It all started out just fine.

We were at my mother-in-law’s place for her birthday party, and she surprised us with what I suppose you could call inverse birthday presents. Not wanting us to feel left out while she unwrapped her own parcels, she’d bought us all a little something.

My present was, bien sûr, tea themed. She’d bought me a small unglazed clay tea pot (c/w two cups), a small bamboo tea tray, and a what looked to be a 100 gram packet of Oolong.

Given the number of options available on the local tea scene, I was curious as to where she’d procured these goodies.

“The nice Chinese lady, you know, the one with the teashop at Möllan”, she replied.

She meant Mei Yin Nilsson of Möllans Te, of course. She’d popped in there on her way to a nearby appointment.

Anyroad, the next day after a bit of consideration I decided to put the new pot to work as a medium sized brewing vessel for shou Pu-erh. Early results were good – it seemed well suited to the task, even being capable of smoothing off the rougher edges of some of my bottom end daily drinkers.

Sadly, while it was sat on our countertop awaiting a rinse out after a particularly nice session disaster struck. I was putting away another pot when its large, heavy lid fell off, skidded off the lid of my 200 ml kyusu, and ricocheted into the new clay pot. The knob on the falling lid, as big as a thumb end and as heavy as granite, struck the new clay pot right on the “shoulder“. The impact, to be fair, was accompanied by a rather musical, chime like bang. The new pot split into two even, almost symmetrical sections, one attached to the handle, the other to the spout.

I stood there looking at the clay carnage in stunned disbelief, as the wrecking ball lid continued to spin slowly on the countertop.

Thankfully the kyusu got off scot-free, without even a scuff mark to show for its close encounter of the crashing kind. Cloud, silver lining, etc…

The other parts of the gift bundle have worked out well. The tea was a nice, quite heavily roasted strip Oolong with a pleasant raspberry like kick to it, and the tray and cups have already proved quite useful, and will continue to do so, all being well, for many years to come. Touch wood.

Sometimes I think that Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote should be amended – as well as death and taxes, it often feels as though there is a painful inevitability to the eventual destruction of one’s teaware.

So farewell, sweet pot, tea hardly knew ye…