Although Beijingers are not fastidious about the water used for brewing tea, they can still distinguish good water from inferior. Beijingers drink tea rather than savor it, so tea sets cannot be too small or too elaborate, though some do pay attention to small utensils and fine porcelain for the purpose of tea drinking. For tea drinking in Beijing, teapots also tend to be small, but since the goal is drinking, the ability to hold tea is primary, so having a warm套 is ideal. Warm套 are typically woven from rattan on the outside, lined with felt wadding inside, and have red cloth as the lining, suitable for both home and travel, though teahouses do not provide these. Teapots are usually porcelain, older households might use copper pots, and some claim that tin teapots preserve the tea's flavor without spoiling it. Shops also use small raw iron kettles for brewing tea, the famous "Shanxi Black Kid", shaped like a flat water chestnut, actually intended for boiling water. Some seemingly particular individuals value using Yixing purple clay teapots; Yixing pots are indeed good, but it's hard to find exquisite small pieces, and there are many counterfeits, with the clay taste lingering for a long time. Some use silver pots, a trend that has become popular in recent years. In the late Qing Dynasty, a kind of enameled iron pot and a dual-purpose tea set for both teapot and covered bowl became popular, but both are actually more suitable for keeping tea warm; connoisseurs do not use them. Qing Dynasty tea sets included so-called "folded cup and covered bowl" sets; the covered bowl consists of a lid and a base, the lid smaller than the base, used for brewing tea inside, with a small capacity suitable for careful sipping. Using a covered bowl can be tricky for the uninitiated; not only might one fail to pour the tea out properly, but it could spill on oneself, and sometimes even drop and break. One must hold the sides of the bowl between the thumb and middle finger, curl the index finger to press down on the lid, tilting the front of the lid slightly downward to pour the tea without spilling a drop. Folded cups were used to cool tea quickly, for serving guests and dealing with women and children, and were the specialized task of servants. Some unscrupulous young men even played tricks with covered bowls, having them painted externally with flowers, landscapes, figures, or famous artists' works, and internally with two pictures of erotic art, with six bowls making a set, housed in a brocade box. Sets where the six bowls had identical internal pictures were considered inferior; those with six different bowls showing twelve different scenes were medium grade; twelve bowls with twenty-four scenes were upper-medium grade; and twenty-four bowls with forty-eight scenes were the top grade. There was a story of a nouveau riche who wanted to play with famous porcelain and bought a top-grade set of forty-eight scenes. Later, when his family declined, this item alone fetched a good price, showing he wasn't entirely without foresight.

Regarding tea bowls, ordinary ones are porcelain bowls, and they were traditionally called tea盅 (small cups) because, firstly, they are small, and secondly, they completely lack handles, resembling wine cups. Those with rims in bean green, tea leaf dust color, or sesame color are called tea bowls. In recent years, tea saucers are used to hold tea bowls; in earlier times, there were "tea saucers" and "tea boats", all made of tin, some of copper. The round ones with a small central ring for the bowl's foot, or with lotus leaf edges, are called tea saucers; those shaped like ingots, with both ends raised high, are called tea boats.

In Beijing, brewing tea is generally called 沏茶 (qì chá), where adding tea leaves before water is 沏, and adding water before tea leaves is 泡 (pào). In Beijing, whether using a teapot or a covered bowl, the 沏 method is used. Those who particularly enjoy strong tea will take the initially brewed tea, drink it several times, then pour it into a clay pot and boil it over fire, extracting all the bitterness and yellow color from the tea, called "simmering tea" (熬茶 áo chá). Simmering tea is suitable for mountain tea. The clay pots used are the cheapest, commonly called "sand bags" (砂包 shā bāo), disdained by the middle class and above, and unknown to wealthy families, yet quite beneficial for tea flavor. Rural teahouses often use sand bags to brew tea for guests, suitable for both winter and summer. Similar to simmering tea is so-called "keeping tea warm" (靠茶 kào chá), where the teapot is placed beside the fire to keep it warm; over time, the tea color also develops. Simmering tea can use high heat, while keeping tea warm not only uses low heat but practically requires no direct flame, just borrowing the heat.