Last post I wrote about tea ware and how most of the pieces I own are my favorites for a variety of reasons.

Today, I will focus on one of my pet peeves, Tea Trays.

It seems I have no luck when it comes to these items. Each purchase/investment I have made in wood tea trays has been disappointing.

Tea trays serve many functions for me in my endeavors. I use them in my office for tastings and blending trials, in presentations for gongfu cha brewing and matcha preparation demonstrations et.al.

Besides having an authentic look I feel the trays must be functional.

So let’s take a look at some I have acquired along my tea journey.

My first tea tray is a metal model with a plastic hose that empties wastewater into a bucket. I made this purchase based on observing the use, many times in a professional environment. I have used it and find it very functional, although not very attractive. This one is a keeper.

My second was bamboo tray of standard issue size with a more traditional look. I use this mainly for tastings on my office desk and have used it in presentations. Since I must pack materials to go, I was not very happy about its size and weight for presentations and began searching for a more compact model for this purpose.

I have owned it for five years and just recently, to my horror and dismay, it now leaks.

 

 

At World Tea Expo two years ago, I thought I found the perfect solution. The narrow wood tea tray was beautiful and I was told, from a trusted source, functional. The tray, I was informed, was a handcrafted artisan piece. When I got home I admired the beauty of the work and proceeded to wrap it is soft chamois cloth to preserve this treasured, costly, artisan work. I then placed it in a storage unit away from heat and moisture. Saving it for just the right presentation, to be used with my prized yixing set, I took it out for the first time to use last year, and to my horror found a series of cracks in the wood both on the top as well as the base, rendering this purchase useless for functionality.

Once I had gotten over my disappointment with the previous tray, I decided to design one of my own and have an artisan create it for me. I sent specs and design and after months of communication with the artisan and design adjustments, my tray arrived.

Larger than any I had owned, I wanted this to be a statement piece, with dual functionality for both gongfu cha and matcha presentations, having the ability to utilize water heating capability within the unit. Upon arrival and to my horror and dismay the tray arrived damaged by postage.

So again after a considerable investment, I was disappointed. (Note the artisan has offered to replace the damaged parts, I have not requested it as of yet as I am still working out my sadness)

 

 

My most recent purchase (two days ago), is a mini bamboo tea tray, that I have yet to use, although I did a water test as soon as it arrived and so far so good.

 

In preparation for this post I searched online for a possible solution to repair my tea tray number two and found that many others have gone through the same issues with bamboo/wood trays and the most common suggestion is to invest in tea trays/boats made of other materials i.e. clay or porcelain. Although these would not suit my purpose as they are heavy and fragile.

So if any of my readers have any suggestions as to what I can use to “Stop The Leaks” of the trays I already own, I am open to suggestion.

Thanks again for reading