I love glass teaware.

In many aspects glass is overshadowed by Yixing clay and fine Chinese porcelain, but I believe it scores on a couple of important points.

It is of course considerably cheaper, and if you want to fully appreciate the stretching and opening of your leaves, as well as the colour of the tea itself, then I think glass more than makes up for any shortcomings.

I spotted this teapot some time ago, but finally got around to buying it last week.

I bought the teapot from my favourite Swedish tea and teaware supplier, House of Tea, and paid 169 Swedish Crowns, which as of today equates to £15.50, US$18.97, or €17.41.

This was, however, the straw that broke the camel’s back – in order to fit even a pot of this size into the perilously overcrowded teaware cupboard, some of the less frequently used pots, gaiwans, and cups had to be relocated, which in turn meant that other stuff had to be moved, and so on.

This procedure culminated in a large pile of redundant bakeware forming on our living room floor. It’s still there, much to the amusement of the cat.

The pot is made from borosilicate glass, making it scratch resistant, and can withstand temperatures of up to 150°C, meaning it can be used for all classes of tea.

The capacity is 150 ml, making it about the same as a normal sized gaiwan, which in turn means that it is perfect for gong-fu style, flash steepings.

As you should be able to see from the pictures, it sports a clever spring loaded metal filter in the spout, which works very well indeed in keeping the main body of the leaves in the pot and out of your brew. I still use my tea strainer in tandem with the teapot, though, in order to obtain a crystal clear cup.

One thing I did find out very early on, though – if a bit of a leaf gets stuck behind the filter and is proving stubborn to flush out, although the filter easily unclips for removal and cleaning, it’s somewhat tricky to put it back into position. I found the best way to do this was with the aid of a tool I constructed from a paper-clip, allowing you to hold the filter in place on the inside of the pot, and then reach down the spout with your paper-clip tool in order to hook onto the filter and pull it out of the spout and clip it back into place.

The pot is very easy to use, and well balanced, even when full. I’ve found that a one-handed grip works best, with thumb and middle finger on the handle, and the first finger securing the lid. As with any good teapot covering the hole in the lid button will quickly stop the flow of tea.

It pours cleanly and evenly – you always feel in full control of the stream. I haven’t noticed any significant splashes, drips, or leaks from the spout, or where the lid meets the body of the teapot.

All in all an excellent little pot that is well on the way to becoming my go-to pot for everyday gong-fu style brewing.