When you think “tea pot” how big is it? I did a quick amazon search and the top tea pots are Gravity Steepers, 16oz (475ml ish), with a bunch of tea pots ranging from 700ml (23oz) to 1200ml (42oz). Search “Small teapot” and you’ll get 2 cup/500ml/16 oz sized tea pots. PSSSHHHHHH, that isn’t small.
This is small. 40ml (1.35oz) small. US quarter coin for scale.
I’ve noticed tea shops tend to sell tiny tea pots like this pretty expensive. I’ve done a bit of visual arts way back in art school and yes, making stuff smaller can take just as much work as full size, maybe more as it’s so freaking tiny! When I crochet tiny Tea Owls, they take the same amount of yarn and time, as it is just my tools and yarn that went smaller and thinner.
However, cheap cheap tea ware can be found – Aliexpress! I paid $7 for my tiny yixing tea pot. This tiny tea pot arrived late last year in so far the weirdest packaging job I’ve seen. The packaging consisted of first being wrapped in a standard shipping grey bag, then Styrofoam creatively taped into a box shape.
Inside, more random Styrofoam chunks and my tea goodies!
Sweet a sample of unknown tea since there is no English on it. I love those! Also, my tiny yixing tea pot was wrapped in Hello Kitty news paper!
Weird as the packaging was, everything arrived perfectly!
However, for $7 I surely paid for some imperfections. There are a few fingernail dents in the clay and the filter on the inside looks kinda ugly.
Now, what to do with a 40ml tiny yixing tea pot? I’m not sure. So far, my tiny yixing tea pot is unseasoned. Realistically, since I am a single tea drinker and if I have a small amount of an expensive tea, I can use this pot for that. I can see myself dedicating this pot to some aged oolongs I have kicking around. I’ve noticed the more I do gong fu style tea steeping, the smaller I’ve been wanting the vessel to be – this could be I just want to try all the infusions and move on. 40ml seems an entertaining drastic jump down in tea pot size. I imagine that there are some teas I simply can’t use in this tea pot due to crazy honking leaf size expansion.
My 40ml tiny yixing tea pot also has endless entertainment and display value. If I never use this little tea pot, $7 was a fine price to pay for adorable novelty to show on my tea shelf that will wow guests. Look how tiny this tea pot is next to a mini tuocha! Hmmm, I wonder if I have to break the mini tuocha into 1/4 to steep it in this tea pot?
Look at Intern Tea Owl! The 40ml tiny yixing tea pot is like a 4 cup sized tea pot for him!
While I am not using this tea pot, the Tea Owls can have afternoon tea without me! They’ll show that Youtube fine dining hamster who’s boss!
