Hi Herendil,
Basically any container that holds heat for a while can be used as a “teapot”. I have used ordinary mugs, water jugs, bowls, drinking glass, saucepans, and even those glass candle holders to steep tea in. They are far from ideal, but those that allow good convection and holds heat well can be surprising effective in rendering acceptable infusion quality.
If I use a bowl, the one thing that I need in addition to it would be a lid, not an infusing bag. The one that you have posted the link of looks like one of those used in Hong Kong style diners for making Ceylon fanning grades in a tall tin teapot. It’s an understandable solution for the setup for a few reasons, one of which being that the tea bar tender can make use of the length of the cloth to squeeze out the strong infusion by twisting the bag.
In a bowl, however, I think it kind of interferes with the much better convection pattern the inside of a bowl offers. I rather put the leaves directly into the bowl and strain them during pouring with a lid or a strainer. It’ll take some practice, but not that difficult. The most popular teaware in gongfu infusion style is a gaiwan — lid bowl — after all. If you use wholeleaf tea, that’s definitely the way to go.
You wouldn’t know how poor I have been and the kind of bad situations that I had to make tea in. Deprivation of materials sometimes can be seen as a fortune: you are rich in opportunities to understand the nature of things and to improvise. And to understand who you are. Enjoy the moment.
Happy holidays,
Leo
