A tea pet is a small unglazed clay figure used during Chinese gongfu tea sessions. You place it on your tea tray and pour leftover tea over it each time you brew. Over weeks and months, the porous clay absorbs the tea and gradually changes colour, developing a smooth, polished surface called a patina. No two tea pets end up looking the same.
We carry six tea pets from $10 to $35, all unglazed and handmade. Ships from our Tea Bar in Hobart.
Which one to start with
Little Chick — $10
Where we'd start most people. It's our smallest at 2cm tall and the cheapest way to try the habit. Colour change reads slower than on the bigger pets, but it gets there.
Chubby Cat — $30 (yellow or black)
Solid size, shows colour change clearly, and the round shape is easy to pour over evenly.
Resting Cat — $35 (two poses)
Pale cream clay that shows dramatic colour development. Choose "Stretch Out" or "Belly Up" — both lie flat, so they work on shallow trays.
Baby Penguin — $35
Handmade in Yixing from duanni clay, about the size of a hen's egg and sitting flat on its belly. Wet, it turns dark and glossy; dry, it goes back to matte grey.
Baby Seal — $35
Also Yixing duanni, but pale enough to show its tea history more openly than the others. The white warms toward ivory and amber wherever the tea settles.
Marino Sheep — $35
Round as a walnut and mostly fleece, with a small worried face. Pinched by hand in Jingdezhen from plain pottery clay rather than Yixing zisha. The pale surface takes colour soonest.
Best teas for feeding
Oolong creates warm amber-brown tones. Pu-erh produces deeper, earthier colours. Most teas work, these two just show the most visible results.
New to tea pets? Read our complete guide to choosing, feeding, and caring for your tea pet.
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