Jing Glass One Cup Teapot Set

As a single person who is the only person in my house that drinks tea, I seldom make a pot of tea---even though I have teapot that is cute as can be. The problem is that I have so much tea that I rarely drink the same tea blend twice in a row unless it is oolong and my teapot is really meant to serve like 3-4 cups of tea. Yes, I know that I don't actually have to make 3-4 cups of tea and could adjust accordingly, but lets just say that it mostly a decorative teapot and leave it at that. OK, I don't use it because I am addicted to my regular tea maker. Regardless of all that, I am grateful to receive this set from JING to try out. The set consists of a clear glass teapot with cup and saucer.

The teapot: This is a cute little teapot that is deceptively larger than it looks. When I first opened the set, I was doubtful that it would even fill the cup completely, but it does. This makes about 10 oz of tea, which is a seemingly odd amount. The teapot is actually fairly ingenious. It has a wire spring strainer that attaches through the tea spout. I love this because I hate the delicateness of glass and ceramic infusers that tend to take a beating and aren't really very durable. The one drawback to this wire strainer is that this will not be able to strain smaller particles like those found in rooibos and even broken black leaves and the like. When preparing black tea, an escapee tea leaf will occasionally make it into your cup. The clear glass design allows you to see the tea leaves do their dance and expand nicely. There is also a small hole in the lid that makes cleaning easy. You simply fill with water turn upside down and allow to drain. Ideally, the tea leaves will collect inside the walled tea lid and allow for easy disposal. JING points out on their website that this pot would be ideal for gong-fu style preparation and I agree.

The teacup and saucer: The cup is concave rather than a cup with straight up walls. It is kind of modern and cute. The saucer is made of a nice, durable thick glass and survived a drop onto the kitchen floor. My one concern with the cup and saucer was that they wouldn't resist the heat well and it might be impossible to hold onto the cup and drink a hot cup without burning my fingers, but so long as you hold onto the handles and avoid touching the cup/pot itself with the hotter liquids it is not a problem.

JING sells this both as a set and separately. However, there is a bit of a pricebreak if you buy the set rather than individually. JING makes reference to this as being good for travel and though the glass seems durable, I am not too sure that I would travel with this for the simple fact that it is made of glass. Overall, I found the set to be chic, practical and the teapot somewhat ingenious. I think this is a great set and I appreciate JING for sending it. If this sounds like something that would appeal to you, then I would strongly urge you to add it to your cart when shopping with JING.