Inside the gift box you will find a ceramic teapot, four cups, a pair of bamboo tongs and a small cloth. The white teapot has an arched metal handle over the top and a red knob on the lid. Each cup has a different base colour (white, mint green, cream and black), and all four carry the same picture of green hills with a few birds flying above. The teapot measures about 9 × 9 × 12 cm, and the whole set weighs about 0.8 kg.
Green hills from an old Chinese painting
Four Chinese characters are printed on the box. They read “a thousand miles of rivers and mountains”, the title of a famous Chinese landscape painted more than 900 years ago. The teapot and cups show the same hills in simple green and sand-coloured strokes, while the cloth and the box carry a more colourful version of the landscape.
What the tongs and cloth are for
In Chinese tea making, the cups are rinsed with hot water before the tea is poured, so they do not cool it down. Bamboo tongs let you lift a hot cup without burning your fingers. The cloth is for wiping up drips on the table.
Chinese style, in several small rounds
Chinese tea is often brewed in a small pot over several short rounds. Hot water goes onto a measure of leaves, and after a brief steep the whole pot is poured out into the cups before the leaves are topped up again. That way the water never stands long on the leaves, and the taste changes a little from round to round. You can brew this way with the set, though an ordinary tea bag works well in it too.
Tea for four
With four cups, the set is just right for tea with friends. Because each one is a different colour, everyone still knows which cup is theirs after the second pot.
If you are giving it as a present, hand it over in its gift box. The box has a ribbon handle, so you can carry it like a small bag and there is no need to wrap it.