Lots of tea threads on the boards lately. Winter’s on its way? I presume we all have kettles. I’m guessing most of us have pots. How many of us have tea sets?
I make my tea in one of two pots. The smaller one yields almost two, or even almost three, mugs, which is fine for me. The larger one is for when I have guests, which I don’t so I don’t know how many cups it holds. I never use my tea set.
Mom bought the tea set when we were in Japan in the '60s. The pot and four cups are double-walled, with the exterior wall decoratively pierced. They’re two shades of green, and the finish has ‘cracks’ in it. I assume it’s intentional, as I don’t remember seeing the set without them. The bail on the pot is wire, covered with a wicker-like wrapping.
Back in the '90s I was in one of the Japanese shops on Sawtelle near Wilshire, and I saw an identical pot. The proprietor told me that the company has been making the same pot for 300 years. Well, not the same pot. That would be silly. They’ve been making the same style for a long time. I told my mom, and she offered to give me her old set. I used it once, when a classmate came over to study. (She’s half-Japanese.) I’m pretty sure the set is in the cupboard, so if anyone is interested I could pull it out and snap a photo.
Well, I have an electric kettle, plus a small two-cup pot with strainer insert, plus matching cup and saucer. Plus a plastic spoon. The pot/insert/cup/saucer part is Chatsford, from uptontea.com. A highly recommended site, and a highly recommended set.
Touchy subject in the snorlax household. We did, until about a month ago when I broke our teapot. Wedding present, from the now discontinued Platinum range from Marks & Sparks. Lost one teapot, gained one doghouse.
I have my mother’s ancient tea set – she was making tea in it when I wasn’t old enough to reach the kitchen counter. Chinese-style pot with blue-brown-gold panel geometric pattern and 3 out of 4 teacups (one wasn’t packed tightly enough and broke into teeny bits in the mail ) and the wicker handle is coming unwrapped from the rusting metal hooks used as a backbone. Still makes brilliant tea, though.
Sometimes I think my parents don’t value older stuff enough – they were puzzled when I asked for it, plus puzzled when I was very sad over the broken cup. And my mother’s migrated to Lipton teabags instead of the looseleaf Chinese teas. Whereas I’ve migrated back.
I have a tea set I bought at Pier 1 years ago. It’s green with a leaf pattern. Very pretty. The Highwayman broke one of the two cups though sigh. Oh well. When the rest of it goes, it’ll be a good excuse to buy a nice celadon set.
I have a real tea set. Teapot, sugar bowl, creamer, and six cups and saucers. I rarely use it. Generally I just make one mug of tea at a time (two servings of tea in one mug). I’m the only one in this household who likes hot tea, and I only want that much tea at one time.
My dishes came with teacups and saucers, and I bought a teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer to match. So I guess that is a tea set. But I also have a blue-and-white teapot with four matching covered mugs, from Williams-Sonoma, which I consider to be my “real” tea set–as in, I’m going to make a pot of tea, this is what I’m making it in. The teapot is squat and round and really, really cute.
I also have a matching Chinese teapot and little cups. It fell out of favor when I got the Williams-Sonoma set.
FOUR cups? Um, are you sure that your mom got the set in Japan? Four is a VERY unlucky number in Japan (the word sounds the same as death) and dish sets NEVER come in sets of four - usually five or six. Perhaps one of the cups was broken?
Regarding the OP. I have a few tea sets. One is from Japan - pot, five cups, five saucers. Additionally, I have an antique sterling set - it’s a tea pot, coffee pot, chocolate pot, creamer, sugar, 12 spoons, and a candy dish (I’m not sure the dish is actually part of the set, but when my mom gave it to me, she said it was).
Finally, I have a pottery set that I purchased for myself - pot, sugar, creamer, 8 cups (does that count?)
I have one that I got at a small Chinese housewares shop. It consists of a small pot, 4 small cups, and a platter. A lot of it has gold plating. The pot and platter have a dragon and phoenix painted on them, and the cups have characters of good fortune. I don’t use this set very much as it was rather expensive and I seem to have a penchant for chipping/breaking teacups.
I have four stackable “tea service for one” sets: a white cup and kettle with candy designs for winter, a yellow and purple with flowers on it for spring, a bright yellow, red, and blue with fruit for summer, and a brown with yellow and red leaves for autumn.
There’s my work set–a little brown hand-painted 3-cup teapot with matching cup and saucer.
There’s my home set–Blue Willow, some pieces new, some antique to varying degrees. The big 6-cup teapot is for everyday use (though not always filled to the top) and the fancy 5-cupper with the gold paint on the lid and handle is for special occasions. (There are also two other Blue Willow pots, one big and a 3-cupper, but the one has a cracked spout and the other’s missing its lid, so they’re purely for decorative purposes these days).
There’s a little celadon green set, but the spout on the pot for this is also damaged, so it never gets used anymore.
And a black-and-white Japanese set that I gave to my parents as a gift several years ago, but came back to me when they retired and started travelling.
My sister-in-law just sent me a set for Christmas that is very much like the one Amazon Floozy Goddess describes, but I haven’t used it yet.
) and the wicker handle is coming unwrapped from the rusting metal hooks used as a backbone. Still makes brilliant tea, though.
