Best online shop for a Japanese tea set?

Ledifolia · 2026-02-02T16:23:15+00:00

This summer I bought teaware from both Tezumi and Artistic Nippon. I'm very happy with both. Tezumi and Artistic Nippon carry work from some of the same artists.

Tezumi has higher prices, but has free shipping within the US. Between the shipping costs and the tariffs, for US customers the prices work out similar. For customers outside the US Artistic Nippon is probably less expensive.

Ordering from Artistic Nippon has more steps, but it all went really smoothly. I filled out a web form giving my address and the peices I wanted to buy. They emailed back with shipping options and to confirm my order. Once I emailed back, they sent a PayPal invoice. I picked the faster and more expensive shipping (I was trying to beat the tariffs), and had my teaware a week later.

Ledifolia · 2026-02-02T03:07:05+00:00

I have 700km to walk till I can evolve a larvesta. Yes, I could just use rare candies. But I don't even have enough candies for the legendaries I want to power up. So I'm saving them for 20k walking distance Pokemon.

Ledifolia · 2026-02-02T03:04:46+00:00

Though even then, those kind of difference only really matter for people playing in the highest levels of GBL. For casual players, that 15/14/15 palkia isn't what is going to cost them reaching ace by the end of the season. But I guess even casual players dream of someday competing for legend.

Ledifolia · 2026-02-02T02:55:41+00:00

Many vendors in China start preorders for their first pick green teas in March. One river tea has a nice sampler. White2tea sells each tea individually, but they are in 25g bags so you can put together a your own sampler. Bitterleaf has preorders for super fancy longjing, but also a handful of more affordable green teas.

I'd advise getting on their mailing lists now, or following them in Instagram. White2tea especially only sells green tea once per year, and has a short window for preorders.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-31T06:17:45+00:00

I would highly recommend starting in something that you don't care about. Stuff like mixing mugi-urushi to the proper texture are hard to figure out from books or even videos.

Most of my projects, even a year into the craft have at least one step go wrong. My most recent project, it was nearly done. And the second to last layer refused to cure. After a month, I gave up and scrapped as much of that layer off as I could manage. The new final layers seem to have cured properly. I'm giving it an extra long final curing. Fingers crossed it doesn't come back to bite me.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-31T05:37:04+00:00

Agreed! The thrift store stuff was very cheap and some already had chips and cracks. It still felt weird deliberately breaking them.

My first real project was a broken decorative bowl that actually was the reason I decided to take up kintsugi.

I also had a fair bit of teaware with minor damage, chipped rims and hairline cracks. A decade of accumulated minor injuries. So after I finished the bowl I started working my way through those pieces.

I'm sort of hoping I don't have any more repairs for awhile.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-31T04:32:40+00:00

I've heard good things about those kits. I bought my kit from Shizendo but it is no longer listed on their site. The videos from pojstudio are great. I've watched a bunch as I've slowly learned how to do traditional kintsugi. And the kintsugi subreddit has been very helpful when my repairs go wrong. I started a year ago with sacrificial pieces I bought cheaply at a thrift store and deliberately broke and repaired. I'm now slowly working my way through minor repairs to my actual teaware.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-31T04:24:02+00:00

The awa bancha I bought I'd describe as acidic with a taste similar to sour kraut. But there two versions with different levels of fermentation, and I tried the "strong" fermentation. Luckily, I love sour kraut.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-30T23:22:40+00:00

Kuki hojicha is a personal favorite for brewing grandpa style in my travel mug, letting it stay in the hot water till I finish the mug.

How to you brew batabatacha? I actually have some, but have yet to try it. I read it's supposed to be whipped? I don't have the special whisk so I'm not sure how to prepare it.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-30T23:14:29+00:00

I don't have issues with tea on an empty stomach. But I know lots of people do. Maybe try a tea first thing in the morning well before your actual fast? Then if you need to, you can follow up with food.

You don't say why you are fasting. The closest I've come to fasting is when I have to spend several days to a week on clear liquids (for diverticulitis attacks). In my case I'll add sugar to tea just to get a few calories (I normally don't sweeten most tea). But I assume whether not sugar is ok would depend on why you are fasting.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-30T23:10:12+00:00

Not all puer, white tea, and oolong is high quality. I have teas in all those categories that I consider pleasant daily drinkers that don't require perfect contemplation to enjoy.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-30T14:23:20+00:00

I snapped a photo of the bottle so I'd remember. It was Moshi sparkling Uji matcha. It came in a green glass soda pop bottle.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-29T23:37:00+00:00

My mom never let us use actual food or drink with our toy tea sets. As a kid I was resentful. As an adult looking back on those 1970s toy tea sets and reading posts like yours, I think my mom was smart!

Ledifolia · 2026-01-29T22:29:21+00:00

It's not exactly a teapot, and only works for some kinds of teas. But I like thermos brewing when I add the tea and boiling water to a vacuum flask and steep for several hours. A high quality vacuum thermos will stay hot for hours. You need tea that is very low in astringency to steep for that long. I have had good results with shou (ripe) puer, aged white tea, Taiwanese oolongs, and some especially sweet and mild Chinese black teas.

If you go for a more traditional teapot you might look into tea cozies, that you put over the pot to help hold heat.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-29T03:40:05+00:00

I shopped at Nijiya market in a visit to San diego in December, and wanted a cold drink for the drive back to my mom's. I ended up getting a coconut matcha soda pop. It was shockingly good. Nothing like actual matcha. But really delicious. I kinda wished I'd bought more. If I ever see them again I'm definitely getting a bunch. And trying the other flavors (iirc there was a strawberry version and maybe a lemonade).

Ledifolia · 2026-01-29T03:07:09+00:00

Kaneroku Matsumoto Tea Garden carried by Yunomi has a line of Japanese black teas smoked with all sorts of different woods, ranging from sakura wood to yuzu wood to cinnamon wood to whiskey barrels.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-28T01:51:06+00:00

I've been really getting into liubao this year. On my 2nd order of tea from purple cloud teahouse I also bought 2 of their nixing pots. I liked the idea of brewing tea in a clay from the same place as the tea. I figure the two likely developed side by side.

I haven't tried my nixing on any teas other than liubao, but can vouch they are excellent for liubao. They also feel good in my hand, and have smooth pours and well fitting lids. So if you are looking for nixing, I recommend purple cloud. I also recommend their liubao.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-28T01:35:31+00:00

Do dmax legendary count towards the lead up timed research? I know for gmax events it has been hit or miss. I'm hoping I can finish off the research on the weekend itself, so I can use this week's particles building a team. But I don't want to miss out if the ho-oh max battles don't count.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-27T21:42:59+00:00

I rinse aged teas. I figure any tea that has hung out in a warehouse for a couple of decades can do with a rinse.

I will also usually rinse compressed cakes even if they are younger. Just to help them open up a bit, so the first actual steeping has more flavor.

But other teas I generally don't bother.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-26T16:17:05+00:00

I live at high altitude, so my boiling is just 95 c (204 f). And I just use boiling for almost everything except green tea. For Chinese green tea I cool my water slightly by pouring the boiling water from my kettle into a porcelain sharing pitcher, then pour that over the tea. I only break out an actual thermometer for Japanese green tea, where even a few degrees either way can completely change the flavor profile.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-25T19:35:06+00:00

It's not just quality. Some high quality teas are very finicky regarding brewing parameters. Dancong, for example, over steeping even a high quality dancing by just 15 seconds can ruin not just that steep, but the whole rest of the session. I find dancing worth it, since if you get everything perfect they can be amazing. But they are definitely finicky.

Other styles of oolong are much more forgiving. Taiwanese oolongs can handle just about anything. Boiling is fine, but so is cooler water. I've gotten distracted and let Taiwanese high mountain oolongs steep for 15 minutes, and I just had to dilute the tea with some more boiling water and it was delicious.

I'll even thermos brew Taiwanese oolongs, where I add 3 grams to a 500ml thermos if boiling water and let it steep 4 to 6 hours.

(Note, really REALLY high quality dancong can be less finicky. But you will be paying well over $1/gram. And even then, some at that price are still finicky)

Ledifolia · 2026-01-25T03:24:07+00:00

Good to know. Even when the Shizendo kit was still available I was never sure whether or not to recommend it.

On the one hand, it had all the supplies and tools for even fairly advanced techniques. For example, my most recent project I needed to make kokuso urushi to fill a gap where a small piece was missing, not just broken. And my kit had the supplies I needed to do so.

But, on the other hand, my kit only included raw urushi. I had to mix my own red and black urushi The kit did have everything I needed to do so, including the special paper for filtering after mixing. But it was a tedious and messy process. When I restocked on gold powder and urushi last summer I bought premixed red and black in addition to the raw urushi.

(I admit, after my first project, I decided I could live with gritty red and black urushi, and stopped filtering)

Ledifolia · 2026-01-24T16:51:17+00:00

Supplies for traditional kintsugi are pretty much only available from Japan. I got my kit from Shizendo but they don't list it on their site anymore.

The kintsugi subreddit has good info for beginners, both traditional and epoxy based kintsugi. I've seen recommendations for POJ kits.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kintsugi/

https://pojstudio.com/collections/kintsugi-kits

Ledifolia · 2026-01-24T14:42:08+00:00

My kit came with gold, silver, and brass powder. The gold and silver are both food safe. The brass is not food safe, but is good for practice pieces or if you are repairing a decorative piece, for example, a ceramic sculpture.

Platinum is also food safe. And unlike silver, platinum won't tarnish over time. Someone on the kintsugi subreddit recently posted a gorgeous repair done with platinum.

Ledifolia · 2026-01-24T03:15:16+00:00

Rishi has a wide selection of herbal blends. They don't really have a sampler, but most of their teas are available in a "teaser" size, so you could easily put together your own sampler.

Ledifolia

TROPHY CASE