Tea pet

Common card · No. 215104

Tea pet or tea lover's pet (simplified Chinese: 茶宠; traditional Chinese: 茶寵; pinyin: cháchǒng), also known phonetically as chachong, is a small pottery figurine kept by some tea drinkers as an ornament or a good luck charm. They are usually made of purple clay or zisha, a type of prized clay from the region near Yixing in Jiangsu province, China. Similar to Yixing teapots made from the same clay, tea pets are unglazed and are mostly monochromatic with a rough surface. A tea pet is typically placed on a tea tray, and the tea rinse (first brew) is poured over it during tea-making. This is called "feeding" or "nourishing" the pet and is done to teach mindfulness and patience, avoid wasting the rinse water, and test the water's temperature (if it evaporates instantly, it is hot enough). Due to the tea pet not being glazed and thus being porous, the figurine absorbs some of the tea poured over it. Over time, as one "raises" their tea pet, the feeding gradually results in it changing colour,...

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