Hario ChaCha Kyusu "Maru" Tea Pot, 700ml

I usually don't leave reviews for products. Almost never. Actually this might be my first. This should tell you something - to ignore my spelling mistakes and other signs of general illiteracy. But this teapot is fantastic. Some demographic info: I'm a 21 year old man, freshly adult, and recently turned tea snob. So naturally I need a teapot to accompany, nay supplement my loose leaf, nose upturned, calling-tea-color-liqueur lifestyle. Previously I had been brewing my tea in a thermos with a little mesh insert, a practice that if employed by anyone else I would surely mock brazenly. First impressions - I had read almost all of the reviews and some of them had mentioned that this teapot is rather small. When I opened it, I thought to myself "this teapot is rather small". But once I stilled my beating heart and actually made some tea I realized that it's pretty much the perfect size. Filling it close to the top, with a comfortable margin, I get enough tea for two very full mugs, and in my frugally heated apartment the pot keeps the tea piping hot for the second mugful. The basket is nice and large. I've heard others say that this is necessary for the leaves to swim, luxuriate, mingle, copulate, bask in their collective consciousness. Shoot me if I ever anthropomorphise tea leaves like that. But it is nice to have a big basket so that the water actual reaches the center leaves. To that end, it would've been nice if they included a diving board so that the leaves could indulge their inner child (or bud, if you will), but now I'm splitting hairs. It's made of glass, so it's breakable. I haven't broken mine yet, but I reserve the right to in the future, hopefully during the height of an argument. I think it'll shatter very well, but that's just speculation at this point. Only complaint (very minor) is that the handle is kind of hard to grip when the pot is full of hot tea. My hand has a tendency to slip down and touch the hot pot. But I just changed the way I held it, and that's been working well. I'm actually glad, I was getting a little set in my ways. Bottom line - buy it. It's not a samovar, but for one or two people (I can dream, can't I?) it's perfect. Very aesthetically pleasing, functional, the mesh is plenty fine, even rooibos can't sneak through, and I've had almost no stems get stuck. It's top rated for a reason.

I have bought this exact teapot four times now. TL;DR This is absolutely the best glass teapot I know of. Once as a gift, and three times for myself, this teapot is my favorite. I first bought it back in 2018 as my first tea pot. I did a lot of searching to make sure I got something that would work right, and I nailed it. My subsequent purchases have been from unfortunate breaks (my fault), the most recent being a few days ago. Let me break it down for you: Quality: This teapot is nice, made in Japan, durable, and has a clean, well finished look. It does NOT smell like a factory, and feels very sturdy. Design: This pot is short, and holds 700ml (About 3 cups worth). Plenty for a small group or a nice pot for yourself. The pour is nice and easy to control (no fancy spout needed), and the handle does well enough (never had a problem, even with big hands). The best part? The wide mouthed mesh basket is fantastic, and the reason this pot originally caught my eye. Having a large, roomy basket allows the leaves to spread out and steep more evenly, which will always make better tea; this also means its easier to clean out the leaves and pot when finished. It baffles me that those hard, skinny infusers are now the norm for pots, they are simply awful and a huge pain to clean, not to mention it constricts your leaves. This pot has none of those issues, which is alone worth some huge points. Value: When I broke my pot the other day, after lamenting my own stupidity, my first thought was "I'm going to have to wait a few days to make another pot", I wasn't even considering the cost. Originally ~16 USD when I bought it, it seems to float between ~19-24 USD now, (probably due to the high inflation), but that price easily worth it many times over. Sure you could get some poorly designed, glass pot from China and save a few bucks, but why? Cons: There are a few criticisms I have. First, the mesh basket is, for whatever reason, made in China. I have no clue why this is, but I would definitely appreciate if this was a fully Japanese made pot from, start to finish, even if the price was slightly higher. Secondly, The mesh basket is the only part that seems to age. After around 3 years my original basket was looking rough and warped (though still functional). I'm not the best at knowing how to treat certain materials, so maybe cleaning it a certain way could have helped? Not sure, but eventually the basket will start to age if you use it the way I have. Final thoughts: Buying this pot again was a no-brainer. After four years, this pot continually serves me well and remains my daily driver. Whether you are a new drinker or veteran, this will NOT let you down. Despite my small complaints, I think this deserves five stars, especially compared against the competition.

Finally, a teapot I love! I am so happy I purchased this. I started buying loose leaf tea after my optometrist, of all people, recommended drinking green tea daily. We have several eye disorders that run in my family, and green tea is right at the top of my doctor's dietary recommendations for eye health and prevention of these diseases. She said that loose leaf tea is better than tea in bags, as the loose leaves retain more of the beneficial properties of tea. So being a diligent patient, I bought a bunch of quality loose leaf tea and a ball infuser - and it didn't take long for me to hate using the ball infuser. Thus began my search for a teapot with an infuser. I am so glad I checked Amazon and found this one after much disappointment trying to find a decent one locally. Here's what I love about this teapot: - It's PRETTY! It's mesmerizing being able to watch the tea steep and see the leaves and flowers floating around in the infuser. - It's the perfect size for 2 mugs of tea. I will usually drink it all myself, but every so often my daughter wants to share tea with me before bed, and this will make us each a nice cup. - The infuser is large, so it gives the tea lots of room to float around and it is super easy to clean out. - The pot is small, so I can easily store it in the cabinet along with all my tea. But it's so pretty and dainty, I usually don't mind having it sit out where I can see it. - The price is great! Every teapot I found in stores in my area was very expensive. I think the cheapest one I found that was even remotely similar to this was $35. - It is easy to use, easy to pour, and easy to clean. It really is a beautiful, functional design. Based on the recommendations of a previous reviewer, to prepare the tea I fill the pot with water and microwave it for about 2 minutes, then add the basket with tea and let it steep. If you don't feel comfortable microwaving it, you can just pour hot water into it, but I've been putting mine in the microwave almost daily now for about 4 months with no issues. Fast and easy! This has definitely become an essential part of my daily routine.

Bought on a recommendation from Wirecutter. It's a good size (2 to 3 servings depending on your mug size). It looks nice. It is more or less easy to clean (put in the dishwasher). On the downside: - It doesn't hold temperature well (obviously, since it is made of glass, but I saw another review stating that it held temperature well, which it absolutely does not). - If you fill it too high, the tea wicks over the pouring spout and you'll end up with a puddle of tea under your pot. I keep mine on a dish towel just in case. - Tea leaves easily get stuck between the mesh and the rim of the strainer. Cleaning these out can be a chore. - If you don't hold the lid down while pouring, some tea leaves can escape. - The lid will fall if when you pour out the last bit, however simply keeping your thumb over the lid while holding the handle is enough to prevent this.

Perfect for steeping one cup of tea! This 300ml teapot is tiny. It holds about 8 oz with a large metal strainer. There's no plastic anywhere. The glass seems delicate but has held up well so far. It is so easy to clean that it doesn't need to go in the dishwasher. Hope it lasts!

What a great elegant looking tea pot with great flexibility and functionality. THE GLASS POT - is thin and lets the color really shine thru. Because of its thin nature, care is required when handling. Primarily when placing the top on without the infuser in it. But you weren't really going to use this in a boxing ring. If you ever used a thin glass tea cup, you know how beautiful the color can be from the tea. This is what adds to the elegance of this tea pot. This pot is about 24 oz. I get 3 glasses of ice tea out of it at about 8 oz a glass not including ice. I use the Keurig to put the hot water in so I don't know about heating the pot from a heat source. THE INFUSER - is well made with a functionality I didn't expect. Its wide mouth/shallow design has advantages over a tall narrow infuser. The tea leaves in a tall narrow infuser tend to crowd each other not allowing water to get fully around all the tea leaves. the leaves stack upon themselves and the leaves that need to expand topple each other. This infuser is very different. Think of it as a giant swimming pool for your tea leaves. Water gets all around the leaves with no crowding whatsoever. Great for pearl teas. The one problem I had was with lipton tea. Lipton black tea in bulk has almost a powder consistency. This very fine powder does get thru the infuser. However I also tested Rooibos, Eucalyptus, Hibiscus, Peppermint & Chamomile and had no problem with sediment at the bottom. BEST PROCEDURE - I found was to put the hot water in, place the infuser in, and then dump the tea in and very very slightly stir and let the water to the rest. This gives the Rooibos time to expand before it sinks and makes it difficult to get thru infuser mesh. Also regarding the lipton tea mentioned above, I found a neat little feature that makes this tea pot very versatile. I like lipton black tea for the base in my ice teas. Because of the powder characteristics of lipton tea I now use their tea bags rather than their bulk version. The beauty of this pot is that the round shape of this pot leaves a gap between the the infuser and the glass. It is a perfect fit for a tea bag running the string thru the pouring spout gap. What this means is I can put hibiscus & rooibos in the infuser, and place a lipton tea bag outside the infuser as mentioned above all steeping at the same time and not interfering with each other. If this isn't flexibility in what you want to do with your tea, I don't know what is. CLEANING - is a breeze. Even with Peppermint or Eucalyptus that can get pasty and want to stick to the sides. Just flip the infuser over and knock it on your other hand and most everything comes out. Let it dry for about 30 minutes and the remaining amount easily falls out. I really don't bother rinsing, its that clean. Bottom line is, this is a really great tea pot.

****UPDATED REVIEW**** We like the small teapot so much we returned to purchase the largest version. I had a chance to use it today while at my desk all day. The fat, round base allows heating on a plate warmer easily. The size is perfect for one person for all day. Now my favorite pots (smallest & largest versions). ***ORIGINAL REVIEW**** I've spent YEARS trying out different teapots and dislike most. This one is very nicely built and small enough for a personal pot of tea. The included basket is big enough for a personal-sized tablespoon of tea to expand while brewing. The handle is a delight--sturdy but big enough to fit two or three fingers through for stable tilting. One of my biggest pet peeves with teapots is the spout. I despise dribbling because I'm usually using the pot at my desk while I work and don't need important papers wet by dripping pots. So far, I haven't found any dribbling pouring tea from this pot's spout. And an added, unexpected bonus: unlike the similarly shaped pot from a rival company this is replacing whose lid was so flimsy I was always afraid it would break, THIS pot's lid is thick and heavy, with built-in gas exchange rivets so you could pour while the cover is on. I wouldn't recommend that, though, since the lid could slide off and break. I like this pot so much I may replace my other 4-cup glass pot with the large version of this. My present large pot has a little spout that's a mess to clean. This pot's style is VERY easy to clean. Another bonus.

Perfect pot, particularly for one or two people - and great for white and green loose leaf teas. The lack of a gooseneck spout is actually very helpful for our aging mother (one of the reasons we picked this pot) - the design still enables drip-free pouring but now we have no worries of her snapping the neck (which she has done on pots with long spouts)