I had a Teaware.House order come last month, then I got caught up busy with the mediation of the Tea Owl union moving to becoming a Parliament, so some of these pieces of sneaked into Oolong Owl reviews. Teaware.House has many really nice tea ware pieces and the pricing is really fair. The quality is quite good too, better than many of the rando cheap tea ware I buy off aliexpress.
Teaware.House Cups
I can easily be persuaded to buy a tea cup, especially pretty ones that cost under $10. It’s for photos and Tea Owls to sit in! That said, I need lots of tea cups! A couple of these are sold out, but maybe will come back in stock.
This cup is 50ml size, but looks smaller than it holds due to the wide shape. The glaze on this one is neat. There is a flower star in the middle, with one side speckled with a golden glaze for interest. The wide bowl makes for a cup that cools quick.
Silver Threaded Red Hat tea cup
WARP SPEED! This 40ml cup is super cool, like the glaze is being blasted through space, streaking colour. I’m not 100% into hat cups since I’m great at knocking them over, but I love the look of this cup.
Blue and White Drip Bowl tea cup
This tea cup, wow! I love drip glazes, they have so much character! The drip ooze a smearing of whites, blues and golds down the side. This cup holds 90ml.
The middle is ripped with drips and blue patterns. Despite the drips, it is quite nice to drink from!
I love ruyao and drips glaze…
.. and this cup has feet!
The ruyao cup is a bigger one at 125ml capacity. This cup unfortunately isn’t really tea staining that well. I have been using it a lot to coax it, but I think I’m in for a long haul, if any. Lovely large tea cup though. It works very nicely as a solo drinker as you can directly pour your 120ml or less gaiwan into the cup.
Quite a nice collection of tea cups! I don’t need matching tea cups.
Teaware.House Gaiwan
I certainly did not need yet another gaiwan. I have a few small 90ml to 100ml gaiwans, however a bunch of my tea friends swear by this particular gaiwan, so I eventually caved.
Standard White Ruyao Gaiwan 100ml
It clocks around 90ml to 100ml, so a great size for the solo gongfu cha drinker. I hesitated on getting this gaiwan as it is a wide gaiwan and I got small hands, but I seem to wield it just barely.
First off, out of the box this gaiwan is super matte feeling. I was rocking a long manicure when I unboxed mine and when I used it for the first time. It felt uncomfortable nails-on-chalkboard texture when handing and pouring. THANKFULLY after a couple uses the matte feel smooths out. The more and more I use it, the more smooth and glossy the surface becomes.
What I like design wise is the wide bowl and curved lip. The curve lip makes for plenty of real estate to not burn your fingers, provided you don’t overfill it with water. As you can see, the lid sits quite low on this gaiwan too.
Most of my gaiwans are quite thin walled, so to me the White Ruyao gaiwan looks and feels like a 125-150ml gaiwan, but holds less due to the thick walls. If you want a small gaiwan but don’t want to feel like you are handing tea ware for kid’s tea party, you will love this gaiwan.
The tea staining set in fast on the lip and bottom plate (since I make a mess all the time). This was after 2 weeks of use.
I’ve tried this gaiwan for everything but I much prefer dark teas in my ruyao so I can stain it fast. This gaiwan does get hairy with big honking oolong as the oolong will outgrown the bowl due to the wide low shape.
Either way, Teaware.House Standard White Ruyao Gaiwan 100ml is a solid gaiwan after you break it in. This gaiwan is also available at White2Tea and both sites have it available in green.
