Because they were made for this kind of tea. Qing dynasty porcelain cups are small, thin-walled and white inside, which is the form gong fu tea was brewed into for centuries, and ordinary everyday ones often cost less than a new handmade cup. Age does not make porcelain brew differently. Look for a size that suits your pot, a thin rim, a sound glaze inside, and condition you can live with.
Does an antique cup make tea taste better?
Not because it is old. Porcelain is glazed and almost non-porous, so a Qing cup does not season or hold the flavour of past teas the way an Yixing pot does. What changes the tea in your mouth is the cup's thickness, its shape and the white of its glaze. Many Qing cups got all three right. A thin, white modern cup does most of the same work.
The Qing principle was two lines long. A cup must be thin, or it will not carry the fragrance. It must be white, or it will not show the colour. Thin walls take less heat from a 30ml pour, and a fine rim puts the tea on your tongue without a thick lip of porcelain in the way. A white interior lets you read the colour and clarity of the liquor, which tells you a lot about how the brew is going.
If you want the form without the age, we also sell a modern handmade Jingdezhen cup made after the late Qing blue line pattern, in our accessories.
Why do gong fu drinkers want old cups at all?
For three plain reasons: form, price and history. Old gong fu cups were made for the method, so the size and shape are already right. Ordinary late Qing cups are often cheaper than a new cup from a known maker. You also get a piece that has been in daily use for more than a century, with the wear and tea staining to show it.
The form suits gong fu in small ways. Most hold 20 to 40ml. They have wide mouths and low, steady feet that sit firmly on a tray. They are light enough to rinse in the Chaozhou way, by rolling one cup on its side inside another of hot water.
The most famous gong fu cups are Ruo Shen cups. They are thin white porcelain with blue decoration, first made in the Kangxi era (1661 to 1722), and marked on the base with the words Ruo Shen Zhen Cang, roughly "Ruo Shen collection". Chaozhou tradition names them as one of the four treasures of gong fu tea. They were copied from the start. Early examples are now rare and expensive.
The cups most people drink from are the plainer everyday cups made alongside them: blue line, celadon, double happiness and simple painted motifs. Many small Qing cups now used for tea were probably made for wine. That rarely matters. Size and thinness matter.
What size and shape should you choose?
Match the cup to your pot and your tea. For gong fu with a 100 to 150ml pot shared between two or three people, choose cups of 20 to 40ml. For puerh, liu bao, or brewing alone where you want one pour to fill one cup, a larger cup of 70 to 90ml works well. Shape then decides how the tea cools and where the aroma goes.
- Wide, flared rim. Cools the tea fast and spreads it across the tongue. Good for very hot roasted teas and warm weather.
- Rounder, more closed cup. Holds heat longer and gathers aroma toward the nose. Good for fragrant oolong and cold days.
- Tall and narrow. Keeps the tea hot but makes it harder to catch the aroma. Less common in gong fu.
Chaozhou drinkers took shape seriously. A 1957 book on Chaozhou gong fu tea by Weng Huidong lists a different cup shape for each season: ox-eye cups in spring, chestnut cups in summer, lotus-leaf cups in autumn and inverted bell cups in winter. Treat it as a principle, not a rule. The season and the tea should decide the cup.
What should you check before buying?
Check condition first, then the glaze inside, then the rim, then the marks. Chips, cracks and repairs are what separate one grade of antique cup from another. Wear from use is expected on a cup this old. Damage that leaks, catches your lip or will spread is not.
- Rim. Small frits and flakes at the rim are common. A chip where your lip sits will annoy you every session. Decide before you buy.
- Hairline cracks. Hold the cup to the light and look for a fine line. Fill it with water and see whether the line darkens or seeps. A crack that runs through the base can leak.
- Glaze inside. Fine scratches and a slight dullness inside are normal wear. Deep pitting holds residue and is harder to clean.
- Crackle and staining. Crackle in a celadon glaze takes up tea stain over the years. That is not dirt and does not need bleaching out.
- Marks on the base. A reign mark is not a date. Many Qing cups carry Ming reign marks such as Chenghua or Xuande in tribute to an older style, and later cups carry Qing marks. Treat the mark as part of the decoration.
- Matching. Hand-potted cups vary in size, shape and colour. A matched set is always approximate.
We grade our antique cups by condition, first grade and second grade, and sort them as closely as we can. Each cup is still a single old object. Our guide to buying antique teaware online covers what a photo can and cannot tell you.
How do you look after an antique cup?
Rinse it with hot water after use and let it dry. Porcelain is glazed, so it does not absorb flavour and a little mild detergent is fine if residue builds up. Keep old cups out of the dishwasher. Do not bleach stained crackle. Warm the cup with hot water before the first pour, gently, and store stacked cups with a soft cloth between them.
Old cups have survived a long time because people handled them with care. A cup with an old hairline crack may cope for years with warm water and then give way under a sudden boiling pour. Pour into it gently. Keep a damaged cup for lighter teas at lower temperatures, or set it aside.
Which of our cups suits which use?
For gong fu with a small pot, start with the late Qing blue line cups at 30 to 40ml. They are plain white inside with a single blue line, which makes the liquor easy to read. The larger blue line cups hold 70 to 90ml and suit puerh and liu bao. Celadon and double happiness cups from the mid Qing, and the older seaweed motif cups, cover the smaller sizes and different looks. Second-grade cups start at about US$16 and make good everyday cups.
For how the cups fit with pot, kettle and heat, see the four treasures of gong fu tea.
Buy for size and condition first, and let the age come with it. Questions about a specific cup? Write to us.