Does anyone know 1) What people use for catching the water when they pour the hot water over the yixing pot as they are warming it and also to catch the "waste" water that slightly pours over when one is filling the pot for steeping the tea, and 2) where I can find such a basin, or slotted tray, or whatever is used. I know that Holy Mountain has a "tea sink" for sale that looks like it may be used for such a purpose (and it's nice) but it is $140 and I don't imagine everyone doing gong fu on here has a $140 tea basin. Thank-you in advance for your answers.
There are so many... The whole set of the small slotted (holed) "table" + small yixin teapot + set of wenxiabei/chabei for 6 people + 100g good quality Te Guan In tea was 120 yuan in Beijing ($15.00) Here in the US you can find these things in Chinese supermarkets or online. Most probably you will be looking at 5 times the price and up. Another way is to put the teapot in a medium deep ceramic bowl.
I use a stoneware serving platter. Some yixing sets come with a rather small "tea boat" about 6 to 8 inches round, which I find to be too small. There are decent, workable "sinks" to be found at about $50, with wooden slotted top and plastic removable tray beneath. These work great, and I'd prefer them, but my tea budget (or is it my cheapness) hasn't allowed me to spring for one yet.
These things come in glazed ceramic too...maybe I just need to keep looking.
I read the posts that preceed me and agree with Joe and others who suggested a bowl. Personally, I don't like the wood slotted "sinks" because they just don't please me being perfectly formed and polished. I like a wide soup bowl sort of thing. My trick is to visit a Chinatown shop, and look for a ceramic bowl of low quality and price. The hand painted cobolt blue designs on the "lower" quality bowls tend to be freeer and fit in better with the rest of my tea stuff. If you think of the visual pleasure along with the pleasure of the aromas and tastes, it becomes a matter of how you fit things together. Just my rambling thoughts.
By the way, you just stick the little pot in the middle of the low wide soup bowl and slop water to your hearts content. Then periodically drain the dreggy contents of the soup bowl -- now known as "tea boat" -- to the awaiting waste water jar, or down the sink. Whatever.
I use a very nice broad bowl that I found in New York's Chinatown. Stores such as Pearl River in New York also have inexpensive tea sets with tea sinks included.
-too small, I want to place the pot + the cups + the jar...or it's not worth it or
-too expensive for me. People in Taiwan had beautiful ones in their living room, they use it daily during years, so they pay it as much as an important piece of furniture and often get the assorted brasero to heat the water.
My solution is to use a high tray (about 30 cm of diametre, designed to serve sushi rice or other festive food) and wooden platforms for the pot and little cups (the platforms are sold in the same places as the pots, most people use them just to exhibit their pots but shopkeepers told me they were waterproof, and they are). So I place the whole service on the tray and bring it to the table, the excess water falls nicely in the bottom of the tray, and it's easy to carry it to the kitchen when it's finished*I store all the equipment in that tray too. The tray seems to be made of wood, sometimes visitors believe it and think I got it as a set with the Yixing service....but it's plastic and would cost maybe $5 in a Chinese market, if I had not got it as a commercial present.
*I tried to use a terracotta basin, but for carrying it away and emptying/drying, it was not so convenient.
A gongfu master doesn't use slots unless in Lost Wages. Looks like a new age contraption for occidentals with too much money. Now one leg should feel longer than the other. All you need is pot,basin,cups,tray and decades of training. I'm in a Tibet store today and asked about teapots since they seem more rare than one from India. What I see is a pastoral porcelain gongfu type pot on a ceramic stand kept warm by an incense candle. I don't think I was understood when I said I needed something as big as a Brown Betty. I came across a herbal shop and bought some scented dried flowers. The honeysuckle looks EXACTLY like silver needles. I'll have too keep the two separated. Any tea suggestions for clove buds or red clover? Unfortunately no orange blossom either US or China. The store had some real sexy oolong leaf and I can never have enough. I'm kicking myself I didn't buy any twig tea. I bought some Bewley's Clipper Gold Tea which is a Keynan blend. I don't know of any other commercial all Kenya blend. It was a good day for finding tea in shoppes. I still can't afford the largest Russian Cobalt teapot from St. Petersburg even after the shop owner was going to give me a 10% discount for $20.
Anyway, Melinda - You asked, I answered. Its a big question what one "needs" or does not "need", including gongfu per se and finally, tea itself. And you do not "need" decades of training, do not worry. As for the trays they can be very useful or not at all - depends on circumstances. Roy at Imperial Teahouse uses them because he has beautiful wooden tables and he wants to protect them from spills, so he puts a round metal table (see link at tenren) below the basin. It is also convenient as a tea accessories storage and as a tray to bring things to the table at once.
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Couldn't agree more, Jim. With the exception of teapots, my favorite Gung Fu stuff is street finds. Those slotted things are just too picture perfect for my taste. My latest was a set of three little cups copped in a street fair at three bucks a piece. She said they were 100 years old, but I doubt it. Even so, they're crudely glazed celedon, a bit heavy, and just the exact right thing for Pu-erh. Not sure about the leg thing. Not sure about the need for decades of training either, but then I'm a Western fool.
Nothing is more pitiful than spending decades training for Gung Fu mastery only to find some upstart pops in, catches the spirit, and runs with it in a sudden burst with nary a day of training whatsoever.
You slide that water filled tray across the table six inches after tea service and you'll leave scratches a cat would envy. Just because I don't spill tea doesn't make me a gongfu master. I'll guarantee if the customer serves themselves from the tray or table provide bibs for everybody. My local tea shoppe vendor has a similar problem at his tea tables. He's tossing his first generations of pots for a second generation that is more tilt proof. New tea customers don't have any clue how to handle a tea pot especially the ones holding the tea pot bottom up trying to dump the leaves. The hallmark of gongfu is simplicity and not elegance. I decided. I'd ask the proprietor if regular gongfu service is cheaper.
Many thanks for everyone's input. I liked the idea of finding a large "Asian" style bowl at my local grocer and may go that route, but I also like funalliance.com and at some point I may pick up something from them. Pouring water over the pot in a bowl or container is a little messy since the teapot is sitting in the water then, at least temporarily, but I'm sure I can rig something where it will be easier. I was using a large quiche dish before, so something a little more appropriate to the spirit of the teapot would be the next step I think...;) Thanks again.
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