Tea has always been used by all the people worldwide who want a sip of natural refreshing beverage. Tea from its starting day in China till now has travelled a very long journey and yet it is the most sought beverage. Along with tea there is one more thing that we should know about. The matter or the object accompanying tea from its inception is the utensil or the ware, be it the tea bowls during the time of great emperor Shennong or the modern day tea sets widely used among all the tea lovers.

The use of tea sets originates in China, the first nation to taste tea. It is evident from the use of tea as a beverage in bowls of hot water by the great emperor of China, Shennong who accidently discovered the tea many decades back. As the story of discovering tea says that emperor Shennong was sipping a hot bowl of water when some leaves through the window accidently fell into his bowl and changed the colour of the water. You can extract the use of bowl by Shennong here in this story. Later when emperor Shennong accustomed the tea as a royal use, use of tea bowls also came into the scene. Later, during the period of Song Dynasty in China, the teapot and its use came into being. Along with the use of tea the use of tea sets also spread from China to the whole world. And within a few decades, tradition of using tea sets covered all the tea using nations. In China, earlier the tea sets at their initial stages were used. They were simply bowls of different sizes. And even now some traditional Asian tribes use only bowls as tea sets. After a long reign of tea bowls the teapot was discovered and finally the use of cup in tea sets was also introduced. China with the title of the first nation to drink tea and having tea pots in tea sets, used their first tea pots in Song Dynasty namely YiXing tea sets. Like all other tea sets it also contains a tea pot – the yixing tea pot, a traditional tray to trap the waste water, cups and saucers, a tea tool kit of funnel, digger, needle, shuffle and a vase. Apart from this, a traditional Chinese YiXing tea set also contains some other things like a brush which is used to wipe off the wasted water or tea. It also contains a sieve to filter the loose bits tea. Then finally in a YiXing tea set one or two clay made animals are put on the tray and they are supposed to bring good luck. Actually YiXing is a small place in the Jiangsu province of China, where this tea pot was first made. And even now Ytea pot from Yixing is a very special item. The clay used in Yixing tea pot contains iron ore which gives it a special look. Along with Yixing tea sets China in present time uses other tea sets like traditional bird on peach blossom tea set, poem tea sets, rock made tea sets etc.

Along with China, US also use the type Yixing and here it is known as Purple Sand Tea Pots. Another very important and considered to be the most formal tea set is a silver made tea set. Silver tea sets were used only by royal families once upon a time.