Tea Ware Q / Buying a tea set

So it’s come time for me to say good bye to the tea bag for a goodly while and move on towards drinking just loose leaf stuff in the office.  I’m getting my tea from TeaHong this time it looks like, but I’ll be getting my teaware from JKTeaShop again – they did well with the tea last time.  I plan to be drinking mostly green teas, but I’ll keep various others around the office and home as well (my roomate likes pu erh a good deal).

Alright, top of the list:

1)  I found this set, and thought it was nifty looking:  http://www.jkteashop.com/chinese-chess-board-pure-white-porcelain-portable-travel-tea-set-p-541.html

I was unaware that Xiangqu was a thing, but I’m always up for trying new games.  I’m really bad at weiqi, so maybe this will be my “Chinese game of choice”.  I knew I wanted a porcelain gaiwan for home use, and this one -appears- to be good enough.  It also comes with Xiangqu and a travel case.  Does it appear to be worth the 28 + shipping price tag?

There’s also this version:  http://www.jkteashop.com/pure-white-porcelain-portable-or-travel-tea-set-gai-wan-pitcher-6-cups-towel-p-552.html

However, it lacks the game so in terms of utility the former’s a better deal I think.

My only concern with both of those is that the gaiwan is only 100cc.  Seems awfully small, though it may not be anywhere near as big a deal as I think it is.  Certainly, you can’t fill all 6 cups with that quantity.

2)  For the office, I was considering getting a cup / pitcher / gaiwan set as well.  Failing that, a pair of matching gaiwans (one to brew, the other to decant/drink from) would work.  I remember Leo espousing the virtues of porcelain, so I looked about and realized there wasn’t much in the way of choice.

For the Gaiwan/Pitcher/Cups set, I think this one looks great:http://www.jkteashop.com/news-paper-painting-teaware-set-p-733.html

It is porcelain and it has more cups than I’ll ever need (or can fill with the gaiwan – and the pitcher is even larger!).  HOWEVER, I’m apprehensive about having in my posession something marked in a language I cannot read.  Actually, I don’t even know if those say anything at all.

There’s also this:

http://www.jkteashop.com/tang-cao-tang-dynasty-flower-design-teaware-sets-1-gai-wan-1-pitcher-and-6-cups-p-555.html

But it’s not porcelain from what I can tell.  Attractive, though.

Alternatively, there’s the ad-hoc approach.

I could get one or two of these:http://www.jkteashop.com/white-porcelain-gai-wan-oolong-black-tea-p-322.htmlorhttp://www.jkteashop.com/white-porcelain-gai-wan-pu-er-jasmine-tea-p-321.html

Again, one to brew and one to serve as a decanter/pitcher, if desired.  Concern here being that while there are three different sizes that are all designated with specific categories of tea, none of these list green!  This makes me wonder if it matters much what I brew in it, and if the tea sets above are going to be type specific.  Perhaps Leo can shed some light.

Cups I’d choose to go with those would be these bone porcelain ones:http://www.jkteashop.com/bone-white-porelain-bowl-shape-cup-p-359.html

They have a number of different sizes; I’d match the size to which gaiwan I’d buy (120cc gaiwan = 50cc cups, etc).

I can also take that same approach with other individual items they house; they have some nifty looking Yixing (Ye-shing?  Yikzing?) cups, but I don’t have a Yixing pot nor the means to prepare one properly (no stove at home or work).  Some choices are not porcelain, which is probably best avoided.

So now that I’ve barraged you with much text, what kind of advice is out there?

Thanks,

M.