A few days ago, I asked my Instagram community the following two questions:

Do you wash your teaware?

82% yes
18% no

Do you wash your teaware with dish soap?

39% yes
61% no

I thought you’d be interested to hear what works for me. If you disagree, that’s okay, you do you, no judgement. Most importantly, I encourage you to do your own research and when in doubt, contact the manufacturer or the seller of your teaware. Better safe than sorry, am I right?

In general, I don’t recommend putting any piece of teaware of any kind in the dishwasher, unless you are a business serving tea to the public and you have to comply with specific health and safety regulations. Again, do your own research, this is a tea blog, for information purposes only.

Porcelain, ceramic, glazed stoneware, glass, borosilicate glass

I hand wash teapots, gaiwans, teacups and sharing pitchers made of these materials with a drop or two of unscented dish soap and a soft kitchen sponge (non abrasive) dedicated only to teaware (so I don’t get kitchen smells on my teaware). I only use two brands of dish soap (not sponsored), Seventh Generation Dish Liquid, Free and Clear and ECOS Dishmate Dish Soap, Free & Clear.

Unglazed clay teaware (like Chinese yixing and Japanese Tokoname)

I own a yixing teapot, an unglazed Japanese kyusu and a few unglazed tea cups. In this case, I strictly use hot water only to clean, absolutely no dish soap, warm running water to rinse out and then I let them air dry on a clean tea towel. Did you know that you can ‘season’ a brand new yixing teapot by boiling it in a pot with water and tea leaves?

Electric Kettle

I use lemon juice to descale it. I simply fill the bottom of the kettle with enough lemon juice and I will add some water if needed (some kettles have a minimum amount line). I like to filter the lemon juice so that the lemon pulp or seeds don’t make it inside my kettle. I set it to boil, discard the lemon juice and then I rinse it out and set it to boil again with just water, which I discard too before making tea again.

Matcha utensils and teaware

Porcelain and glazed stoneware chawans (tea bowls), same as above. Bamboo whisk and bamboo scoop, hot water only.

How do you clean your teaware? Let me know in the comments below.