Shiboridashi
A wide, shallow, handleless brewing dish whose filter is a set of ridges or a narrow gap moulded into the body rather than a mesh. The name describes the action — the liquor is squeezed out through that gap — and the shape describes the intent: broad and flat, so water poured in loses heat immediately.
Identity
- Category
- Brewing vessel
- Native name
- 絞り出し
- Romanised
- shiboridashi, shibori dashi
- Also called
- squeeze-out pot, ridge-filter pot
- Material
- Porcelain or stoneware, glazed or unglazed
- Typical capacity
- 60–150 ml
- Skill level
- Advanced
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.
Usually glazed and therefore inert. The unglazed versions season, and given how little liquid passes through one, that seasoning takes years rather than months.
Where it comes from
Japanese, and used for the highest grades of shaded green tea and for ice steeping.
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
A houhin is the near neighbour and easier to pour. A small bowl with the lid held ajar reproduces the gap, badly, and costs nothing.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Low-temperature brewing (gyokuro style) — A great deal of shaded Japanese leaf in a very small volume of water that is deliberately far below boiling — cool enough that the vessel can be held bare-handed. It is the most extreme low-temperature steeping in common practice, and it exists to extract one part of the leaf while leaving another behind.
- Ice steeping (kōridashi) — Ice cubes placed directly on dry leaf and left to melt, with no water added at all. The liquor arrives as the ice goes, drop by drop, and there is very little of it. It is the coldest steeping in ordinary practice and produces the most concentrated sweet extraction of any.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
The ridge filter clogs with fine leaf and is awkward to clear once dry — rinse it while it is still wet. Handle the thin rim carefully; these are among the more fragile brewing vessels made.
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)
- Dobin
- 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
- 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.
- Houhin vs shiboridashi — Two handleless Japanese vessels for the highest grades of shaded green tea, distinguished by how the liquor is separated from the leaf. A houhin has an integral filter; a shiboridashi squeezes the tea out through a gap or a set of ridges moulded into the body.
- Shiboridashi vs gaiwan — Two lidded vessels that pour past the lid rather than through a spout, from two traditions with different targets. The gaiwan is a general-purpose gongfu vessel for hot short steeps; the shiboridashi is built for a small volume of cool water on a wide bed of fine leaf.