Tea pet
A small clay figurine that sits on the tea tray and does nothing to the tea. It is fed by pouring leftover tea over it, and over months and years it darkens and takes on a sheen. The tradition dates back to at least the 1200s and it is the only object in this section whose entire function is company.
- Capacity
- none
- Material
- unglazed Yixing zisha
- Origin
- China, from at least the 1200s
- Best for
- company, and somewhere for the rinse water to go
What it is
Cha chong, usually unglazed Yixing zisha, usually an animal, often a mythological one. Some are hollow and change colour when hot tea is poured over them; some whistle or spout. The best ones come from the same Yixing workshops that make the pots and are collected as pottery.
What it does to your tea
Nothing whatsoever, and any page telling you otherwise is inventing. What it does is to the session rather than the cup. The rinse water and the last dribble from the fairness pitcher have to go somewhere, and pouring them over a small clay animal is a better answer than pouring them down a drain. Because the clay is unglazed and porous it takes the tea up, which is why it darkens: the patina is the same absorption that makes a Yixing pot a one-tea object.
What it suits
Any gongfu session with a tray under it. It needs the tray, because feeding it means pouring liquid that has to drain somewhere.
How to use one
Pour the rinse and the leftovers over it. Some people brush the tea into the clay with a soft brush to even out the patina. Feed it the same family of tea for the same reason a Yixing pot keeps to one: whatever it absorbs, it keeps.
How to choose one
Unglazed zisha over glazed, since a glazed figure will never develop a patina and the patina is the point. Beyond that the selection is traditionally personal, with the animal chosen for what it is said to bring, and there is no better criterion available.
Care and cleaning
Never soap, never a dishwasher, and do not scrub the patina off. Rinse with hot water if it gets sticky, and let it dry between sessions rather than sitting permanently wet, which grows mould in the pores.
What people get wrong
Buying a glazed one and waiting for it to change. It will not. The other is leaving it in a puddle, which is how a porous figurine on a tray ends up smelling.
What it is made of
