Porcelain vs unglazed clay vs glass
The material a pot is made of changes the tea in exactly two ways: whether it holds heat, and whether it takes anything from the leaf and gives it back. Everything else said about teaware materials is decoration. Those two properties are enough to decide which pot belongs on a shelf.
What is being compared
Why these get confused
Unglazed clay is sold as the connoisseur’s material, which reads as ‘better’. It is more specialised, and specialisation is a cost as well as a benefit — one pot, one tea, forever.
Point by point
| Aspect | Porcelain teapot | Unglazed clay teapot (non-Yixing) | Glass teapot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porosity | None. Glaze makes it functionally inert. | Real, and the point of the vessel. It absorbs a trace of every session. | None. |
| Carry-over between teas | Nothing carries over. One pot can serve an entire catalogue. | A pot seasoned on shou pu-erh will put that into a green tea, and not pleasantly. | Nothing carries over. |
| Heat retention | Middling — better than glass, less than clay. | Best of the three, which is why roasted oolong and dark tea are brewed in it. | Worst of the three; it sheds heat fast. |
| What you can see | Nothing. | Nothing. | Everything — the only practical way to learn what a properly opened leaf looks like. |
| Cleaning | Detergent is fine. | Hot water only. Detergent is absorbed and returned to every later session. | Usually dishwasher-safe; staining wipes off with bicarbonate of soda. |
| Who it suits | Anyone who drinks more than one kind of tea. The default first teapot. | Anyone with one tea they drink constantly and no intention of changing. | Anyone learning, and anyone brewing blooming or bud teas where appearance is part of it. |
| Cost of getting it wrong | None worth mentioning. | High — a pot dedicated to the wrong tea is difficult to repurpose. | None, beyond a cooler cup. |
The short answer
Porcelain is the correct answer for almost everyone and is rarely the recommended one, because it has no story attached. Clay earns its place only when a single tea dominates what you drink; glass earns its place as a teaching tool.
Not a ranking. TeaHQ publishes no ratings and does not know your occasion.