Verdant Tea

This simple bamboo tray is a perfect set-up for modern gongfu tea. It is big enough to hold a gaiwan, a pitcher and two small cups, making it easy to move your set up around the house, take it to a sink for cleaning up, or even carve out gong fu tea space at work.

This beautiful mini tea tray features a black lacquer style surface as a dramatic backdrop for your fine tea wares. The tea tray bottom is a clever veneer design that is far more durable and water resistant than an untreated bamboo bottom. The top comes out with its own stand to use without a tray below it outside. The whole tray is small enough to pack carry on for tea on the go.

This solid tea board features a top cut from a single piece of wood instead of put together with slats, giving it greater durability over time. The white sides give the board a light sunny feeling perfect for early morning tea. The tea tray bottom is a clever veneer design that is far more durable and water resistant than an untreated bamboo bottom. The top comes out with its own stand to use without a tray below it outside.

We love circular tea trays! The shape creates an open space and an invitation for everyone tasting tea to be equally involved. This well-built tray is a perfect size for home or work, and is big enough to comfortably hold a teapot or gaiwan, a pitcher and several cups. The dark staining on the bamboo dramatically sets off the white and blue of fine porcelain. The size and weight make this board packable for travel.

This beautiful hardwood tea tray from Xiangfu Design Studio embraces their humble origins as a small workshop of bamboo crafters. The Chinese name 水云间 literally means “the space between clouds and water,” an evocative image that inspires the cut channels that serve as the drain for water poured during tea ceremony to run into the hidden tray underneath. The channels mirror the steam on a just brewed cup of tea rising and swirling, priming the tea board as a special “space” for tea.

The tea board is the foundation of gongfu tea, and this is solid foundation indeed, formed from a beautiful piece of hewn stone. The choice of material is a critical piece of the overall balance of a gongfu set up, and stone brings in a sense of groundedness, while reflecting on the rocky textural complexity of fine tea. The stormy grey of this board turns dark and lustrous as hot water is poured over it, and the water flows down the channel along the edges to drain to maintain a clean modern look. For modern gongfu ceremony, cap the drain with the included cap and the board works as a stunning tea boat.

The perfect smooth surface of this board serves to highlight the stunning polished wood grain pattern in this solid walnut, carved by Jianyi workshop. The clever design includes a center drain with an outlet hidden under the board. The wood grain is accented by elegant metal adornment, a restrained border and center line delineating space for brewing vessel and cups. This board comes with a tube and pump for draining when used in traditional gongfu ceremony with full steepings poured over yixing teapots. Of course, the surface makes an incredible backdrop for modern gongfu to catch the occasional drop as well.

This grand tea board is big enough to be the centerpiece in any room. The supremely elegant gentle curve of the board directs water to a single line of drain holes. The carving evokes a mountain in the clouds. Black wood surrounds the warm wood platform acting to provide contrast and drainage along the borders. The board can be used as a framing piece in modern gongfu, or the drain can be connected for traditional gongfu tea. This heavy reinforced piece will last for a lifetime of fine tea.

This stunning walnut tea board by Jianyi Workshop features deep channels for water to flow underneath teaware, leaving the gongfu set up dry and elegant. This is particularly well-suited to brewing with yixing teapots so that tea water doesn’t pool under the pot, allowing you to maintain an even and professional patina. The beautiful grain of the walnut is allowed to come through and bring a natural presence to gongfu ceremony, while metal accents adorn the border. Elegant calligraphy inscribes the sentiment that “Time flows like water,” perfected suited to the way tea ceremony flows. This board comes with a tube and pump for draining when used in traditional gongfu ceremony with full steepings poured over yixing teapots, or can be plugged and used as a stunning surface for modern gongfu to catch drips.

This tea boat is a perfect tool for modern gongfu tea without a tea board. The combination of coasters, tea boats and a water bowl allow you to define any space for tea and reconfigure as needed. This tea boat is perfect for pitchers, gaiwans or yixing tea pots to catch any drips while brewing and dramatically set off your fine tea ware for appreciation.

This ceramic stand is the perfect pairing with a tea boat. The boat can hold your teapot or gaiwan while the stand sets off your pitcher for a truly elegant modern gongfu set up. While not in active use, the stand makes a perfect display stand for your most treasured yixing pottery or ceramics.

This ceramic tea boat is an elegant modern solution to gongfu tea. It is meant to hold an yixing teapot, gaiwan or pitcher and catch spills or hold tea poured over a pot without taking up as much space as a board. Use with runners and coasters for a modern gongfu set up that can be reconfigured and expanded as needed. Compact enough for travel or tea at work.

This tea boat is designed to hold an yixing pot or gaiwan in modern gongfu ceremony. It has a large enough reservoir to pour the first steeping over an yixing pot to help season the pot and build patina. A tea boat is an elegant solution, eliminating the need for a large tea board by catching drips and spills. Paired with coasters and a runner, it makes for an beautiful and flexible tea set up.

This dramatic dark wood tea boat is carved with 福, meaning good luck and blessing. The grooves in the carving give water a place to run off when brewing modern gongfu tea. The tea boat is a critical piece of the modern gongfu style, allowing brewing without a large tea board.

This gorgeous solid wood tea boat is carved with slats to allow drips and spills to run off from your fine tea ware. The red color is a dramatic contrast to both porcelain and yixing. The tea boat is a critical piece of the modern gongfu style, allowing brewing without a large tea board. This solid, surprisingly heavy piece will round out your modern gongfu set up and last a lifetime.

This long and elegant tea board was designed to facilitate clean, modern gongfu - a contemporary ceremony where a bowl is used to catch extra water, and the pieces are more interchangeable and portable. This board has room for a gaiwan, a pitcher, strainer, and two to four cups, but still fits on a desk or living room table without issue. The bold carving reflects the mountainous topography of tea growing regions like Wuyishan, and also forms channels to catch any water that drips while brewing.

A glass teapot can be a beautiful way to show off the beauty of your tea as it unfurls throughout the steeping. Being able to see the deep beautiful color of the tea as it steeps builds anticipation for the first taste, making tempered Min Xin Glass Teapot a perfect brewing solution. This set pairs the teapot with two hand-painted misty mountain landscape tea cups, and a tea tray carved with a mountain landscape to match.

Gongfu tea can be a perfect solo companion, helping carve out time in the day to stop and enjoy taste, texture and aroma of fine tea. This set is the perfect size for one, including a fine Ge Song celadon teapot fired in Longquan, the birthplace of celadon craft, a hand thrown hare’s fur Jian Zhan teacup from artist Lin Xi, and a space-effective tea tray to catch any water or tea while you brew.

The modern sensibilities of the Peng Yuan studio’s latest series is paired with an elegant draining walnut board, simply adorned with gingko leaves for a full gongfu set up which also includes a striking gongfu-sized teapot with its unique and stylized spout and lid, perfectly paired with a simple but gracefully curved pitcher and two cups. This set is clean, modern and versatile in form and function.

This full modern gongfu set up includes a long carved tea board to catch any drips while brewing. The carved lines of the board that evoke the topography of a landscape are a perfect pairing for the scholarly porcelain series. This beautiful series features a hand-painted motif drawing on the Tang dynasty tradition of gardens set up for scholarly contemplation and meditation, highlighting the beauty of natural objects like unique rocks and trees through the seasons.  This set includes the topography tea board, unique wide-saucer gaiwan, a pitcher and two pairs of matching cups. Every hand-painted piece is unique.

This unique De Hua porcelain has a subtle blue-green undertone brought out by a gilded golden edge, creating a lustrous contrast for an elegant series from the Peng Yuan studio. This high-fired porcelain reflects the true aroma of your tea. The gilded porcelain is paired with a tempered glass pitcher to show off the color of your brewed tea, all set on the stunning Xiangfu Storm Grey Stone Top Tea Board, a draining full gongfu set up for serious tasting.

The lustrous banded porcelain series is paired with a solid draining walnut tea board adorned with golden calligraphy for an elegant full gongfu set up. This new series from Peng Yuan studio features some of the thinnest fine and lustrous porcelain of De Hua. These pieces almost glow in the light with their translucency. A single warm band of color has been applied to each porcelain piece for contrast and style. This set includes a walnut gongfu board, a perfectly-flared gaiwan, two cups, a strainer, and a tempered glass pitcher that shows off the color of your brew.