Japanese tea pot

I love tea. I love all sorts of tea but I tip Japanese green tea (sencha) as my favourite, followed closely by genmaicha (Green tea and brown rice). For Christmas a few years back my auntie bought me my first tea pot  and it really saw some use. I'd make a pot of green tea a few times a week and sometimes a few pots a day. So when my floral English style tea pot broke I needed to replace it, fast!

I've have quite an affinity with all things Japanese so I thought a Japanese tea pot was in order. There are a few different types. Roughly there is the Tetsubin (te-tsu-bin) which is your regular shape with a handle over the top and it's made of cast iron. According to wikipedia the tetsubin is appreciated as a source of iron as the iron leaches into the water...wow.

The more common type is the Kyushu which is made of ceramic and is either the regular shape or has a protruding handle out the side. This is the type I opted for when I wandered into "Japan City" at my local Westfield that was having an opening sale! $38 and I've got an elegant, traditional style tea pot that'll be sure to impress.

I'm really happy with it. It pours well. It's deceptively large and I can get 2 regular size tea / coffee cups from each batch. I'm still using a tea infuser inside but it'd be fine with uncut tea leaves.

I'm aiming to never wash it. Just like a wok, your tea pot will season. I'm sure there's 100 year old tea pots out there with a rich heritage of flavours built up over the years!

Do you use a tea pot? What sort? Anything you can share about choosing, using or caring for it?