Tea Pot
1. Spout: To facilitate placing tea leaves into the pot and removing tea residue after brewing, the spout opening should not be too small, especially when dealing with more voluminous tea leaves, as insertion can be quite difficult. For inset lid styles, the flange part should not form a protruding ring on the inside of the spout opening; otherwise, during residue removal or rinsing, tea debris can easily get stuck there, and rinsing water can accumulate and not drain completely from the spout. This phenomenon is more severe in slip-cast pots.
 
    2. Water Holes: Single-hole pots easily allow tea leaves to be flushed into the "spout" causing blockages, especially when the spout and body are slip-cast as one piece, forming a bell-shaped water hole, where blockage is most severe. Mesh water holes can overcome this drawback, but are not as good as honeycomb-style water holes because opened tea leaves become soft and flaky, easily adhering to the mesh holes. Both mesh and honeycomb water holes must be finely and densely drilled; fine holes filter out tea fragments, dense holes ensure sufficient water flow to supply the spout. However, ceramic water holes ultimately cannot filter out fine tea dust. To achieve very clear tea liquor, a metal filter mesh must be added, yet how to install it and facilitate cleaning remains a problem to be overcome.

    3. Spout: Water outflow should be smooth, the stream should not swirl or fork. The flow rate should be moderate; too fast and fierce seems crude, too thin and slow becomes annoying, and the originally controlled tea concentration becomes too strong due to slow outflow. Water cutting is a very important functional requirement for the spout, meaning after pouring tea, no residual water drips down the outer wall of the "spout" onto the table.

    4. Handle: In terms of operational convenience, side-handle pots and flying teapots are superior to top-handle pots. The height and width (at the spout part) of a top-handle pot's handle must be intentionally larger, otherwise it hinders tea insertion and residue removal. The handle should fit the hand comfortably and allow easy lifting of the pot. For side-handle pots, the angle formed between the handle and the vertical center of gravity line of the teapot should be less than 45 degrees; otherwise, it is difficult to control the pot's balance. The commonly mentioned "three-point level" (where the top ends of the "handle", "spout", and "spout" are on the same plane) is not absolute. The latter two points being level is necessary due to water flow principles, but the "handle" can be adjusted according to design needs; being slightly higher can actually make it easier to hold. 

    5. Pot Shoulder: In principle, the greater the distance between the pot "spout" and the "spout" the better; the greater the "height difference" between the front end of the pot "spout" and the "mouth" of the spout, the better. This way, when pouring tea quickly at a steep angle, the tea liquor is less likely to flow out from the spout.
 
Tea Boat (Serving Tray)
    1. Function: Some people use a high-rimmed, bowl-shaped tea boat, placing the pot inside, and after brewing, pouring about half a boat of water over the outside of the pot, claiming this maintains the pot's humidity. They also rotate cups sideways between the pot and the boat to warm them. Experiments show that soaking the pot in hot water does not have a heat retention effect; instead, it cools faster than leaving it in the air. Warming cups inside the boat has drawbacks besides hygiene issues, including wear and tear on the tea set and noise. It's generally been changed to warming cups outside the boat. Therefore, the function of a tea boat should be: a base utensil for displaying the teapot, adding aesthetics, and preventing the teapot from scorching the table or splashing water during pouring. Sometimes it's also used after drinking tea to hold the brewed leaves for guests to appreciate the spent leaves, or when rinsing the pot after removing residue, to pour the water from the pot into the boat, and then hold the boat to pour the residual water and debris into the water bowl or the drainage hole of a tea cart.

    2. Shape: It can be a high-rimmed "bowl" shape or a low-rimmed "plate" shape, primarily considering whether it matches the teapot. To accommodate pouring rinse water into the boat, its water capacity should not be less than two pots' worth, allowing for a second rinse if one isn't sufficient. The rim height should also be sufficient to prevent splashing.

    3. Water Pouring Function: As it is often used for pouring water, the design of the boat's rim should consider the convenience of pouring.

    4. Pot Nurturing Function: To meet the needs of "nurturing the pot" (yanghu), some designs feature a double-layer boat with a perforated top surface. When pouring tea liquor over the pot body to nurture it, the tea liquor flows into the interlayer. This prevents the lower part of the pot from soaking in water, resulting in more even color development on the nurtured pot. In this case, a "drain hole" should be specifically designed, and the boat rim should be raised; otherwise, rinsing the pot cannot be done on the boat.

    5. Spent Leaf Appreciation Function: After brewing tea, take out some opened tea leaves and place them on the tea boat, or add a pool of clear water, letting the leaves float within. Present the tea boat to guests to appreciate the expanded leaves. This is a rather unique aspect of Chinese tea appreciation. For this purpose, the tea boat should be made exquisitely and worthy of handling and admiration.

Teacup
Cup Rim: A flared rim is easier to pick up than a straight cylindrical rim and is less likely to burn the hand.

Cup Body: Zhan-shaped cups (small, shallow cups) allow the tea to be finished easily. Bowl-shaped cups require tilting the head back to finish the tea. Drum-shaped cups require fully tilting the head back to finish the tea. In zhan-shaped cups, the depth of the tea liquor increases gradually from the sides towards the center, creating rhythmic changes in the color of the tea liquor. For "appreciating" the color of the tea liquor, and if possible, coordinating with international standard tea evaluation cups, the effective depth of the tea liquor in small cups should ideally be maintained at 2.5 cm. This facilitates comparison of tea liquor colors.

Cup Color: If the inside of the cup is white or a light color, it is easier to see the true color of the tea liquor. For fairness and objectivity, pure white best presents the tea liquor's color. For enhancing the visual effect of the tea liquor, it depends on the type of tea. For example, pan-fired green tea, celadon porcelain enhances the "yellow with a hint of green" effect. For powdered green tea like matcha, tenmoku glaze makes it look more appealing (a pure white cup makes it look like a bowl of green paint). For heavily oxidized Bai Hao Oolong, an ivory-white cup makes the "orange-red" tea liquor appear more delicate and delicious.

Size: Cups for small pot tea are generally between 30~50cc (referring to volume; the appropriate tea filling amount is slightly less). Smaller than 20cc looks too small, larger than 60cc looks too large. This small pot tea is usually brewed three to five times or more per session, with a slightly higher concentration, so the total amount of tea drunk in one session is sufficient. Cups belonging to large teapots are generally around 150cc. This type of tea is usually brewed lighter, and only about two brews are consumed at a time.

Number of Cups: In general use, six cups is a quite appropriate number, as the number of guests is usually six or fewer. If one breaks, there are still five cups available. Some places习惯ally pair one pot with five cups. The size of the pot is determined by the size and number of cups, often referred to as a two-cup pot, four-cup pot, six-cup pot, etc. The size of the pot should be slightly larger than the total "appropriate volume" of the cups because tea leaves occupy some space. The more infusions brewed, the more space they occupy. The amount of tea used in small pot tea is generally about half the pot. After several brews, the leaves can occupy up to 30% of the space. Large pot tea uses less tea, so consider the leaves occupying about 20% of the space. However, the additional pot volume needed is not that much; about 20% for small pots and 10% for large pots is sufficient. This is because in later brews, if the tea liquor is insufficient, each cup can be poured less full, which also aligns with the physiological needs of drinking tea and avoids having too much liquid in the first and second brews.

Cup Holder (Saucer)
1. Height: Cup holders can be designed as plate-style, bowl-style, boat-style, or high-platform style. Their height should facilitate easy picking up from the table surface. The high-platform style goes without saying. For other types of cup holders, the rim should be at least 1.5 cm above the table surface for easy handling.

2. Stability: When a cup is placed on the holder, and a guest picks up the holder to take the cup, the cup should sit securely on the holder. If the holder surface is smooth, when picking up quickly, the cup can easily slide on the holder or even tip over. To avoid this, the center of the cup holder often has a recess or a raised ring, or is even designed as a cup-shaped body that sleeves onto the base of the cup (tea bowls often use this type of holder).

3. Adhesion: The construction of the cup holder should prevent the cup from sticking to it. When picking up the cup to drink, if the holder sticks to the cup and comes up with it, a slight shake can cause it to fall, either making a loud noise or breaking the holder. This might be due to water droplets on the cup base causing adhesion, or the heat of the cup creating a pressure difference between the cup base and the holder. Reducing the tightness of fit between the two can overcome this problem.

Tea Saucer (Chahai - Fairness Cup)
1. Form: The tea saucer and teapot are paired as a set, complementing each other. The design should have one as primary and the other as secondary. If they are too identical, it is difficult to achieve harmony.

2. Capacity: The capacity of the tea saucer should allow the teapot to pour all its contents into it at once; otherwise, it loses its function. Having about 10% less capacity than the pot is acceptable because the pot contains tea leaves, but having the same capacity as the pot is safer. Some design the tea saucer larger than the pot, even large enough to hold two pots' worth. This allows, when there are many people, to brew two rounds and serve tea once. If the tea saucer's capacity is only one and a half pots, when the pot is large and the number of people is small, and the first brew of tea liquor isn't enough to serve everyone, the second brew can be added before serving a second time, meaning brewing two pots of tea to serve three rounds. Thus, the tea saucer has the function of regulating the serving amount of tea.

3. Residue Filtration: If the teapot's residue filtration function is not very good, the tea saucer can supplement this function by including a high-density filter mesh inside, filtering the tea liquor perfectly clean.

4. Water Cutting: Water cutting is the most important function of the tea saucer because its task is to pour the tea liquor into cups, one by one. If it cannot cut water cleanly, tea liquor will drip everywhere. To achieve a water-cutting spout, the design is inevitably constrained to some extent. If a teapot, due to its form, cannot have a water-cutting function, pairing it with a tea saucer that has this capability can still complete the task satisfactorily, because after brewing good tea, holding the pot to pour all the tea into the saucer at once won't cause dripping concerns.

Lid Rest
1. Form: A lid rest may be used to place the teapot lid, saucer lid, or water kettle lid. The purpose is to prevent water droplets from these lids from dripping onto the table, or to avoid contact with the table surface which seems unhygienic. Therefore, most take a "support pad" style, and the plate surface should be larger than the aforementioned lids, with a groove to collect water droplets. When encountering a large-diameter lid like that of a water jar (container for brewing water), or when using a "kettle" (fū) as a water boiler, for these large-area lids, a "support stand" style lid rest is needed, leaning it against the side of the water jar or stove. If this isn't possible, it has to be placed flat on the lid rest. In this case, the "water jar lid" doesn't have a water droplet problem, but the "kettle lid" must be designed with a shape that channels water towards the center, and the lid rest must also be designed with a central support point, so that water droplets on the lid base gather at the center point and drip into the lid rest's water reservoir.

2. Height: A lid rest that is too tall or prominent complicates the tea set landscape. For pad-style lid rests, a height similar to a cup is sufficient. Support-style lid rests can be slightly taller.