Premium Handmade Chinese Japanese Vintage Kungfu Gongfu Tea Set - Porcelain Teapot, Teacups, Bamboo Tea Tray & Tea Mat with Travel Bag (Black) | Authentic Ceramic Tea Ceremony Kit for Home, Office & Travel Gifts

I have owned this tea set for exactly one year and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Considering how much tea I have poured through this thing, I thought it was about time to write a review. I will do my best to share the best qualities as well as some critiques.First off, size. You can read quite a lot of reviews complaining about the size. “Smaller than expected...” or “Great set but too small...” This bothers me mostly because the listing displays all the exact dimensions and volumes of the tea ware in one of the photos. Which, btw, was incredibly helpful for me as someone who prefers Gongfu style tea ceremony. This set, specifically the one I have photographed is perfect for this style. If you don’t know what that is, google it and watch some videos. So size for me is absolutely perfect. With a 180ml gaiwan, I can very comfortably serve up to four or even 6 at a time.Quality. I am not very knowledgeable on teaware quality so this is purely based on durability from my normal use. I have tea several time a week and sometimes every day for months at a time. Serving in gongfu style takes a bit of time but I find it to be meditative and consider it a form of recreation, therapy and even spirituality. I am also a very outdoorsy person so this means my tea set comes with me all over the wilderness. I take special care to not drop or damage the teaware but on occasion a cup will take a tumble. So far nothing has broken but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. The cups and gaiwan do feel especially dense and solid so I have been pleased so far. The serving tray did break in half early on so that’s a bummer but I have since replaced it with a much better alternative. In my opinion this is one of the only things keeping me from giving a 5 start review. That and price (we will discuss this shortly). The pouring tray is just a very simple bamboo board. It does not hold much liquid and got little to no use even when it wasn’t broken. I wish they would have made a better tray or adder something else to the kit to bring the value up to the price point. Final comment about quality. The way the cups curve inward makes for a please drinking experience and I appreciate that element greatly.Price. This one is big for me. For $16 you can get an almost identical set. I don’t know the difference between the two but I’m about to order a second set so I’ll update this review to comment. Pretty sure the lower priced sets down have the inward curving cups but that’s not a game changer. On top of that, since I purchased this (September 2018) they bumped the price up by $5. Its not the most expensive this item has been but it’s not the cheapest and with competitors charging half the price for nearly the same product, I think it’s time they plating it back to $20-$25.Bottom line is, I love this product. Even if there is cheaper alternatives, I have been thoroughly have with this set and I use it a lot. I have seen absolutely no wear and tear except on the one part I was going to replace immediately anyway (pouring tray). I have served incredible quality tea to myself and countless others for the past year and as far as functionality goes, this teaware is perfect. I highly recommend this item but not at the $30 price. If that’s the best price they can do, check out the alternatives. I’ll have an edit to refute or back that up in a few weeks. Hope this helps.Couple of years ago I ordered a tea set just like this one. Unfortunately, the set arrived in pieces due to careless handling from the courier. This time it arrived well packaged and in pristine condition. The set is beautiful. It is a pleasure to have it and prepare my morning tea with it..::Comment includes brewing tips::I use the term 'snob' lightly here. But I am a bit more picky about my tea. Like I'm sure some of you, I wanted to break away from the idea of energy drinks and coffee to something a little more up my alley. In my quest to understand tea I've done a great deal of study on both tea's history and styles along with study and testing of different tea brewing vessels. All this to say, someone who has invested a lot of time and energy into tea really, truely loves this teaset.It's super handy to have on trips. I love the design and color and as long as you remember to clean it after you drink tea it shouldn't stain.::Brewing Tea::Western style (Put a few leaves in a lot of water and wait a few minutes) - Do just as your instructions say should be fine. That being said, it is a much smaller container than is usually used because this is intended for Eastern brewing. So just measure how much water yours holds (I don't recall offhand) and calculate how many tea leaves you need from there.Eastern style** It should be noted that typically you rinse the leaves and pot before you brew tea. That's just as simple as adding the hot water and immediately pouring it out. It'll help clean the leaves and the heat helps open the leaves up for brewing.----White - Fill pot to 1/3-1/2 full. Water temp around 185ish? If you don't have a temp controlling kettle or a thermometer don't worry. Just heat the water to boil and leave it uncovered for like 5 min. Should be about fine. When you add the water, only let it brew for like 30 seconds and then drink that. Add more water but this time for 35-40 seconds. Keep adding 5-10 seconds each time you add new water.Green - Made the same as white just time starts at 1 min brewing.Black - Temp should be around 210-boiling and you do the white brewing time starting at 30 seconds. If you prefer more bitter tea then you can let it go longer.Herbal - Same as black but it starts at a 1 min brew.I only included these four as they are the most common. You can look up the others. Their brewing should be comparable to a gaiwan time and temp.If you've got any passing interest in tea and want to check it out, I highly suggest this set.The bamboo tray arrived split in half and the ceramic lid to the teapot did not get covered by the glaze.even without the issues, i kinda wish it was bigger.This is a very cute tea set that is convenient to carry around, brews tea well, and does everything it is supposed. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because it does not work well for my intended purpose. I bought it to be able to use during nature picnics or for camping. I used it at a picnic ground and the tea started leaving layers of dark circles and streaks on the set very quickly. I had no dish cleaning supplies or water to wash the set with immediately. I figured I'd just wash it when I got home. But, by the time I got home, the stains were very difficult to wash out and many of them remained on the set to varying degrees. I suspect this is because of the matte (not glossy) finish of the porcelain. So, if you are buying this as a travel tea set, make sure wherever you use it has facilities to wash it right after use.good stuffIf you don’t mind the price, it looks in good quality.The design and the designer did a beautiful jobIt does not worth that money!