As bulk tea became very popular in the Ming Dynasty, it required a higher standard of tea storage. Compared with the situation in the Tang and Song Dynasty, tea storage utensils were more vital then. A mild and dry environment was the best place to keep bulk tea while cold and wet would damage the tea. Generally speaking, people used porcelain pots or purple clay pots to keep bulk tea. People would put dried tea leaves into the pot and cover with an indocalamus leaf made of thin bamboo. Then the pot mouth would be covered with six or seven pieces of paper, white board and put in a clean place. When needed, people would take some tea from the big pot into small dry bottle for further use. Tea storage bottle and jars varied a lot in shape among those discovered or passed down from the Ming Dynasty. Tea storage had more kinds of forms, round or square, made of porcelain or tin
Tea Holder/Tea Weighting Scoop
tea holder serves as a measuring tool, to measure the amount when tea leaves is put into the boiler.
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