Hong Kong-The painful memory of my first contact with this teapot is still burning. When I was about 10 years old, my parents taught me the politeness of pouring tea for others at the table in front of me. On that fateful Saturday, during the tea drinking, they asked me to pick up the teapot and pour tea for my grandma.

The handle was too flat to hold, and the recessed lid kept falling off because of how far the wide teapot had to be tilted to pour all the tea.

Hong Kong-The painful memory of my first contact with this teapot is still burning. When I was about 10 years old, my parents taught me the politeness of pouring tea for others at the table in front of me. On that fateful Saturday, during the tea drinking, they asked me to pick up the teapot and pour tea for my grandma.

This experience is both ridiculous and painful. I remember that the teapot filled with boiling water was too heavy for me to hold it with one hand. The unbalanced weight of the pot tilted it forward, pressing its hot belly on my fingers.

But before I could react, hot tea spouted from the spout and spilled all over the table. At this time, my hand was cramped and I suffered a burn. I couldn't hold the pot, the lid fell off, and the hot water splashed into my grandmother's cup!

The noise followed. My parents turned me away. My grandmother questioned their IQ for letting a little girl handle boiling water. I cried desperately, wondering what I did that deserved this cruel and unusual punishment. .

Decades later, I basically forgot about it until I had a dim sum lunch with my son. Seeing him next to the teapot, I remembered the burnt experience, and I couldn't help wondering-why are we still using it?

But first, is the teapot really that bad?

"Yes, it leaks. This is purely a bad spout design. The tip of the spout is too thick and the angle is wrong," said Mr. Kenny Son Yong-soo, an item designer in Sydney, whose work includes a series of famous teapots. .

"But it is impossible to make a long and slender spout with the cheap materials they use," Mr. Sun added.

The handle was too flat to hold, and the recessed lid kept falling off because of how far the wide teapot had to be tilted to pour all the tea.

"Ergonomics was not considered at all when making that teapot," he concluded.

Since the 1960s, ceramic suppliers have been selling traditional Chinese teapots. “We have been buying the same teapot since the restaurant opened. We have been in business for more than 60 years,” said Mr. Tan Guojing, general manager and director of Hong Kong Fengsheng Restaurant.

"In a busy restaurant, the teapot wears severely. The spout and lid suffer the most damage. This design lasts longer than other designs."

In order to reduce the damage caused by daily tea drinking, Mr. Tan and other restaurant owners attached a plastic tube to extend the spout of the teapot, thereby reducing leakage and protecting the ceramics. They also used fishing line to tie the lid to the handle to prevent the lid from falling off.

"As early as the 1980s, we bought rubber hoses to extend the water outlet in a hardware store. Now, there are special plastic extenders that work very well," Mr. Tan said.

Because tea drinkers have always been complacent about leaking teapots, this problem is global.

"We don't pour our own tea when we go to Yum Cha," said Ms. Barbara Ackerman, who lives in New Jersey, USA. "Our waiter usually brings the teapot to a separate table behind us. When he pours the tea, the teapot leaks across the side table."

Mr. Sun’s suggestion that the decision involves costs sounds correct. We asked Mr. Jonathan Yee, the director and general manager of Emperor Gardens, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants serving yum cha in Sydney, Australia, whether he had explored a better teapot for the lunch crowd.

His answer was simple: "No, because of wear and tear, cost plays an important role in purchasing choices." He confirmed that this is the most popular teapot in Chinese restaurants outside of Hong Kong because it is the most economical.

Although it is inconvenient to use, its cost-effectiveness has enabled teapots with leaking spouts to be used worldwide.

“It really just evolved from the dining culture,” said Ms. Kezia Chan, the tea master of the Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Rùn in Hong Kong. "People are starting to serve themselves tea at the table, so a bigger pot is needed."

If so, then you need to explore some tea and snack culture.

China before the war was the era of the Manchus. Regardless of the level of official position, the land and large houses owned by the Chinese people are not only residences, but also city halls. Major events such as meetings and weddings and Lunar New Year celebrations are held in the village. We can still see the remnants of this culture in the New Territories of Hong Kong.

The teahouse is a place outside the home, where the rich and powerful people gather to chat or discuss business. Dim sum is in its basic form, and tea itself is the protagonist of the show.

At that time, the teapot was made of clay and was much smaller, because the dedicated waiter would walk around with a huge brass kettle filled with boiling water to replenish the guest's teapot. There is a Chinese proverb, "Boiling water to make tea". There is no technology to keep the water temperature, the purpose of this arrangement is to make the brewing most enjoyable.

There are legends about the clay texture of these teapots. Since unglazed clay is porous, tea lovers will reserve a separate pot for each different leaf they drink. Finally, when the teapot has absorbed enough tea aroma, pour boiling water into the same pot, and the aroma of tea should be produced. This practice continues to this day.

“I reserve unglazed clay pots of different colors for different teas, because some of our regular customers are also very picky about their teapots,” Chen said.

Before the war, Hong Kong was a port colony, known for its dirty and poor living conditions. Although the local population still struggled with poverty, by the post-war years of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hong Kong had stabilized and transformed into a manufacturing economy. The family still lives in subdivided apartments, but everyone has a job and the children go to school.

What the community lacks is a village hall or town center where it can gather. Customers in the teahouse began to ask for larger tables, because although the family was still struggling, they could afford to eat snacks and drink tea in the restaurant. This means that the teapot must be large enough to fill at least every cup of a large table, and some can be spared.

"Traditional household teapots have an arched handle on the top," Chen said. "This is the best choice for serving at the table or standing up. But if you pour tea for the person sitting next to you, you can only use the side handle, otherwise you will shake a pot of boiling water on your head."

Therefore, potters made the only large version of the side-handle teapot they knew, namely the small individual clay teapot. In the 1950s and 1960s, tableware was still hand-washed, and inevitably, shorter nozzles would reduce damage and chipping.

"Glazing the teapot serves two purposes-to be durable and easier to clean," Ms. Chen added. "Not everyone can have a teapot to hold different teas-the last thing you want is that the pot can absorb all the aromas of different teas."

Another practical aspect is that there is a larger teapot on each table, and the restaurant requires fewer waiters on the floor. Imagine a restaurant with 10 tables, each table can hold 12 people. The more water the teapot on the table can hold, the fewer staff you have to refill with boiling water.

This white ceramic teapot is economical, durable and very practical. It can be enjoyed by diners and meets all the needs of restaurant owners and customers. The only thing it does not do well is to pour a cup of tea correctly.

In this world full of disruptive innovations, this teapot has matured. There must be an Elon Musk ceramic, he can make a teapot that will not leak at the current price, if not cheaper? Leave a heart for the children and their poor, crushed and burning fingers. South China Morning Post

Read more latest information

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must-read content delivered directly to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree to use my personal data to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers, research and analysis.

Copyright 2021 © Mediacorp Pte Ltd. all rights reserved.

We know that switching browsers is troublesome, but we hope that your experience today is fast, safe and the best.

To continue, please upgrade to a supported browser, or, for the best experience, download the mobile app.

Is there a problem after upgrading? contact us