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What Is a Tea Pet and How do We Take Care of Them?

Posted by Angelina Kurganska on

If you’ve ever participated in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony (Gong Fu Cha), you might’ve noticed a small clay or ceramic creature sitting somewhere atop the tea tray, slowly slurping up tea alongside the tea master. This is what we call a tea pet. 

A tea pet is a small clay figure or ceramic animal, placed atop the tea tray during tea ceremony. 

 

Although not limited to animals, tea pets are small clay figures used during Gong Fu Cha for various purposes. Although tea masters mostly use them as decoration, some also have them for good luck. Some of these "pets" can even test water for the right temperature!

 

Tea Pet History 

Clay tea pets originated way back in Yixing during the Yuan dynasty (around 13th century), further evolving in the Ming and Qing dynasties period. Yixing is well known for its clay (ZiSha) and the teaware made from it. Similar to the zisha teapots, the little creatures made of yixing clay are porous and unglazed. They are very absorbent to water.


Gong Fu Cha: How to Take Care of A Tea Pet

Some tea masters believe when we adopt a tea pet it has no soul. Pouring tea over it (which has a soul), in turn, gives the pet a soul. 

 

During the gongfu tea ceremony, we constantly nourish our pets by pouring leftover tea over them. This can be the hot water we used to warm up the teaware, the water used to rinse the tea leaves, or any leftover steeped tea.


When pouring the leftover tea over the tea pet, we make sure it is completely covered. The tea pet will absorb the tea, including the color and aroma. Over time the clay will develop its unique scent.


In many cases, tea lovers have tea pets for good luck. These are most commonly pigs, toads, elephants, dragons, as well as certain Buddhist characters. 

 

Tea Pets For Getting The Tea Water Temperature Perfect 

There are also other purposes for these little statues. One of these include checking if the water is hot enough throughout the ceremony. For this purpose, the “pee-pee boy” is by far the most popular tea pet.


Some tea pets have a small hole in them. Tea masters use these to check the water temperature. In the case of pee-pee boy, we immerse him in cold water to fill him up half-way, after which we pour the hot tea water over him. If the water is hot enough pee-pee boy will start peeing. The hotter the water, the further he will pee. However, make sure that the brewing water is not too hot!

For directions on getting the right water temperature, you may check here.

 


Of course, pee-pee boy is not the only option for checking the water temperature. Nowadays certain variations like water spitting toads, dragons, and gourds, to name a few, also exist.

No matter what purpose you choose to adopt one of these tea pets for, it is undeniably a valuable part of gong fu cha. Certainly, it adds a distinct character to each ceremony. And remember! These guys are picky creatures, they only prefer to drink quality loose leaf tea.

 

Note:

  • Please take care of your tea pet similarly to a Yixing teapot. You may rinse it with water, but do not use soap or detergent.  

4 comments


  • Sorry San, but we don’t know the answer to your question:(

    Path of Cha on

  • Hi, I thought maybe I could try ask for some help here.
    I have a tea pet and it’s in the shape of one of the dragon’s sons. It has two small holes on its cheeks and it used to make little sound when I poured hot water on it. Since I knew that some tea pets were designed to shoot water out of such holes when hot water is poured upon them, I thought maybe mine would do the same and wanted to try out. So I put the tea pet into cold water to fill in. Though holes were too small for water to properly get in, but when I shook it I could hear there was at least some water inside. But nothing happened when I poured hot water on it. Not only did it not shoot water out but also it stopped making the sound. Now it’s been almost a year now and somehow the little water inside has never come out because the holes are too small, and the tea pet still makes no sound.
    Do you by any chance have any idea what I could do to fix it? I guess mine is supposed to only make sound and I made a mistake by dunking it into water.
    Thanks for any help!

    Sincerely,
    San

    San Seo on

  • Hi Theresa

    You can buy our tea pets here:

    https://pathofcha.com/collections/tea-pets

    Path of Cha on

  • Where can I buy this cute pig?

    Theresa Kusak Smith, on

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