Ritual & Secrets of Mint Tea

A Mint Tea? A Glass or a Cup?

By tradition, or according to your desire, you choose to drink your tea in a ceramic cup, glass, or other ...

At Maison NANA1807, we serve our Mint Teas in glasses, respecting Moroccan tradition.

And from experience, the materials of the cups have a surprising impact on the taste of tea, especially for a fragrant tea whose flavour offers a certain complexity.

In order to appreciate the experience of Mint Tea , there are three essential qualities:

1. the initial aroma and the first sip,
2. the sensation in the mouth and the taste in the body of the tea
3. and lingering aftertaste and notes.

Each accessory, from the preparation to the service of Mint Tea , must contribute to this experience so that the overall alchemy highlights these three qualities.

The main choices

Tea cups are made from the following main types of materials:

• ceramics,
• the glass
• plastic,
• and font is sometimes used.

From now on, you must forget about plastic cups. There are really no positive features beyond the fact that they are lightweight, inexpensive, and nearly unbreakable.

You certainly have English style service, or Chinese porcelain, or Turkish or Russian tradition glass & metal sets, or perhaps Japanese or Moroccan tradition tea sets - in the many styles available : Yunomi, Arita Gosho, Stafford, Winged Grace, Zarf, zhong, Podstakannik, kumidashi chawan, Saint Louis, Beldi…

Whatever your style is, we recommend a cup with the least porous material.

Porcelain has been the material of choice for over a thousand years in China, and from the 19th century in Europe. The porcelain is fine, translucent and quite fragile.

Borosilicate glass, better known under the Pyrex brand, is very resistant and withstands heat well.

Ceramic Mug

Ceramics vary considerably in porosity. The term technically means made of clay fired in kilns, but it is loosely used to refer to stoneware, pottery, earthenware, porcelain, or terracotta.

With the exception of its fragility, porcelain is the choice adopted by professional tea tasters.

French porcelain from Berry is a remarkable example. Maison NANA1807 prefers porcelain tea sets from the Pillivuyt Manufactory.

Established in Berry for 200 years, the Pillivuyt porcelain factory perpetuates ancestral and artisanal know-how. Pillivuyt products are produced 100% Made in France. The manufacture is one of the few to manufacture its own porcelain pastes.

Bone porcelain, more fragile but cheaper to manufacture, invented by Spode, has become the dominant material used in English tableware.

The Mint Tea Glass

Glass is a classic material for teapots and cups. It is non-porous and very smooth. It is common in Russia, Turkey as well as Morocco to use standard breakable glass made from lime soda. The Russian podstakannik is typical: it is an ornate metal basket in which the tea glass fits and is protected.

The most popular, convenient and portable option is tough borosilicate glass. This adds boric oxide to the standard silicate ingredients, making it resistant to temperature extremes and chemical corrosion.If it shatters, it does not shatter into pieces, but cracks, shatters, and collapses.It is more expensive to make than lime and soda glass, which is widely used in cookware, including glasses for cold drinks.

Tea cups that use glass are increasingly double-walled: a cup within a cup, separated by a wall of air. The exterior and interior parts are blown separately, dried and firmed, then assembled. The interior keeps tea hot while the exterior ensures the cup is cool to the touch. One of the special extras is that the transparency of the glass shows both the color of the liquor and the unfolding of the foil. It is striking and appealing to watch a blossoming flower tea open its attached ball of leaves inside which is a marigold, jasmine or other flower or to see a teaspoon of rolled oolong spread up to halfway up the cup.

There isn't much to add on the borosilicate. It is an excellent choice for everyday use, equivalent to porcelain ... much less fragile than porcelain. You can trust our choice to serve you Mint Tea in our glasses of all shapes ...

Taste the Difference & Share the Experience!