Two Cups Pulled From a Set of Five
In the winter of 2015, Baoputang designed a set of five cups, each one carrying a different two- or four-character phrase, each phrase naming a different way of approaching a drink: 一滴入魂 ("one drop, into the soul"), 君幸酒 ("cheers to wine"), 君幸茶 ("cheers to tea"), 不予 ("not given"), and 留白无字 ("blank, no words"). Five cups, five small philosophies of drinking — the set became known as the 五客, the Five Guests.
For one Chinese New Year, two of the five — 一滴入魂 and 君幸酒 — were pulled out of the set and given their own life: a dedicated wine-pairing pair, packaged in a custom brocade box, made for sharing a New Year's drink with someone across the table. Each cup is hand-thrown and hand-painted in Jingdezhen, the glaze left thick enough to carry a soft sheen, the rim finished so it doesn't drip after the last sip — the four characters written on in cinnabar-red clerical script, the one detail meant to catch the eye first.
Out of a set built around five different ways to think about a cup in hand, these are the two that got to travel separately — repackaged not as tea, but as wine, for a holiday that's mostly about pouring for someone else.