. Are you considering a silver teapot? I would say they are not necessary, but you would enjoy it if you are worried about breaking clay or prefer your teas to taste crisp and bright.
