Sourced by Michael Zhan in Dingshu
Walk into the back lanes of Dingshu, the historic heart of Yixing pottery, and you’ll find dozens of family workshops where clay is still wedged by hand and fired in dragon kilns. During a sourcing trip in late autumn, Michael Zhan spent three days visiting five studios, comparing cup walls under a loupe and weighing them on a pocket scale — he was hunting for a set of 35ml tasting cups that could hold heat evenly without masking a tea’s personality.
The studio he chose is run by a second-generation potter who works exclusively with lao zisha — old purple sand clay that has been weathered for over a decade. Each cup is thrown on a wheel, trimmed thin at the rim for a clean lip feel, and reduction-fired to a dark eggplant hue. The clay’s iron content shows through as faint metallic sparkles under direct light.
Michael rejected two earlier batches because the bottom wells were too thick, causing uneven cooling. The final 20 sets passed his check: identical weight (±2g), a slightly flared rim that doesn’t trap aroma, and a foot ring small enough to fit inside a 120ml gaiwan so all four cups can be warmed together. Every set ships with a handwritten card noting the firing date and the potter’s stamp — a guarantee that these cups will only improve as tea oils build a patina.