The minimum
White tea asks for less ware than almost any other category, and that is a fact rather than a sales line.
One glass cup of 250 ml, a strainer and a kettle will produce a correct cup of Silver Needle.
A porcelain gaiwan of 100 ml is the other honest answer, and it gives you more control over the pour.
Glass shows the needles standing upright, and that is the part of white tea worth watching.
Water at 85 °C suits young leaf, and freshly boiled water suits anything pressed or aged.
A thermometer settles the question in seconds, and it costs less than a sample bag of the tea.
A strainer is not optional with Shou Mei, since the leaf is large, loose and full of broken bits.
One cup is enough, and a second one is only worth buying when you start comparing samples.
Skip the scoop, the tongs, the mat and the brush until a session makes you reach for them.
Aged white tea can be simmered in a small pan, and a pan you already own will do.
Compressed white cake needs a pick to separate it, and a table knife does that job badly.
Four pieces plus a kettle cover every white tea from a fresh bud grade to a ten year old cake.
Add as you go
A fairness pitcher is the first addition worth making, since white tea pours unevenly from a gaiwan.
The first cup from a gaiwan is weak and the last is thick, and a pitcher blends the two.
Choose one around 200 ml, which takes a full gaiwan without leaving you swilling it about.
A scale reading to 0.1 g comes next, and it changes more than any piece of ware.
Silver Needle is light and bulky, so 5 grams looks like far more leaf than you expect.
Weighing removes the argument, and it makes a session repeatable the following week.
A second cup turns one brew into a comparison of two samples side by side.
Two small cups are enough, and they cost very little in plain porcelain.
A tea tray（茶盘）earns its place once you are warming the ware and discarding rinse water.
A pick for compressed cake matters earlier here than elsewhere, because white cake is common.
Aged white tea can also be steeped in a thermos, and a 500 ml one is cheaper than a pot.
Add the clay pot last, and only after you know which white teas you actually drink.
Where to spend
Put the budget into the leaf first, because white tea varies in price by a factor of ten.
A cake of Shou Mei costs a few dollars, and good Silver Needle costs several times that.
Temperature control comes second, since a brew at 100 °C will flatten a young bud grade.
A kettle with a dial or a probe thermometer, either one, and the problem is solved.
A plain porcelain gaiwan in that size needs no brand name and no decoration.
Check the lid fits, because a loose lid on a thin walled gaiwan burns the hand holding it.
Boxed sets of a dozen pieces are poor value, and most of the contents never leave the shelf.
The cloth, the brush and the tongs are for a style of brewing you may never take up.
Glass is cheap and neutral, so buy it in a thickness that survives a knock.
Thin glass breaks and thick glass holds heat badly, so aim between the two and move on.
A pot sold as zisha（紫砂）for under twenty dollars is almost never hand built clay.
Three pieces you use daily beat a display cabinet you wipe once a month.
One set, many teas
One porcelain gaiwan covers white, green and yellow without any argument between them.
All three sit under 90 °C, and none leaves a residue that porcelain cannot be rinsed clean of.
Glass does the same work, and with a needle grade it shows you something worth seeing.
Keep a separate vessel only for the teas that need boiling water and long steeps.
Aged white, dark tea and compressed pu-erh all want 100 °C and can share one pot.
What they cannot share is unglazed clay, which takes up whatever it was last used for.
A zisha（紫砂）pot used on aged Shou Mei will taste of it for years afterwards.
That is a feature once you have settled on one tea, and a nuisance before then.
The measurement that matters stays the same: 5 grams in 100 ml, and taste as you go.
Hold 30 seconds on the first infusion of a young white tea, and longer on an aged one.
A cake that has been stored for years needs a rinse before the first real pour.
One neutral vessel, a scale and a thermometer, and the category opens up without a cupboard of gear.