This is my personal set of cups I found on Ebay (exact listing title: “Collector’s Item: Arita Ware Sake Cups, Set of 8, with Wooden Storage Box“). I’m always in the market for more so that I can be prepared for extra guests.
If you want to make your tea time instantly “memorable” (that’s a safest and most diplomatic word I could find in this context), aside from drinking a Refuteas blended tea, you’ll also want to assess the size and type of tea cup.
In my particular case that I will now discuss, it’s not even a tea cup, but rather one that is intended to hold another type of sometimes-warm beverage—Japanese sake. My sake cups are great because I’m one of those tea drinkers who likes to talk too much so my tea normally sits there while others are busy sipping away. When my sake cup holds at the most 2 to 3 sips, it doesn’t feel as bad as it would if the cups were 6 to 9 ounces.
Plus, it just feels really cool holding a tiny cup in your hand as you gently sip and refill. Be warned that the initial five minutes of your tea conversation will be discussing the beauty of the sake cups in hand and then slowly shifting to memories of interesting tea cups of past—ones used at homes of elderly family members or during certain unique travel experiences. It’s always unique, but always interesting and totally dependent on who is present during your tea time (or to use the more apt Japanese terminology, Tea Ceremony).
Next time when you prepare your Avocado Masala for visiting friends, make sure to use your box of vintage sake cups you bought during that trip to Japan years ago and let the sake cup spirits of past guide the conversation into surprisingly unexpected places.
With love,
Refuteas
Refuteas & Spices 
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