Elaboration

The product we chose for this assignment was a teapot. First, I present the history of the invention of
the teapot in the world. Many tea drinkers around the world might be under the impression that
teapots were invented practically the same day the tea leaf was first brewed! It is an interesting image,
indeed, but not an accurate one. The teapot itself had to go through some evolution in times past.  The
teapot was invented in China during the Yuan Dynasty. It was probably derived from ceramic kettles and
wine pots, which were made of bronze and other metals and were a feature of Chinese life for
thousands of years. By the Ming Dynasty, teapots were widespread in China. Arguably the first teapot
was created in the Jiangsu province of China in 1500. Early teapots from this region were “Yixing”
teapots. In Chinese, this translates to “purple sand pot,” a reference to the distinctive purple sand clay
that was plentiful in that area and used in earthenware vessels. Shapes like those of the modern-day
teapot have existed within Chinese pottery for thousands of years. However, these teapot-sequel
vessels were never explicitly used for drinking tea. Instead, they were used for water and alcohol.  The
teapot as a vessel for brewing tea did not appear till the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when loose leaf tea
started gaining popularity over powdered tea. It was no longer a matter of whisking already powdered
tea leaves in boiling water. Instead, tea drinkers needed to find a way to brew delicate tea leaves
without sacrificing flavor. It is believed the teapot, as we know it, was developed specifically for
brewing Wuyi Mountain Oolongs. Small clay teapots, which we now associate with gong fu cha, were
indeed created in Yixing city, Jiangsu province, sometime in the 1500s. The teapots were created using
the region’s vast clay deposits. There is some evidence that historically tea was drunk directly from the
spout of the teapot and sometimes from gong fu cups.

The Evolution of Tea Sets from Ancient Legend to Modern Biometrics

People have been drinking tea for so long that its origin story is rooted in mythology: More than 4,700
years ago, one popular version of the story goes, a legendary Chinese emperor and cultural hero named
Shennong (his name means "divine farmer") discovered how to make a tea infusion when a wind blew
leaves from a nearby bush into the water he was boiling. By the 4th century B.C., as Jamie Shallock
writes in his book Tea, the beverage had become part of everyday life in China — though in a very
different form than we might recognize today. As the culture surrounding tea has changed through the
centuries, so, too, have the tools we use to drink it. From the first dainty tea bowls to the mugs people
use to warm themselves with a cup of tea today, tea sets have changed to meet cultural and utilitarian
needs.

Before 1500

The first tea leaves were not drunk in loose form; instead, they were compressed into cakes. To prepare
tea, early drinkers had to tear off a piece of the compressed brick (often stamped with intricate patterns,
and so valuable that it could be used in lieu of currency), roast it and tear it into even smaller pieces.
Then they boiled their tea in heat-resistant kettles. According to Rupert Faulkner's book Tea: East &
West, by the Song Dynasty (960-1279), tea had moved into a powdered form that could be set in a cup
and whipped into the boiling water poured onto it. This whipped tea is most associated with Japanese
tea ceremonies today.
1700s

Tea finally reached Europe in the 1600s, along with the necessary tea wares manufactured in Japan and
China. As English potters began to adapt the tea set to their countrymen's tastes, they eventually added
a handle to the tea bowl to protect fingers from the transmission of heat through the delicate porcelain.
According to Steeped in History, edited by Beatrice Honegger, this "became necessary because of the
British habit of drinking hot black tea, which is consumed at higher temperatures than Chinese green."
The English based the new design off existing large, handled mugs and containers used for hot
beverages. The size of teacups also grew to accommodate the English taste for milk and sugar in their
tea. However, Christina Prescott-Walker, a European ceramics expert and the director of the Chinese
ceramics department at Sotheby's, believes the invention of the handle may have been a fashion
statement more than a utilitarian choice. "In England, tea bowls were still being made as late as 1800,"
she tells The Salt. Faulkner writes in his book that the original bowls were perceived as more
"authentically oriental" than their handled cousins.

1920s

By the early 1900s, innovations in tea drinking became an American affair. The most revolutionary was
the tea bag, which was accidentally commercialized by a tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan. He had
been sending customers tea wrapped in silk, and rather than take the leaves out of the bag, as Sullivan
intended, the customers put the bags into their teapots instead. According to Faulkner, not only did the
tea bags push the teapot back to the sidelines of tea service, but they were also too large for teacups
and ushered in the modern practice of drinking tea from large mugs.

Today

Today's designers are thinking up ways to integrate technology into our tea. Take, for example, Playful
Self, a new exhibition piece at the Dublin Science Gallery. The tea set – which is still far from commercial
use — responds to and collects biometric data from the user, including heart rate, breathing rate and
even sweat production. From bowls to biosensors, the tea set has come a long way.