UNEARTHED Glass Matcha whisking pitcher
It combines the aesthetics of a chawan with the convenience of a katakuchi.
Your legal guarantee rights
| Material | Mouth-blown borosilicate glass, clear, or iridescent in three colours (Orange Iridescent, Pink/Blue, Blue/Green) |
| Volume | ca. 250 ml, up to 300 ml |
| Size | ca. 12 cm at the widest point, ca. 9 cm high |
| Care | Heat-resistant and safe for boiling water, and because the glass is non-porous the matcha does not stain it |
| Design | Our own design, the first product of the UNEARTHED basics line |
| Use | Whisking and pouring matcha, and leaf tea as a gongdao cup |
This is a matcha whisking pitcher and the first product we designed ourselves from the ground up, optimised for use at home and in gastronomy. You whisk your usucha in it and you pour from it, so the bowl and the serving jug are one object instead of two.
The shape does three jobs. The wall closes inwards above the belly, so the glass is narrowest exactly where the tea would otherwise go over the edge and you can whisk properly without watching the surface. A chasen sweeps an arc while you whisk, and the closing wall traces that same arc instead of standing in it, which is what breaks the tines in a bowl with straight walls. Above that the neck opens out again into a rim you can grip, so you can pour with one hand.
The spout is the part we designed everything else around. It is drawn so that the foam and the liquid leave the glass at the same time, and a normal rim does not do that, because it lets the liquid run out first and strands the microfoam you have just built. We call it the Even-Pour spout. You can therefore fill several bowls in one go, and the clear glass shows you how fine the foam really is. Used properly it is also drip-free.
We had this piece made rather than bought it in. Every version was first a 3D print which we filled with water and poured, and we changed one thing at a time until the file went to the workshop, where it is mouth-blown by hand in a small studio we chose for the skill and the eye for detail of its artisans.
A note on the coloured versions. The colour of the Orange Iridescent, Pink/Blue and Blue/Green pitchers changes drastically with the lighting, so the same piece looks different in daylight, under warm lamp light and in our photos. Each pitcher is mouth-blown by hand, which means that each piece is unique, and the piece you receive will not look exactly like the one in the photos.
For a formal ceremony a ceramic chawan without a spout is the better bowl, and you will find those in our chawan collection. This one is for the matcha you whisk every day, for matcha latte, and for serving several people.
Our own design
How the Shape Is Drawn and What It Does
The drawings below are measured from the 3D file that went to the glass studio, and a finished pitcher can differ from the file by a few millimetres.
Even-Pour Spout
When you tilt the pitcher, the Even-Pour spout lets the foam and the liquid come out at the same time. Because the two layers leave together, every bowl gets its share of the foam, which is what lets you fill several bowls in one go. When you set the pitcher back, the last drop falls from the tip of the spout instead of running down the outside of the glass.
Form Follows the Whisk
Hold the Chasen at the top of the handle with the thumb and two fingers and let it swing from the wrist like a pendulum. The pendulum is about twice as long as the Chasen, because it is the Chasen plus the hand, so the tips move on a wide, flat arc. Across the pitcher the floor rises into the wall in one curve. At rest the tips hang in the middle of the tea, and at the end of each swing the outer tines meet the curve and slide up it instead of being pushed into a corner, which is where straight walls bend the tines and in the end break them.
The Shape Is Drawn From Two Ellipses
We drew this pitcher from two ellipses that are turned against each other by 90 degrees. The lower one forms the belly, which is 117 mm wide across the pitcher and 108 mm along the spout. The upper one forms the rim, which is 113 mm long towards the spout and only 94 mm wide across it. Between the two the wall turns, and about 55 mm above the table, where the two ellipses meet, the glass is almost round.
