Not a single mention in this thread of a gaiwan. It's stunning how there's an ancient, effective, wasteless, flavorless, attractive and elegant alternative to

Not a single mention in this thread of a gaiwan. It's stunning how there's an ancient, effective, wasteless, flavorless, attractive and elegant alternative to tea bags that western culture simply has no clue about. The Chinese and other asian cultures have been using it for thousands of years. (Or at least since the Ming dynasty, and far earlier if you include the "tea bowl" precursors.) There is zero need for a tea bag when you have such a simple, elegant, and effective ceramic dish in which to steep tea. That and the fact that tea bag tea is virtually synonymous with ignorance of the full range of quality that exists in the world of tea, as far I can tell. The good teas from around the world just do not come in tea bags, and routinely when I share them with friends who think tea comes in tea bags, they are blown away.