Nixing, Jianshui, etc

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StoneLadle
Posts: 347
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 12:19 am
Location: Malaysia

Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:54 am

There are as many pronouns and genders as there are types of tea, perhaps more, but for now, it's good to just focus on the clay and how they keep tea warm...

Chilly from a sudden snow flourish in the ether...
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wave_code
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:48 am

still trying this jianshui pot and looking for a bit of guidance for those who also have used them... also maybe some advice from those who just have a lot of clay experience of any kind.

I'm still unsure if this is a seasoning thing, tea pairing, or just this pot, but I get the sense from what I had read about jianshui this isn't exactly typical behavior. It still seems to be muting things in a negative way to me, sucking all the "middle" flavor out of things. I got the impression from what I read that jianshui can take a really long time to season in the sense of getting a patina or things like that because of the density and often polished outside, but that it shouldn't require a lot of break-in time either because of the density of the clay. so, is my pot just going to behave this way forever? of course everyone has an opinion but I had read quite a lot of favorable things about jianshui particularly for its price point. but of course like any other clay or teaware region or the name of the clay could mean very little in the grand scheme of things- I don't know the workshop this one came from and how good their processing or clay is compared to others.

the pot also has a strong smell every time it gets heated up. it smells like well... clay, but in a way that I'm not sure it should. it has a sort of burning and mineral smell. I have a very trashy "yixing" pot that also has an even stronger but unpleasant muddy sort of clay smell. its almost like pouring boiling water over a cheap terracotta plant pot. my gut tells me that any sort of quality clay would pretty quickly take on a neutral smell. for sure my nixing pot doesn't give anything like this off.

maybe it just isn't matching with my teas, but I'm suspicious its more than that. I just want to make sure I've given it time before contacting the vendor.
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Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:17 am

@wave_code that smell doesn’t sound right to me... as you said yourself it should go away after a few uses.

Sounds like crappy clay. Had this once with some jars off taobao. Decided to not blind order pottery from there anymore, haha
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LeoFox
Posts: 1777
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:01 pm
Location: Washington DC

Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:25 pm

https://www.pageoftea.com/jianshui-zitao

Great read about jian shui. Thank you @aet
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