Joyce Chen 90-3713 5 piece Flared Teapot Set

Comment: Two stars because this set really does look beautiful. I loved the clean lines and smooth black glaze. Unfortunately, looks are not everything. It seems like this tea set was strictly designed for visual appeal and not practical use. Here are the issues I had with the set:

1) The spout is set too low on the body of the teapot. Filling the pot more than halfway full causes the liquid to stream out of the mouth of the spout. Unless you happen to enjoy scalding yourself and your friends with hot liquid, this is a feature you probably wish to avoid. You can really only brew about 12-13 oz at a time without spillage. As this set is designed to be "tea for four", that's pretty inconvenient.

2) Something about the design of the mouth of the spout causes it to dribble when pouring, no matter how carefully you do it. I used this teapot twice and made a large wet mess with every cup I poured.

3) The teacups are quite small. Their inner dimensions are more like sake cups than teacups. Two sips and you have to refill. The combination of the tiny cups and the large squared-off teapot spout also causes the cups to fill up very quickly, requiring ninja reflexes to cut off the stream of tea without overfilling the cups (though ninja or not, you'll still splatter tea everywhere because of the dribbly spout.)

4) The flared bottoms of the cups have pointed crevices that accumulate debris and are difficult to clean by hand. This is especially inconvenient as this set is not dishwasher safe due to the bamboo handles. I thought I'd cleaned out my cup pretty scrupulously after my first pot of chai tea with creamer, so I was pretty disgusted to pour a fresh cup of tea and have dried creamer float up from the corners of the cup.

5) Finally, the satiny black glaze is especially prone to collecting fingerprints and smudges. This is a minor complaint versus the set's other flaws and something that I suspected might be the case when ordering, but worth mentioning.

In summary, if you love being scalded by hot water or are looking for a teapot that looks great sitting on a shelf collecting dust, feel confident purchasing this striking set. If you're looking for a tea set that is functional as well as beautiful, however, I would highly recommend you look elsewhere.