Looking to pair some pots. Ideas on where to begin?

[OCTO]

My tea choices are of course my tea preferences. But it’s also a good way to judge what the tea can do, for fruit and floral and in general oolong roast layers or a bit of earth, astringency and puer depth. It’s the first thing I look for if the pot seems more of a fit for one or the other. The method leads to relaxing times and gives you a chance to go through a madding process of trade-offs and subtilties. I do drink some green-er Taiwanese oolongs, but they can overwhelm the pot and I found the Jianshui pot I bought from Bitterleaf works best for them anyway.

@gld

Yes, that's the way to go. You will find that your expectations and preferences will change over time. Like I've always said.... its a fun journey.

Cheers!!

[Pants404]

I personally have a few pots from Lukevecent. I find the pots he sells are modern blends which don't stand up to the typical descriptions of the clays. This is definitely not a negative comment, but more of a generalisation. All of his pots except one required a decent amount of use to show their character, rather than muting the flavours.

Oh, ok, that's very helpful to know. Thank you for sharing. Could you perhaps share with me what kind of clays yours are (or he listed them as) and what you ended up pairing them with? I understand that the particular knowledge you gathered will most likely not apply to my case, but it would be super interesting to get a look into your process.

The pot that I had the greatest success with was what he called zhaozhuang zhuni. This duoqui pot highlighted the sweetness and high notes of Dian Hong better than a porcelain gaiwan. The other pots were jiangponi and duanni, which I pretty much just ended up using for shou. I may join in with this teapot matching fun to see if any pots would favour a different tea.

[Rmt]

Interesting topic! I got a few different pots and was thinking of checking if I had paired them optimally. Nice to have a way to go about and actually do it without drinking more tea than I can manage in one go. My pairings are very broad though: dark oolong, light oolong and shu. Unsure about the oolong pairings. Haven't got a whole lot of puerh variety and my sheng I mostly steep in a gaiwan or in a pitcher.

I also got a Lukevecent duanni pot ("qingduanni" whatever that is) that I ended up using for shu. It muted the tastes a lot when I first got it. Nice oolongs turned dull in it. Regardless of what clay it is, it's a pot that also illustrates the difficulties in capturing the actual colour of a pot in photos. In the listing it looked pale yellow, irl it looked grey and after a year of use it's grey with golden/reddish sheen. In my photos it often looks almost brown...

[gradiva]

I personally have a few pots from Lukevecent. I find the pots he sells are modern blends which don't stand up to the typical descriptions of the clays. This is definitely not a negative comment, but more of a generalisation. All of his pots except one required a decent amount of use to show their character, rather than muting the flavours.

Oh, ok, that's very helpful to know. Thank you for sharing. Could you perhaps share with me what kind of clays yours are (or he listed them as) and what you ended up pairing them with? I understand that the particular knowledge you gathered will most likely not apply to my case, but it would be super interesting to get a look into your process.

The pot that I had the greatest success with was what he called zhaozhuang zhuni. This duoqui pot highlighted the sweetness and high notes of Dian Hong better than a porcelain gaiwan. The other pots were jiangponi and duanni, which I pretty much just ended up using for shou. I may join in with this teapot matching fun to see if any pots would favour a different tea.

Hey, thank you for your reply. Do you by any chance know or remember the name of the artist/artisan(s) of your pots? Or perhaps you'd be willing to share pictures of them? And yes, do join in the matching games! I started yesterday. Jotted down some notes, will post when I have a larger window to write. Cheers!

[gradiva]

First congratulations on starting a robust thread. My tea choices are of course my tea preferences. But it’s also a good way to judge what the tea can do, for fruit and floral and in general oolong roast layers or a bit of earth, astringency and puer depth. It’s the first thing I look for if the pot seems more of a fit for one or the other. The method leads to relaxing times and gives you a chance to go through a madding process of trade-offs and subtilties. I do drink some green-er Taiwanese oolongs, but they can overwhelm the pot and I found the Jianshui pot I bought from Bitterleaf works best for them anyway.


If you zhuni is new from mud and leaves I’ll be curious about it in particular. From what I have read the modern zhuni is not as porous and different from vintage. Possibly like my jianshui will work well with everything. My best yixing beat the Jianshui in oolong and puer, but it was closer than I’d like to admit. On the positive side it has lessened my yixing envy (for now).

Yes, that makes sense. I ended up choosing a very fruity Taiwanese green oolong to start with yesterday. Notes coming up. I'll make sure to be extra detailed around the ML zhuni in particular. I'll continue with a sheng today.

[OCTO]

@sporad

Looking forward.

[gradiva]

So last night I started with a Taiwanese green oolong that I received as a gift. I assume it’s High Mountain. Perhaps somebody can confirm it or correct me.

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The Zhuni Wen Dan performed the best by a mile. It brought out the fruity flavors and aromatics and made it all-around richer than the porcelain brew, while the rest of the pots pretty much killed it. Looking through the notes, it’s pretty much the same levels of muting with the DCQ, Zini and Duanni, with the Jiangponi being the worst offender.

Planning to do this Sheng next. Any suggestions on brewing times?

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And wondering, @Bok, @OCTO, @gld: after one green oolong and one sheng, should I move on to a different type? (I am a big dark oolong drinker, btw, particularly Taiwanese.)

[Balthazar]

The photos aren't showing up here...

[gradiva]

The photos aren't showing up here...

Can you see them now?

[Balthazar]

Yep!

[Bok]

So far your findings make sense. Jiangponi I have found to be a tricky clay, almost good for nothing... in my experience and with the teas I like. Could work with Sheng.

The Dicaoqing I wouldn’t completely disregard, it might need a while with the same tea to show its potential.

[gradiva]

So far your findings make sense. Jiangponi I have found to be a tricky clay, almost good for nothing... in my experience and with the teas I like. Could work with Sheng.

The Dicaoqing I wouldn’t completely disregard, it might need a while with the same tea to show its potential.

I can imagine the jiangponi being very good with smoky oolongs or blacks, or with funky or super astringent puerhs...

I am thinking to do a TGY to see how that goes, but first the Bingdao sheng. Or what do you think?

[gradiva]

Interesting topic! I got a few different pots and was thinking of checking if I had paired them optimally. Nice to have a way to go about and actually do it without drinking more tea than I can manage in one go. My pairings are very broad though: dark oolong, light oolong and shu. Unsure about the oolong pairings. Haven't got a whole lot of puerh variety and my sheng I mostly steep in a gaiwan or in a pitcher.

I also got a Lukevecent duanni pot ("qingduanni" whatever that is) that I ended up using for shu. It muted the tastes a lot when I first got it. Nice oolongs turned dull in it. Regardless of what clay it is, it's a pot that also illustrates the difficulties in capturing the actual colour of a pot in photos. In the listing it looked pale yellow, irl it looked grey and after a year of use it's grey with golden/reddish sheen. In my photos it often looks almost brown...

Hey! Welcome!
Are you more a light or dark oolong person?
About that qingduanni pot, did it mute both lights and darks?
I would love to see a pic. At least to see the shape and to try to imagine the actual color.

[Rmt]

Interesting topic! I got a few different pots and was thinking of checking if I had paired them optimally. Nice to have a way to go about and actually do it without drinking more tea than I can manage in one go. My pairings are very broad though: dark oolong, light oolong and shu. Unsure about the oolong pairings. Haven't got a whole lot of puerh variety and my sheng I mostly steep in a gaiwan or in a pitcher.

I also got a Lukevecent duanni pot ("qingduanni" whatever that is) that I ended up using for shu. It muted the tastes a lot when I first got it. Nice oolongs turned dull in it. Regardless of what clay it is, it's a pot that also illustrates the difficulties in capturing the actual colour of a pot in photos. In the listing it looked pale yellow, irl it looked grey and after a year of use it's grey with golden/reddish sheen. In my photos it often looks almost brown...

Hey! Welcome!
Are you more a light or dark oolong person?
About that qingduanni pot, did it mute both lights and darks?
I would love to see a pic. At least to see the shape and to try to imagine the actual color.

Thanks for the welcome!
It muted everything tbh. Quickly dedicated it to shu. I haven’t got any good pics of it showing colour or design. It’s the second one from the left/bottom in these pics. Can take some better pics tomorrow, too dark to take some tonight. Will try to find lukevecents pics from the listing too.




I thought I preferred darker oolongs, but I’ve come to drink both dark and light oolongs with equal pleasure. At the moment I have better light oolongs than dark, but I have a plan to stock up on new tea once the 2020 harvest becomes available/ems shipping gets more reliable. Been waiting seven weeks on some teacups I ordered at this point...

[gradiva]

Thanks @Rmt!
The pics look pretty good, I think.
Oh, and you got a Gong Chun! I have been looking around for a tiny one that I would actually use instead of just have for show. Have you paired it yet? What about the others?