Have you ever wondered about all the different utensils people choose to make a cup of tea? Trying to understand which ones you really need? Which ones to choose?
Consider yourself fortunate to be living in the 21st century.
Lu Yu needed 28 tea accessory utensils
You might have lived in 780 A.D., when Lu Yu, the famous Chinese author, wrote the Cha Ching, his magnum opus that would define the entire world of tea for centuries.
According to Lu Yu, people should own and use 28 different tea utensils just to drink a cup of tea.
Tea accessories have come a long way
Thanks to metallurgy, utensils to help us drink tea now come in a variety of materials and shapes. But they still serve their primary purposes as defined by Lu Yu.
They still have to get the chemicals out of the tea leaves and into the hot water in ways that create a pleasant, agreeable, and even delightful experience.
Here’s what you should look for--
Separating the tea leaves from your tea
There are several possibilities:
Don’t separate them. Just leave the leaves floating until they settle to the bottom, then decant the tea into your cup. You can use any leaves that make it into your cup to read your fortune after you finish your tea. This user-friendly system was perfected by Russian gypsies and Aussies living in the bush.
Leave the leaves floating in the teapot while steeping, then use a strainer to prevent them from entering your cup.
Use an infuser. A tea infuser holds a cup’s worth of tea leaves enclosed in a metallic form, usually mesh. You leave the tea infuser in your cup of hot water until desired strength and then remove it.
All the other tea accessories
Besides tea infusers, you might also want to use drip catchers, lemon squeezers, tea bag squeezers, cup warmers, tea timers, tea bag holders, honey dippers, sugar spoons, sugar tongs, matcha spoons, matcha whisks, tea filters, tea presses, reusable tea bags, measuring spoons, tea scoops, tea storage tins, and of course, tea cozies.
All of which come in multiple sizes, shapes, materials, and colors for your pleasure.