TeaForum.org

As for the actual teas. Some are truly outstanding (and amazing finds), like the recent Keemun and Yixing reds, whereas some are not really all that interesting (which jars with how hard they cheerlead), like this month's Shou or the "Elevation" Taiwanese Assam they praise so fiercely. I had dismis...

Jin Jun Mei is a relatively new style, coming from the same region of Wuyishan as Zhengshan Xiaozhong (Lapsang Souchong). It uses the same bushes as ZSXZ (usually "caicha", a nonspecific category of local varietals that I believe has evolved a fair amount of heterogeneity over time, though I've seen...

Definitely be conscious of mouthfeel, and try to choose a tea with very strong Qi.

The site looks great, and I'm looking forward to placing an order in a few minutes. Your blog has some great information. One thing I noticed is that there's a lot of overlap between some of the teas, and it would be helpful to have the differences better explained. For different years of the "same"...

Fully agreed that their dogma is a bit off-putting. I'm all for meditation, but I do think you can produce just about as good a cup with an electric kettle and filtered tap water as you can with a charcoal-fire clay kettle and spring water stored with stones in it. And Wu De definitely raises some f...

While I am on it, if you ever come to Taiwan and are tempted to buy one of Chacha teas ( https://www.chachathe.com/eng/ )pretty tea packagings – don‘t. They are pretty because that is where they spent their money on, not on the tea. The pastries they sell alongside are straight terrible. The teas a...

There was a green patina forming on the bottom of my pot, which is still visible in the pictures. However, what is concerning me is the purplish undertone that is starting to form both in the very center of the pot and streaks on the inner right of the pot as well. The inside of the pot now smells ...

My comments were based on reading about the pot on the Thes-du-Japon site. There’s a photo of the interior of the pot and it appears to be the brown of unglazed banko Clay and there’s no mention of wood firing. I’ve been looking at banko pots more closely because I’ve seen references to it being a ...

if it is wood fired (fired at high temperature from 3days to several weeks), the clay will become as sealed as a glazed pot. Yes, though it depends to an extent on clay composition. YiXing, for example, is high-fired to I think cone 11 or 12, but from what I read doesn't vitrify fully due to mica c...

Janice wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 25, 2017 4:13 pm

Very nice pot. It looks unglazed inside, so you get any benefits that brewing in banko clay provides.

Nope, it's actually got the same ash glaze inside that you see on the outside. That was the appeal.

Yeah, I wanted to avoid porcelain if possible. Most of my other teaware is porcelain, and since I'll be using this kyusu for longer steeps (not quite western, closer to competition brewing) I wanted the heat retention of stoneware. I ended up going with http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php?main_pa...

I tried a few of their teas earlier on in my journey - a concubine, an alishan, and a roasted dong ding - and while they seemed good then, they seem pretty average now. Not bad, mind you, but far inferior to what I've gotten from Tea Masters, Taiwan Tea Craft, HY Chen, etc.

Thanks Victoria. How will I know if a pot is made of high-fire, low-porosity clay? I hope to be able to brew a malty red and a delicate green back to back in the same pot with just a rinse, without any coloration.

I'd like to get a sidehandle-style kyusu to use with a wide variety of teas. So that, I believe, means internally glazed. I was looking for something around 250ml and not too much more than $125 or so. I've found a few things, but none that quite fit the bill.

Any leads?