The Cup

Every Clari Tea cup is made from jade clay, a rare white porcelain body prized in the Chinese imperial court since the Song dynasty, when wares of this material were seen as a mark of royalty. Fine, luminous and cool to the touch, jade clay fires to a surface white as jade, with a glaze like congealed fat and a feel that is almost stone. It is not an easy material. Each batch is washed many times, aged and kneaded by hand before it can be shaped, and even then the yield is low. The body is trimmed by hand and the firing carefully balanced against the nature of the clay, so only a few pieces survive to become the cup you hold.

The form is designed the way the tea is tasted. The cup is thick at the base and thin at the rim, a proportion tuned by masters of the ceremony to balance flavour, aroma and the way the tea settles in the body. Its low centre of gravity gives a quiet stability, so the cup rests in the hand with a sense of security. This is the opposite of the wafer-thin, aroma-chasing cups that feel fragile and unsteady to drink from. Here, weight becomes reassurance.

Because the clay body and the shape were adjusted by hands that understand the ceremony, the cup does what an ordinary vessel cannot. It releases the tea fully and wraps it completely, drawing the liquor into a rounder, silkier texture on the palate. The tea tastes more like itself, and softer.

A jade clay of this quality is used by only one other luxury house in the world. Every Clari Tea vessel, cup and teapot alike, is made bespoke and offered through select channels only. We have brewed from the same cups for more than a decade, because when a thing is right you do not replace it. You return to it.