Verdant Tea

This unique tea tool set shows off beautiful natural wood encased in resin. This wood and resin has a subtle piney aroma, bringing in a bit of the outdoors. If you are making the time for gongfu brewing, why not complete the set-up with a full set of tea tools to add that extra sense of ritual and fun to your daily tasting? The set includes a funnel to help pour leaves into narrow teapots, a scoop for measuring, a pick to loosen leaves that might stick to a strainer, a tweezers for lifting teacups to rinse, and a mini-scoop for pushing tea leaves into a pot or measuring matcha.

If you are making the time for gongfu brewing, why not complete the set-up with a full set of tea tools to add that extra sense of ritual and fun to your daily tasting? This beautiful wooden set from Xiangfu Workshop includes a funnel to help pour leaves into narrow teapots, a scoop for measuring, a pick to loosen leaves that might stick to a strainer, a tweezers for lifting teacups to rinse, and a mini-scoop for pushing tea leaves into a pot or measuring matcha.

The evocative dragon and phoenix relief across this monumental celadon tea storage jar shows off the depth and luster of the glaze. Hand-finished and fired at a traditional Longquan celadon kiln, this tea storage jar is large enough for over a pound of most teas or several broken-up pu’er cakes - perfect for keeping your absolute favorite tea in easy reach, and lovely enough to make a permanent fixture on your tea table.

This intriguing design combines traditional celadon craft with a distinctly modern double-lid perfect for teas that require an airtight protected environment like fresh Tieguanyin or for long term aging of white tea and roasted oolongs. The outer lid is a screw top, while the inner lid pops in and out for a very secure fit. The deep, beautiful celadon glazing brings elegance to any tea setup.

If you have beautiful, hand-picked and hand finished tea, why not take a moment to show off the beauty of the leaves? This elegant scoop sets the tone, both playful and gorgeous, letting you pass around a perfectly-twisted Wuyi oolong or rolled Tieguanyin before brewing.

This saucer is perfect as a tea boat for modern gongfu brewing where you skip a full tea board. The saucer will catch any small drips from your teapot or pitcher and act as a beautiful understated backdrop while you brew. The saucer also works beautifully as a paring with any saucerless celadon gaiwans in the collection if you prefer the look and feel of a saucer set-up, but is equally at home with an yixing pot.

The ewer is a traditional implement originally used for pouring rice wine at banquets and later adopted to tea ceremony. By pouring your boiling water in an ewer first, you can bring the temperature down to a perfect level for delicate green tea, white tea, or even buddy black teas. Plus, pouring from the ewer makes for a stunningly elegant presentation for deliberate gongfu tea ritual.

Part of the formal tea ceremony is invoking nature. Both Chinese and Japanese tea ceremony call for flowers. The natural element is a reminder that tea comes from the outdoors. It reinforces our connection to nature and helps transport us to the mountain peaks where the tea is grown with every sip we take. This gilded Longquan porcelain vase is an elegant piece for both tea ceremony and on its own.

This lustrous white bowl is perfect for holding first rinses and excess tea in modern gongfu tea ceremony. Adding a bowl to your tea set eliminates the need for a large draining tea board. This modern, purposeful and elegant way to drink tea can be reconfigured in any space for any size gathering. This bowl comes with a bamboo funnel that gives it a clean, elegant look and keeps the bowl from becoming overfull. The funnel can double as a tool to help pour fluffy tea leaves into teapots in a pinch. The Longquan porcelain finish is easy to keep bright and clean.

This chahe is a specialized presentation plate to measure out your tea leaves, show them around, smell them and easily pour them into a teapot or gaiwan. The bright white porcelain is a great neutral background to really let your tea leaves shine.

This clever bamboo tea box from Xiangfu is the perfect tray to break up a pu’er cake before brewing with its open cut corner for pouring leaves directly into a teapot or gaiwan. When you are done with your favorite pu’er, instead of having to put it away on a shelf and risk tearing the wrapper, you can leave it it in this box, since the lid slides into place and locks magnetically to protect your best teas.

Xiangfu’s roots as a workshop are in bamboo crafting, and this pu’er tray is a perfect example of their functional design. Perfectly sized for a 357g cake, the tray is a safe and convenient way to break apart a pu’er cake. The open corner allows you to pour the leaves directly into a teapot or gaiwan.

Coasters are an indispensable part of modern gongfu ceremony. They can be placed on tea boats to protect yixing from scratching, or they can be paired with a tea boat to hold a pitcher, a strainer, and tea cups. These coasters are hand woven in Yunnan from bamboo and become darker over time as they absorb tea spills.

Our tea-growing partners like to describe tea as tian di ren, a collaboration between earth, sky and people. These coasters are an evocative reflection on this collaboration - with resin capturing the feeling of “sky,” of water and air, the wood burls as nature and earth, and the joining of the two, the act of craft by the workshop, the people. Symbolism aside, these are a stunning and beautiful coaster solution, ready to carve out a special space on your table for the finest teas. Each coaster is unique.

This saucer is perfect as a tea boat for modern gongfu brewing where you skip a full tea board. The saucer will catch any small drips from your teapot or pitcher and act as a beautiful understated backdrop while you brew. The saucer also works beautifully as a paring with any saucerless celadon gaiwans in the collection if you prefer the look and feel of a saucer set-up, but is equally at home with an yixing pot.

Hand woven by textile artist Li Shuling in Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian / Gyaitang), these colorful textiles are a celebration of vibrant, rainbow hues.

Hand woven by textile artist Li Shuling in Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian / Gyaitang), these colorful textiles are a celebration of vibrant, rainbow hues.

Hand woven by textile artist Li Shuling in Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian / Gyaitang), these colorful textiles are a celebration of vibrant, rainbow hues.

This handy little tool opens a whole new world in tea brewing. A simple metal strainer is traditionally used in gongfu tea ceremony to catch leaves from your gaiwan or yixing clay teapot while pouring into a pitcher. It can also be used to catch leaves when you steep more improvisationally, allowing you to use two tempered glasses or even mugs for brewing tea.

This thin lustrous elegant strainer from De Hua combines warm gold and a subtle blue-green hue porcelain for a beautiful contrast. The fine mesh strainer can filter very small tea leaves without getting clogged.

This tea set is everything you need to brew fine tea at home, or to kickstart friends and family in gongfu tea brewing. This essentials collection includes a white porcelain gaiwan that is fully non-reactive for true clean flavor and aroma. The cups are high fired porcelain from Qing Yuan Peng Hua studio in Dehua. The tempered glass pitcher and stainless steel strainer make it easy to brew for a group.

The creamy blue of the distinctive Ru glaze was first pioneered in the Song Dynasty to evoke the sky. Now, the master craftspeople at the Jie Feng studio in Dehua fire these Ru pieces at over 1100 degrees celsius to bring back this song dynasty tradition. This strainer has a fine mesh to catch small pieces of tea as you pour into a pitcher, and perfectly complements a ru ware set.