These often elaborate pots are traditionally used for gongfu steeping, where tea is served in small cups over the course of many very short infusions.
Customers use these reviews to describe their experience with Harbin Teapot, including design, materials, size, ease of use, cleaning, durability, and how it works in daily tea preparation. Browse the full review history page by page to compare setup notes, care tips, and favorite ways customers use this piece.
I love this little teapot! I wish I had bought the cup to go with it (and am going to buy them). It is smaller than I thought it would be, only holds 6 oz, but it is nice when I want to indulge in and savor one of my more expensive teas. I have been using it for black teas.
This pot is exactly what I was looking for, and it is a joy to use!
The Harbin Teapot is very good quality, I like it.
I love this sweet little teapot. It's smaller than I thought it would be but it looks great on my stove as a decoration and it's handy when I want to make my special tea just for me.
Palm-sized pot for one with two cups. The pot would fill two cups Half way.
This is a lovely little Yixing teapot. It steeps well, enhances the aroma of the tea (for those who appreciate smelling the tea leave during a gongfu session, and it pours well. I am very please with this addition to my teaware collection and have dedicated it to Jasmine teas, so the hot clay and the floral tea create a warm, inviting fragrance from the Pot.
Love this little teapot for oolong teas. My mother was Russian from Harbin so I had to get this little pot.
This was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be but it is pretty cute. I need to assign it a place on my tea shelf and start using it for my Oolongs is the plan.
Clean pour, very cute. The handle stays cool through multiple brews
I love this little teapot! This is perfect for brewing my favorite pu-erh tea.
Large capacity, worked well for the dark oolong I made in it. Handled the initial seasoning well
An absolutely lovely little beginner pot. Very well crafted for it's price, and holds heat to itself very well.
This is a very nice and cozy teapot for oolong tea that I use. Works great and its very nice.
An adorable little pot and cup set. Still cogitating on what I'll dedicate them for, but they're lovely.
A very good teapot if you believe in the idea 'You get what you pay for.' This is the best teapot like it you're going to be able to trust at this price point, which means it's an excellent first clay teapot, but it's a bit smaller than I think it looks when ordering online- perfect if your looking to pour 1 small glass of tea at a time. The lid is a bit iffy on the fit so it's prone to dribbling as well. That said- the point of this teapot was the clay, which, while I'm not an expert on clay teapots, it seems to live up to the hype that comes with Yixing- the flavor of teas previously brewed in it do tend to linger so it does add to each cup. If you want a clay teapot but aren't ready to fork up the cash for a proper handmade one this is perfectly serviceable.
This is my first clay teapot, and I did some homework on how to care for it etc. I am happy to have got this one, and after several use already see it's taken on some sheen.
I m absolutely loving this little pot! I have dedicated it to Formosa Red Oolong from the Masters collection!
It works great, but be warned. It gets clogged easily. I ve spent 10 minutes before just cleaning out the built in strainer. I almost wish it didn t have one at all if it was going to get clogged that easily. It doesn t usually happen though with full leaf teas, but on smaller leaf particulates, it gets clogged super fast.
That being said, it s a joy to use. I m caught between making it a Jasmine teapot, or buying more oolongs to try with it.
For the price, this is a very decent Yixing teapot. Mine seals well when full and makes plenty of tea for two. It’s very cute and simple, especially paired with the matching cups. When I do multiple brews for myself, it’s perhaps a bit large, but I can always use my gaiwan for gong fu if I don’t want to drink that much tea.
Beautiful pot in its simplicity. Well made and has been a great new way to get into drinking tea.
This is a great yixing teapot for the price!! I wasnt expecting a full handmade or partial handmade at this price but it is very nice and affordable and does the job! And I love the shape
Perfect size for my morning cup. Easy to use and pour.
I am just starting out with gongfu brewing so I was not willing to spend a lot of money on a yixing teapot. I was pleasantly surprised to find an inexpensive yixing clay teapot on Adagio, because I heard a lot about fakes and was afraid to buy yixing from other unknown sellers. Really good yixing pots cost a minimum of $150 at my local tea shop so this was a good price from a seller I trust. I am guessing this is an apprentice level pot.
This pot is very small which is exactly what I wanted for gongfu tea just for myself. The shape is also rather cute. :) It holds the heat well when brewing gongfu style tea. When laying the pot upside down to dry, it lies flat and doesn’t rock around, making it easy to dry completely between uses.
Unfortunately the lid is a bit loose, but I wasn’t expecting a master-craftsman level fitting lid at this price. When tipping the teapot to pour, most of the time with a pot filled to the brim with tea, the tea does leak from the lid and spill a bit, especially if I don’t pour in a motion that is quick and decisive enough. I always use this teapot with a gongfu tea tray with a water catcher, so tea doesn’t spill on the table, but I have to be sure my gong dao bei pitcher is in the center and not near the edge of the tray or the tea will dribble over the edge of the tray. When the pot is only 2/3 full or less, there is hardly any leaking from the lid.
The tea always pours with a smooth motion from the spout (even when it is leaking from the lid) and it is fast and easy to pour all the tea out of the pot so there is no liquid in the pot between infusions.
To be honest, I always have a full pot for my infusions so it is always leaking when I pour the tea out into the gong dao bei. I’ve gotten better at pouring the tea out in a strong and quick motion, which reduces the leakage, but when I first started using it, I was getting annoyed at the leaking from the lid. I was used to Japanese teapots which are usually not filled to the brim and don’t leak from the lid at all.
However considering the price for this teapot, it was a great way to try a yixing pot and my oolong tea does taste a bit more mellow after gongfu brewing in this pot compared to tea gongfu brewed in my other porcelain pot. I am looking forward to using this pot more to see how the pot will enhance the tea taste as it is seasoned.
Well made, easy to season. I'm still working on making mine shine, but it's coming along nicely.
Very cute and tiny pot, I’ve been seasoning it for about four weeks now but still hasn’t started to take on any flavors, it’s smells like a delicious cup of oolong though so I can’t wait to see where it’s at this time next year :)
This small pot has been a welcome addition to my collection. At 170 ml, it is perfect for a one-person gongfu cha setting. The quality appears good and its function is optimum. Seems to be holding in the tea scent (I use only for oolongs). I would highly recommend.
Great value! Worthless strainer! - I have been looking for one of these clay pots to use for Puerrh tea but have always found the quality ones out of my budget...this one is inexpensive and seems like the real deal, if not you couldnt tell otherwise! I ve had other Yixing teapots that seemed fake like they weren t good quality Yixing clay, but with this one, definitely worth finding. after many infusions the taste of the tea gets even more flavorful (which is how it should be!). FYI i boiled the teapot in a pan of boiling water and leaves of my puerrh tea for 2 hours first to cleanse any impurities and partially 'season' it. My only complaint and this really bothers me, is that the 'strainer' in the spout does not work at all, it lets leaves through with every pour making it basically worthless, i have to spend my time trying to fish them all out of my cup. The built in strainer is completely non-functional. Either i deal with it or use a filter bag for my leaves which defeats the point of having a built in strainer! IF the strainer actually worked i would have given 5 stars...
I love this little tea pot! It seems so small, but it actually holds a lot of tea. I also love going through the process of steeping the tea and seeing it seep into the pot, making it even more flavorful each time!
It was so much smaller than I expected but it has been perfect for peppermint tea with my friend. I have the little cups that match. It has been great fun.
Adorable little teapot - great for the price point. A perfect starter into yixing teapots.
This is a great starter pot. The lid doesn't fit precisely on mine, but honestly, I learned that I really love the effects of this kind of pot and I use it all the time. Money well spent.
I love this little teapot. It is so cute and perfect for steeping (and resteeping) oolong teas, which is exactly what I purchased it for. Beautiful quality, too.
Adorable; I use it for pu-erh, exclusively. Only two complaints, 1) when pouring the tea, it comes spurting out, so far that if I don’t hold the cup up at an angle over the nozzle, it will shoot right across the top of the cup and down the side; I burned
my hand the first time this happened, and 2) placing my finger over the hole in the top of the lid does not stop the tea from flowing when pouring, even when I’ve filled it up to just overflowing, as I should in order to bathe the pot. I’ll remedy by creating a gasket for the rim on the lid, but it would be nice to not have to worry about it.
This is a gem. I use it for puerh. Nice to find it locally.
This is a great teapot for smaller Gong Fu sessions, of 1 to 3 people. The lid has a fairly good seal, and the porous clay retains both heat and flavor every time you use it.
Okay so my biggest thing here is simply that it's adorable. Jeez. It is the cutest.
It's hard to review something that's supposed to get better with age, because by the time it's at it's peak you've long since forgotten it. But out of the box, the tea does actually seem to taste better than when it's made in a cast iron pot or a French press.
The amount is a little awkward, I would have liked it if a full pot filled two of the matching cups. The pot definitely holds more than that. It's pretty ideal for putting in a Western-style teacup, though.
Also, don't forget, SUPER cute.
I purchased this as a gift for my son's partner and she loves it. She thinks it is the perfect size and says the tea brews very nicely in it.
This is a super fun little tea pot that is absolutely perfect for doing the quick brewing method of Gong Fu.
Its a little small when you are a heavy tea drinker who makes tea for 3 people at a time. Its okay for one person if you want to get up and make 4 pots in a short time period.
Even though I pre-seasoned the pot, there seems to be a lingering mineral aftertaste in every pot of coconut pouchong I brew. I know it's not the tea, because I've brewed it in other pots without experiencing this aftertaste. I also don't taste it in the ali shan oolongs I brew in my Dalian pot. Maybe the Harbin just needs extra pre-seasoning, but other than as decoration I don't think this pot will be part of my regular rotation.
This small clay pot strains loose tea and keeps your drink hot. It drips a little while pouring unless you pour the entire pot at once. The accompanying clay cups only hold an ounce each. Rinse only. Don't use soap.
awesome little teapot, use it for Formosa oolong, right or wrong. maybe need more than one.
Such a nice tea pot! Great for my new oolong teas!
This has become one of my favorite yixing teapots! It's the perfect size and brews a wonderful cup. I can't wait to watch this teapot develop as the years pass. I am definitely buying another for shengs.
This is super cute and a nice size. If you don't care about having a super fancy yixing pot.
This is a pretty nice little teapot. It absorbs the flavors really well and you can tell the the clay is good quality by the way it absorbs the hot water on the surface so quickly. The only thing I would change is that I wish the spout had a ball strainer rather than just the holes. I would order a second one.
UPDATE: Of the 6 'yixing clay' teapots that I bought, this is one of 2 that actually ended up serving it's purpose and absorbs the scents and flavors of the tea brewed in it. For this reason I'm bumping it up from a 'good' to a 'great.' I use it for peppermint tea, and as soon as you open the lid that's the first thing you smell. I've learned that ordering 'yixing' teapots online is a very risky business, but with this one you can rest assured that you're getting a quality product.
I do wish that adagio would sell smaller ones (3-4 oz) though, because this is far too big for one person to do a true gongfu brewing session.
Very small basically unusable unless it's for a doll house v
Beautiful pot, but has some trouble sealing off at the lid. Is nevertheless a very nice pot.
cute little pot that I am using for Oolong. I tried the air tightness test, it worked fine with just water, but if I add tea it doesn't work. I am going to keep trying, but it is a great starter yixing
This was my first yixing pot purchase. It has a beautiful design and is very smooth. The pour is very nice and haven't had a problem with leaves getting through.