What's the Best Tea Cup? Japanese Tea Cups or Yunomi Explained

[@sadiedavenport]

I adore Japanese pottery, but would urge everyone to keep in mind the following: traditional raku pottery is made with a lead glaze, and because it's a traditional craft it's not subject to modern safety regulations. So if you're in love with yunomi and you want to use one everyday, please shop with your eyes open 💚

[@Nioteas]

Oh wow thank you for this! Definitely something to be aware of

[@sadiedavenport]

@@Nioteas I really love the aesthetic of Japanese pottery and spent several months drooling over tons of pieces, planning to treat myself to one of them. During that time I stumbled on this information and ultimately opted for glass tea cups. Borosilicate and soda lime glass are shatter resistant and completely inert, plus they allow you to appreciate the beautiful color of your tea. Unglazed pottery is a good option, though of course it's always worthwhile to learn about individual products, just in case. I really appreciate you guys making so much gorgeous tea easily accessible to us in the US. My mom is hooked on it now as well. Cheers!

[@veewaiyawuth2063]

Eventhough not all raku cups are glazed with lead-based glaze. It must be mentioned that raku firing normally isn't hot enough to 'vitrify' the clay, vitrification is the process which the clay matures into water proof ceramics. Without vitrification the clay will still be pourous which can harbor harmful microbes and are considered 'non food-safe'.

[@ninapesner3434]

Thank you for you short very clear descriptions!

[@taylora8845]

As a matcha fan for a while now, (& goes great with my anime binges,) I was in the dark when it comes to tea ware. This vid was a fantastic crash course! (Say, since electric milk frothers tend to scratch chawans, I wanted to ask if it is ever "normal" to serve an everyday "usucha" matcha in a regular yunomi Japanese teacup, after preparing from a different vessel? Thanks! 😎

[@xXThunderchu1700Xx]

Hm. Theres a particular cup I've seen in japanese media like video games and anime, but I cant seem to find it. It's a simple, cylindrical design that has a constant horizontal wavey pattern that climbs up the cup. I figured this was done for more surface area to grip it. In all forms of this media, its contents are always some sort of green looking tea. If a name is found, I'd greatly appreciate it, would like to see if I can find some for purchase in the future.

[@Nioteas]

yes it is common to have a much more cylindrical design on these yunomi tea cups. The patterns can vary from cup to cup so I'm guessing this is just a type of style

[@CokoBlop]

I've been looking for teacups like that for a while too. I'm starting to wonder if that's an anime-specific thing. They look way easier to draw than most teacups I see in pictures.

[@adriancentra]

This comment is a year old and I hope you found your dream teacup, but if you look for 湯呑(yunomi) or 寿司湯呑(sushiyunomi) on Japanese Amazon that style is one of the cheapest options. I think it might be the default „anime“ style because you can clearly recognize what it is even if they don’t bother to draw details on it.

[@cherryberry2423]

Can you do a video on the different sizes of the cups? Why would someone drink from those tiny cups?

[@Nioteas]

We have videos about why tea is served in smaller quantities. If you were to drink a watered down version of the tea in a larger cup you would miss out on a lot of the flavor: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apLcmKppYtqdhZY

[@angelalee6105]

so whats the tea cup style we see in anime?

[@Nioteas]

this I don't know

[@raysville7256]

The 'recruitment' of Korean potters to Japan may have been forced.

[@mr.wyrzykowski7522]

well now i now i have a Karatsu cup :)

[@Nioteas]

Very nice! do you like it?

[@mr.wyrzykowski7522]

@@Nioteas yes, it's quite nice. found it in a japanese bar / store in Oslo. it was a small ramen bar hidden in the city centre. as said it was a store and they had also some matcha utensils, however they were quite expensive so i settled for the Karatsu cup :). the color of it will match perfectly to the Kyusu pot i recently ordered from you ;)

[@lukumo2394]

Korean potters were recruited? Weird way to spell kidnapped.

[@Nioteas]

yes I know, I have gotten pushback on this and I'm sorry :(

[@samanparizi3213]

Wabisabi is not a style of tea cup design ... Wabisabi is much more complicated than something that could be explained

[@Nioteas]

yes you are right, I should've said it is the concept of wabisabi applied to a tea cup

[@archkde]

Lol, "recruited" is a way to put it... they were kidnapped first occasionally, then en masse from Korea's southern regions during the Japanese invasions of Korea during the late 1500's. Love your videos but let's please not whitewash this history.

[@Nioteas]

Yes you are right, I read it as "recruited" during my research but I didn't question it because I forgot about this ugly chapter of Japanese history. I will try and do better next time

[@archkde]

@@Nioteas Thanks so much - there's so much work to be done in Japan with regards to history education. Keep up the awesome work and videos!

[@johngarand4299]

Is that whitewash if we talk about Japan ? 😅

[@lauriechilders3300]

I agree