November21 – Beijing
Today I went to buy a teapot. In China they use tiny teapots that hold about one cup of water, and keep making endless cups of tea out of them. The best ones are unglazed clay, and they can be collector’s items. I have already received one as a gift and thought it would be nice to buy a companion for it. We went to a special part of the city that is the tea area, and started looking at tea pots. I smiled to see a store called “Tea Macrocosm” and guessed, correctly, that is was just a strange translation of Tea World.
Buying a tea pot is unlike any other shopping experience. When you choose a place to shop, you sit down with the vendor and drink some tea. He tells you about the tea, and the tea pots, but never anything about shopping or price. It’s really necessary to have a translator for this part. Gradually he shows you different tea pots. On the table in front of his there are seven or eight tea pots and he uses one or two to make different teas to serve. The tea cups only hold about 125 ml so there is a lot of pouring and sipping going on.
If your tea gets cold, or he wants to empty the pot, or there’s extra boiling water, he dumps it over the tea pots sitting on the table in front of him. It turns out that none of them are for sale – they are already sold and he is “feeding” them for their new owners. Because they are unglazed, they gradually take on the taste of the tea that is made in them and you need at least three – one for green tea, one for white tea and one for black tea, which is actually called red tea in China. As the pots are used, they take on a lovely sheen, and this is why the owners leave them there to be used.
Gradually I started to point out tea pots that I liked – and we gradually edged into talking about price. One of the ones that he was using to make our tea was worth $6000 US. He said that the most expensive one that he had sold was $50,000 US but he had one in his collection that was worth $80,000. These were clearly out of my budget, but I wanted a nice one. He had no problem with my budget, and started bringing out items that I could afford. The price difference depends on the artist who makes them. If they are made by an apprentice, they are as little as $30. As I looked at different ones, we kept drinking tea, and he told us about his trips to the provinces to meet with the artists and buy teapots. Because each one is signed, they can be bought and sold as they increase in value, particularly if you buy early work of someone who later becomes famous. Strangely, unlike other collectibles, they become more valuable if you use them. They are frequently left to family members and are considered to be a valuable inheritance.
I finally settled on one, and the vendor graciously told me that I had very good taste and had made a good choice. It is a traditional shape with a proverb carved on the side “life is tea”. Although he tried to explain it to me, it was a little too abstract for me to grasp the meaning. Along with my new tea pot, he gave me two sachets of the tea that I had preferred. He had made two different teas to serve us, and although I had not said anything, he had observed that I seemed to like one more than the other. He was right, the first one tasted like grass to me, but perhaps my palate is not well trained.
The whole purchase took between 45 minutes and an hour, with absolutely no pressure. If I hadn’t seen one that I liked, I could just drink a couple of cups of tea and leave. It is a strangely ritualistic and gracious way to shop. My teapot comes in a lovely little box, with a certificate of authenticity (in case I want to leave it to someone). Altogether a successful outing.