Advice needed on buying a good Gung Fu teapot by mail. It would be for
everyday use. Whom would you trust, to buy from?

Mike > wrote:
> Advice needed on buying a good Gung Fu teapot by mail. It would be for
> everyday use. Whom would you trust, to buy from?

I've had good luck with the following vendors:

Teas of Green http://www.teasofgreen.com/
(very small selection, though)

In Pursuit of tea http://www.truetea.com/
(also a small selection)

Rishi Tea http://www.rishi-tea.com/
(six pots currently available)

Or you can try the following vendors who specialize in Yixing wa

http://www.yixing.com/index.html?psi...c7373dcc04f99a
http://www.yixingteapotsonline.com/

I have not ordered anything from these last two vendors, so I cannot
personally vouch for them.

Good luck!

--
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You can buy the new display cased boxed sets from Australia via HongKong on
Ebay. I just bought a one of a kind 'sake' tea set with the teapot instead
of carafe. My only word of advice don't pay more than $50. For really
cheap you can buy the Chinese one cup clay teapots starting around $10 in
your local Chinatown.

Jim

"Mike" > wrote in message
...
> Advice needed on buying a good Gung Fu teapot by mail. It would be for
> everyday use. Whom would you trust, to buy from?

On 2003-12-05, Mike > wrote:
> Advice needed on buying a good Gung Fu teapot by mail. It would be for
> everyday use. Whom would you trust, to buy from?

I have only placed one order with this vendor, and that was a three-tea
sample pack, but I did receive it. It took a little while (a week,
maybe eight days), but he is in Hong Kong (I think) and I am in Florida.
We even corresponded a bit via e-mail. He seems to have a good sense of
humor (not that that means anything, trust-wise). His name is Kam, and
his site is http://www.funalliance.com

Again, I've never bought from him pots or anything at all but the one
sample pack ("Mountain Oolong", some pu-erh cake and "Longevity Eyebrow"
white tea which I am trying out now). I did receive it and he read and
responded to my e-mail personally.

....Just because I feel like blabbering on a bit... I searched the
groups.google.com archives of this group (TINTG) for funalliance.com and
came across at least one spirited debate over the name, and its
seriousness or lack thereof. As you can probably tell by my nym, I'm a
little off the wall myself, so it appeals to me. It probably doesn't
charm the strait-laced types; nor, most likely, do I. So be it :O)

--
fD

A few years ago I bought a pot from http://www.shanshuiteas.com/ ,
though I actually bought it in person at the vendor's house, and it's
worked well for me. Ideally it's best to be able to hold, feel, and
even smell the pot before you buy it, so it might be a good idea to
check if you could exchange or return (a presumably unused) pot if you
wind up not liking it. A couple of pieces of advice from this vendor
(Brian Wright) were that a good Yixing pot will be relatively heavy for
its size, and it's easier to get the wet leaves out if the pot has a
large opening at the top. Though his prices can be a bit high, I think
his products are of high quality.

I got a "Wind" teapot from http://www.yixing.com/ several years ago, but
this particular one doesn't appear to be of very high quality-- I think
it's a case where you often get what you pay for.

There are also a number of Yixing pots at
http://www.holymtn.com/teapots/index_yixing.html

Good luck,
David Savige

I also tend to buy pots in person (or get them as gifts), so have not
ordered one from shansuiteas. I have however ordered teas from him.
They were moderately expensive and very high quality. I definitely got
what I paid for.

Rick.


David Savige > wrote:
> A few years ago I bought a pot from http://www.shanshuiteas.com/ ,

Thanks for all of the good suggestions.

I've bought a couple of pots from Fun Alliance and I've yet to have
any problems. Yes, they do come from Hong Kong, but besides a two-week
shipping time I have yet to have any problems spring from that.

The two pots I bought from Kam are his two cheapest under 5 oz. While
neither's lid fits super-well (although the "slim-bottom classic"
isn't bad at all, IMO: you can still do the "put finger over air-hole
and stop the flow" trick.), both are pretty good for $20 pots
(shipping included). I'd avoid the "glossy red classic" as its lid is
pretty loose, but not unusably so.

I can't report on his more-expensive wares yet, but I'd think that
they'd be quite usable (inasmuch as even both of my supercheap pots
are).

Incedently, he's the only vendor I know who regularly stocks many
2-3oz. pots.

ZBL

fLameDogg > wrote in message >...
> On 2003-12-05, Mike > wrote:
> > Advice needed on buying a good Gung Fu teapot by mail. It would be for
> > everyday use. Whom would you trust, to buy from?
>
> I have only placed one order with this vendor, and that was a three-tea
> sample pack, but I did receive it. It took a little while (a week,
> maybe eight days), but he is in Hong Kong (I think) and I am in Florida.
> We even corresponded a bit via e-mail. He seems to have a good sense of
> humor (not that that means anything, trust-wise). His name is Kam, and
> his site is http://www.funalliance.com
>
> Again, I've never bought from him pots or anything at all but the one
> sample pack ("Mountain Oolong", some pu-erh cake and "Longevity Eyebrow"
> white tea which I am trying out now). I did receive it and he read and
> responded to my e-mail personally.
>
> ...Just because I feel like blabbering on a bit... I searched the
> groups.google.com archives of this group (TINTG) for funalliance.com and
> came across at least one spirited debate over the name, and its
> seriousness or lack thereof. As you can probably tell by my nym, I'm a
> little off the wall myself, so it appeals to me. It probably doesn't
> charm the strait-laced types; nor, most likely, do I. So be it :O)

I highly recommend Michael Ryan. I've been getting my teapots from him
for several years now and VERY happy with quality and reliability of
his service. You can purchase his merchandise from his web site
http://www.mandjs.com or on EBay
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...userid=pdalien