Dobin
A larger Japanese pot with an arched handle of bamboo or cane across the top, made for serving several people rather than for careful single-cup brewing. It is the everyday household vessel for roasted and coarse teas, which want volume and boiling water rather than restraint.
Identity
- Category
- Brewing vessel
- Native name
- 土瓶
- Romanised
- dobin, dobin
- Also called
- bail-handle teapot, Japanese family teapot
- Material
- Glazed ceramic, sometimes heat-resistant glass, with a cane or bamboo bail handle
- Typical capacity
- 400–900 ml
- Skill level
- Beginner
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Where it comes from
Japanese, and the ordinary domestic pot for hojicha, genmaicha and bancha rather than a specialist item.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
Any teapot of similar size. The bail handle is comfort rather than function, though it does keep the hand well clear of a pot filled with boiling water.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.
- Kyusu brewing (Japanese style) — The Japanese domestic approach to green tea: a moderate quantity of leaf, water well off the boil, short steeps, and two or three infusions from the same leaf with the times adjusted each time.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
Keep the cane handle out of standing water and out of a dishwasher; it is the part that fails first.
Other brewing vessels
- Berrad (Maghrebi teapot)
- Boiling teapot
- Brewing saucepan
- Çaydanlık (Turkish double kettle)
- Chawan (matcha bowl)
- Chinese lidded mug
- Cold brew bottle
- Dagwan (Korean teapot)
- Enamel-lined cast iron teapot
- Gaiwan
- Glass teapot
- Glazed stoneware teapot
- Houhin
- Kyusu
- Nixing pottery teapot
- Plastic teaware
- Plunger tea press
- Porcelain teapot
- Quick-brew infuser press
- Ru-glaze crackle ware
- Shiboridashi
- Silver teapot
- Stainless steel teapot
- Travel gongfu set
- Travel infuser bottle
- Unglazed clay teapot (non-Yixing)
- Western teapot
- Yixing teapot
- Zavarnik (concentrate pot)
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this piece of teaware against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Dobin vs kyusu — The Japanese household pot for several people against the one for careful single-cup brewing. A dobin has an arched cane or bamboo handle across the top and is made for hojicha, genmaicha and bancha rather than for the teas a kyusu is designed around.