Professional Taster Set

One of the standards of the professional tea world, get your very own set for accurate tea tasting!

Despite its unusual shape, this minimal set provides every feature one might need for tea tasting while staying straightforward to use: A mug-shaped infuser with lid and strainer is suitable for every type of tea and filters all but the narrowest leaves. A wide cup holds the entire infusion, then the spoon allows the tea to be slurped by one person or distributed to individual tasting cups.

The mug works both as a Western-style teapot as well as a Chinese-style gaiwan, allowing both types of infusion according to the proportion of leaves, and multiple sets can be used side-by-side for comparison of different teas, batches, or brewing styles. It's a must-have for tea geeks and tea tasting hosts.

How to use the taster set

For a single infusion (for example at breakfast) use 1.6 grams of leaves and follow the steeping instructions under "In the teapot" at the bottom of each of our tea product pages.

For gongfu cha style, we advise using 4 grams of leaves for every kind of tea except Chinese green teas, for which we instead recommend 2 grams.

The following procedure can be easily adapted to Western and Chinese approaches as well as to tea tastings for a group or alone.

1. Weigh the leaves as needed
2. Warm up the teaware by rinsing it with hot water (cups, infuser, lid, spoon)
3. Put the leaves in the infuser, fill it with water up to just under the slits, and cover with the lid (don't cover if you are steeping green tea).
4. Once the steeping time is over, pour the tea into the cup, keeping the lid in place. The narrow slits on the rim will act as a strainer.
   PRO TIP: You can place the infuser upside down, the lid and base balanced on the rim of the cup, and let the infusion drain out. This allows you to start pouring the tea of subsequent infusers, should you be steeping more than one tea at a time.
5. For a group, distribute a tiny cup to each person and leave a spoon in each serving cup. Everyone will use the spoons to transfer tea from the serving cups to their own cup. If you are alone, you can drink directly out of the serving cup or use the spoon to slurp the liquor, aerating it for better appreciation of the aromas.

During a tea tasting, don't forget to smell both dry and steeped leaves. The leaves can even be displayed on the back side of the lid, placed upside down upon the infuser.