teapot

A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea bags or as loose tea, in which case a tea infuser or tea strainer may be of some assistance, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured. Teapots usually have an opening with a lid at their top, where the dry tea and hot water are added, a handle for holding by hand and a spout through which the tea is served. Some teapots have a strainer built-in on the inner edge of the spout. A small air hole in the lid is often created to stop the spout from dripping and splashing when tea is poured. In modern times, a thermally insulating cover called a tea cosy may be used to enhance the steeping process or to prevent the contents of the teapot from cooling too rapidly. History China The switch to specialized vessel for tea brewing was powered by the change from the powdered tea to leaf tea and from whipping to steeping that occurred in China. It is hard to exactly pinpoint the time of the invention of a teapot, since vessels in the shapes similar to the modern teapot were known in China since Neolithic period, but were initially used for water and wine, as boiling or whipping tea did not require a specialized container. When tea preparation switched to infusion (during the late Yuan dynasty), at first an ewer-like vessel were used for this purpose. Tea preparation during previous dynasties did not use a teapot. In the Tang dynasty, a cauldron was used to boil ground tea, which was served in bowls. Song dynasty tea was made by boiling water in a kettle then pouring the water into a bowl with finely ground tea leaves. A brush was then used to stir the tea. Written evidence of a teapot appears in the Yuan dynasty text Jiyuan Conghua, which describes a teapot that the author, Cai Shizhan, bought from the scholar Sun Daoming. By the Ming dynasty, teapots were widespread in China. There are early examples of teapots, like the ones made in Jun ware and the eight-lobed celadon pots of the Song-Yuan times, but an expert on Yixing ware, Kuei-Hsiang Lo, believes that the first teapots made especially for tea appeared around 1500 as copies of much earlier Yixing wine pots.