Good Gung Fu teapot by mail?

You can buy the new display cased boxed sets from Australia via HongKong on Ebay. I just bought a one of a kind 'sake' tea set with the teapot instead of carafe. My only word of advice don't pay more than $50. For really cheap you can buy the Chinese one cup clay teapots starting around $10 in your local Chinatown.

Jim

I have only placed one order with this vendor, and that was a three-tea sample pack, but I did receive it. It took a little while (a week, maybe eight days), but he is in Hong Kong (I think) and I am in Florida. We even corresponded a bit via e-mail. He seems to have a good sense of humor (not that that means anything, trust-wise). His name is Kam, and his site is

Again, I've never bought from him pots or anything at all but the one sample pack ("Mountain Oolong", some pu-erh cake and "Longevity Eyebrow" white tea which I am trying out now). I did receive it and he read and responded to my e-mail personally.

...Just because I feel like blabbering on a bit... I searched the groups.google.com archives of this group (TINTG) for funalliance.com and came across at least one spirited debate over the name, and its seriousness or lack thereof. As you can probably tell by my nym, I'm a little off the wall myself, so it appeals to me. It probably doesn't charm the strait-laced types; nor, most likely, do I. So be it :O)

A few years ago I bought a pot from

, though I actually bought it in person at the vendor's house, and it's worked well for me. Ideally it's best to be able to hold, feel, and even smell the pot before you buy it, so it might be a good idea to check if you could exchange or return (a presumably unused) pot if you wind up not liking it. A couple of pieces of advice from this vendor (Brian Wright) were that a good Yixing pot will be relatively heavy for its size, and it's easier to get the wet leaves out if the pot has a large opening at the top. Though his prices can be a bit high, I think his products are of high quality.

I got a "Wind" teapot from

several years ago, but this particular one doesn't appear to be of very high quality-- I think it's a case where you often get what you pay for.

There are also a number of Yixing pots at

Good luck, David Savige

I also tend to buy pots in person (or get them as gifts), so have not ordered one from shansuiteas. I have however ordered teas from him. They were moderately expensive and very high quality. I definitely got what I paid for.

Rick.

David Savige wrote:

Thanks for all of the good suggestions.

I've bought a couple of pots from Fun Alliance and I've yet to have any problems. Yes, they do come from Hong Kong, but besides a two-week shipping time I have yet to have any problems spring from that.

The two pots I bought from Kam are his two cheapest under 5 oz. While neither's lid fits super-well (although the "slim-bottom classic" isn't bad at all, IMO: you can still do the "put finger over air-hole and stop the flow" trick.), both are pretty good for $20 pots (shipping included). I'd avoid the "glossy red classic" as its lid is pretty loose, but not unusably so.

I can't report on his more-expensive wares yet, but I'd think that they'd be quite usable (inasmuch as even both of my supercheap pots are).

Incedently, he's the only vendor I know who regularly stocks many

2-3oz. pots.

ZBL

I highly recommend Michael Ryan. I've been getting my teapots from him for several years now and VERY happy with quality and reliability of his service. You can purchase his merchandise from his web site

or on EBay