Mino Ware Traditional Japanese Yunomi Tea Cups, Set of 2, Shigaraki for Green Tea, Matcha Tea

These Mino ware teacups add to the joy of drinking tea. Each cup is beautifully crafted and sturdy. Although not signed by an artisan, each cup looks like it was hand painted and created. I use a cup for my morning matcha and for green tea throughout the day. The beauty of these everyday cups add to the serenity of my personal tea drinking ritual. Nicely packaged, these make small gifts to treasureUrushi Nagasaki : selected these as a gift. The white interiors shows the color and clarity of the green tea nicely.Shigaraki : At first, I was disappointed that the glaze was not yellow and applied like those pictured. By evening I was thoroughly in love with the two cups. The beige splashes of glaze over the sienna are beautiful, especially by lamplight. I appreciate the wabi Sabi differences that make my teacups unique.

I purchased one of each of the different patterns, hoping that each one of my guests and family members could find one that resonated with them. I was happily surprised to find that they were all gorgeous, excellently crafted, and each with its own beautiful personality. The ceramic has a subtle texture that wants your hand to embrace it and walls that are sufficiently thick to retain the heat of the tea. They hold approximately 3/4 cup or 175 ml when filled to the brim. This is about half of what a standard American coffee cup can hold (1 1/2 cups) as I captured in my comparison photo and a typical size for larger Japanese tea cups. Looking at them causes me to recollect symphony music.

i had a heavey esspesso with whipped up heavey cream and tubonado with vanilla bean hafe and hafe and it handled the microwave well, my jellious cat and curious ferret well, and my bottle brush well, i'm happy.

Only used them a couple times, but seem to be good quality. Size is as described and pattern is very similar to the pictures shown. Overall, enjoying having tea out of them and very happy with these. Would definitely recommend!As a side note on yunomi tea cups, many other similar products have reviews saying it is too hot to handle when putting boiling water in them. I think these cups usually aren't meant to serve boiling hot drinks out of them. Quoting artofjapanesetea.com "traditionally, Chinese and Japanese tea is served at a much lower temperature than boiling water, in particular as green tea gives the best flavour when the water is at around 70 degrees Celsius" so shouldn't be a problem holding on to them without handles.

Smaller than expected

I have bought three styles of these minoware cups : Bizen,Aoshino, and Shinsetsu. They are all wonderful in their own unique way .I will be using these to serve matcha, genmai cha, and bancha tea when inviting friends over for either Japanese or macribiotic food . They feel great to hold .

You will not get the colors pictured and these " cups" are the sizes of shot glasses. I was expecting a smaller glass but not that small and I ordered a set that was dark blue and smokey grey topped and received ones that were black with a brown line in the middle and a white top. They are well made and very pretty but it feels like a scam.

Although slightly smaller than I thought (vs those used at Japanese restaurants), but size is just right for a cup of tea - not too big that you will finish up before it gets cold, and cup body doesn’t feel too hot to hold onto when you make oolong tea or green tea, very nice!