Spode, Wedgwood, and many others are considered topnotch teawares, but they don’t compare for sheer tea time style to the Omniware Hemisphere teapot, especially when you add in the matching Demitasse Cup Set and the Cream & Sugar Set with its own color-coordinated tray. Don’t take the term “hemisphere” too literally here. The teapot is a full sphere. That way, your tea doesn’t leak out!

The teapot is generously sized at 32 ounces, made of stoneware, and microwave and dishwasher safe. Its smooth, round, contemporary design and bright colors add true flair to your tea table, whether you’re serving tea fit for a whole group of Red Hat Ladies, pouring out hot cuppas for team mates at your polo club, or having a quiet little tea time with you, yourself, and a good book.

Omniware is actually the business name of Omni Housewares Inc. whose parent company is CHH Quality Product Inc., founded in 1983. They’re located in Arcadia, California, but the products are made in China. In addition to these stylish teawares, CHH also makes casino game items, clocks, crystals, regular board games, globes, and gumball machines.

The attractiveness of the teapot, which can be in short supply sometimes, inspired the poet in me to mimic Keats with this “Ode on a Hemisphere Teapot”:

Thou most rotund shap’d vessel of teaness!
  Thou foster-child of Potters and Craftsmen,
Trav’ller ’cross oceans to bring sereneness
  To tea time for most devoted quaffsmen.
What bright-hued glow does fill joyous sight
  With citrus chromas orange and yellow
    Bouncing to our eye a ray reflected
  Holding in your shape a liquid mellow
    With one sip a mood from strife affected!

Embrace the tea leaves free and loose within
  That grab the water flowing hot round them
Soon to amber liquid does change begin
  To the eye when poured shines like fluid gem.
And you, dear pot, a stoneware sphere so grand
  Whose looks do temper hearts yet spark loud,
    Your surface gleaming in the light’s rays shine,
  Steeping tea so grand lifting us a-cloud
    Morphed from mortal to being divine.

Beware, this most uniquely designed teapot will have you waxing rhapsodic with the first potful. Toss in Keemun, Darjeeling, or a black Ceylon for some sheer delight. The spherical shape will give you a wonderful steep, and the sleek, modern design with its bright colors will have your mind spinning in poetic circles — “How do I love thee, let me count the tea leaves.”

Have fun!

© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.