What is tea without a tea cup? The absolute most essential tool for a tea drinker, unless of course, the trend moves to sipping from your cupped hands. Tea mugs are where I started, because I was drinking, mainly, bagged teas or loose leaf English Breakfast, and chai tea blends. However, as I moved deeper into my practice, I discovered how important a good tea cup is to the overall experience. Over the years, I have gathered many types of tea cups to fit the particular experience, whether sipping with friends and family or drinking solo.
A tea cup is a work of art. There are many different styles and aesthetics, even down to the feel of the tea cup while sipping. It all adds to what you are experiencing. For example, I personally like a to be able to see the color of my tea through the cup with a more rounded edge. I also do enjoy a tea cup that has more of a well, instead of your traditional cup.
In this post, you will be learning about different tea cups and how they can add to your experience!
1. Double Glass Wall Tea Cup
My favorite and most frequently used tea cup, the double glass wall cup checks a lot of boxes. With this tea cup, you are able to look at your tea color, which is important to the experience when putting together what you are tasting AND seeing. I love that I can look at my tea from different angles, different shades of light, and see how the color changes as you brew more. I’m a big fan of the rounded edge. It is great for sipping or tea tasting if you are working on notes for a journal. What’s also great about this cup in particular is that I was able to purchase it in a tea cup set, which may be more appealing to first time buyers.
2. Chinese Yixing Clay Tea Cup
As my affinity for tea has grown, so has my love of tea cups made from different materials. You will find many tea cups out there made of clay, and in particular, Yixing. What I love about my Yixing tea cup, is the porous feel, and round opening. You will find various sizes, mine is about 80 ml, which is perfect for a single serving. They hold temperature very well, and are great to impress guests! As with my Yixing clay teapots, I tend to only darker teas in these, such as heavily oxidized blacks, oolongs, or pu’erhs.
3. Ceramic Tea Cup
It’s always a good idea to have a few solid ceramic tea cups. These are great in any situation, whether it’s you sipping or entertaining guests. I also suggest a few sizes in case you are using tea pots that brew a bit more of a single serving size. Ceramic tea cups come in different shapes and with different art patterns. I love mine because they have Japanese visuals. You can find what works for you!
4. Yan Hou Tang Ming Dynasty Style Chinese Cup
My Yan Hou Chinese Tea Cup is one of my favorites. This is an example of how tea cups can differ. This tea cup is made of clay, and what I like about it is how the shape is more of a well. It still holds about 70 ml of tea, but it just does it differently. It fits great in the palm and it has that rounded opening, which I love for sipping. Although you cannot see your tea color as well, I still love being able to look through the tea into the cup. This is a great tea cup if you move up from a ceramic style.
5. A Solid Tea Mug
Not exactly a cup, but important to have. A good tea mug is important because you are likely, as a tea drinker, to have bagged tea OR loose leaf that you brew in a tea pot for a larger cup. This may be a chai of some type or English Breakfast. Maybe something you add milk or cream to, or perhaps you make a latte. Whatever the reason, you want to make sure you have a solid mug to go with your tea cups.
You now have a solid line up of tea cups to think about. All in all, you cannot go wrong with any, but you will learn what works best for you in terms of experience and situation. The reason you may go ceramic in the beginning is because, it tends to be cheaper than some of the handmade clay tea cups. There are also many tea cup sets you can purchase that may come with a small tea pot.
As you work on your tea cup collection, you will also want to think about your tea pots. Check out my article on popular tea pots and how you use them. Happy brewing!
In this post, you learned about five great tea cups you want for a great experience!
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