7 steps to pick good teapot.

A good teapot is not only a piece of functional tea-ware but also a piece of great artwork. Its value can never be overstated. Here's how to choose a good one.

1. Look for looks. A great teapot is one that you don't want to drink tea without. You should pick a good teapot carefully. You will want to look at your teapot for the next 50 years, so make sure it is timeless and attractive.
2. Get a feel for it. Teapots can be made from clay, porcelain, or cast iron. A good clay teapot needs to be bright and hard. Put the teapot on your palm and tap it with your finger. Feel the sound. With a ltitle practice, you will be able to tell how hard the clay is.
3. Smell it. A brand new clay teapot will come with a clay smell. If you pick a new teapot that smells of charcoal, oil or another smell, chances are that is not a good teapot.
4. Check for tightness. The lid and the pot should be tight. Clay teapots have a vent on the lid. Fill the pot with water and use your index finger to cover and compress the vent as you tilt the teapot. If you see the water coming out from the spout, it is not a good teapot.
5. Observe the flow. Release your finger from the vent as indicated in step 4. A better teapot will have water flow out of the spout smoothly with an opened vent.
6. Fill the teapot 75% full with water. Lift the teapot and try to pour the water out of the teapot. If you feel your hand is out of balance a bit when you try to pour the water out, it is not a good teapot.
7. Decide on what kinds of tea you are going to brew in the pot. The character of tea is an important factor for the type of teapot you are going to choose. Tea with an emphasis on "smell", such as flower-flavored tea, needs to retain heat in the pot in order to bring out the smell. In this case, a high frequency ring from the teapot is better (refer to #2 for tapping sound). Tea that emphasizes taste, such as Oolong tea or Tieh Kuan Yin tea, needs a teapot with a sound of lower frequency.

Teapot stories...

Before there were Teapots

Teapots are relatively a new invention compared to the amount of time that tea has been around. In the 7th century, tea came in bricks. A chunk was cut off and then broken up so that it can be boiled in water. They were boiled in cauldrons and then the tea was sipped from wide bowls. Shortly after, powdered tea became popular. The grounded tea was mixed with hot water in a deep and wide bowl. This type of bowl helped facilitate the whipping of the powder to a froth with a whisk. When the powder settled, the tea was drunk out of the bowl.

Early forms of Teapots

The traditional teapots weren't needed until the type of tea changed. In the 1300's, leaf infusion started and now teapots were necessary to allow for the tea to steep. Teapot-like vessels have been around in China for thousands of years, but they were used for wine and water. These vessels had a spout and handle and eventually were adopted for the steeping of tea. The most popular teapots from this time were produced in the YiXing region of China. These teapots were made purple clay and were known to be of fine texture and high quality. These YiXing teapots were hybrids of the earlier drinking bowls and the modern teapots. Not only were they used to brew tea, but were actually drinking vessels. An individual would drink directly from the spout of the pot.

The teapot design of today

We are more familiar with the globular shaped teapot of today. This was basically a European invention. The inspiration for the design might have been twofold, Islamic coffee pots were similar and so were the Chinese wine vessels. Early European teapot designs were inadequate due to poor workmanship and poor quality of materials. A breakthrough occurred in the early 1700's. A new clay was found and with the help of new technology, a fine porcelain was created that rivals the best that China had to offer.