Yixing / Clay pot purchase advice within EU

[Maerskian]

Maerskian not sure if this is still available but the second one is under 100: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1799
A private parcel if not send via DHL or similar might slip under the radar...

Thanks. LeoFox already pointed me to that thread however ... for starters i'm looking for something closer/around 200ml capable of holding 18-20gr leaf , wide shape if possible so the leaf can expand.

Ultimately i'm postponing any potential pot purchase for 2023, this years budget will be focused on buying mostly sheng & foreseeing i'll need as much as i can save based on my calculations.

Next year however will certainly be different volume-wise so that'll be the time to go back to it.

Thanks everybody for your help, may your tea sessions be plenty & positively surprising

[Bok]

closer/around 200ml capable of holding 18-20gr leaf , wide shape if possible so the leaf can expand.

200ml and more width will matter little in helping the leaves to expand, it's large enough for any sized leaves. With that ratio, no wonder you need more cash to buy tea

[Maerskian]

closer/around 200ml capable of holding 18-20gr leaf , wide shape if possible so the leaf can expand.

200ml and more width will matter little in helping the leaves to expand, it's large enough for any sized leaves.

Hmmm... not entirely sure. Some of those ever-tricky dragon balls can surprise you with giant-sized ones, same as some bings. Right now i have certain Xi Zi Hao cake in mind covered with really large leaves ( on the outer layer at the very least ) .

With that ratio, no wonder you need more cash to buy tea

I might have this wrong... but didn't you go with that amount of leaf every once in a while?

Have been trying to find my ideal ratio over these past few years, in the end settled on 18-20gr for sheng ( the one i drink the most ) . Went way over it quite a few times but ended up badly ( sleepless night ) . Last episode was 40grams leaf ( one of those strong sha qing shengs ) on a 550ml purion pot for me & my wife... long story short, she threatened me with "consequences" if i ever served her anything like that again ( extremely high hear rate, sleepless night, mind spinning... )

My initial project was to buy enough tea for 40 years but my ratio was lower when i did the math and my wife was just a casual drinker back then, now also drink it daily ( favors shu & hei cha over any other ) .

Thought i was done when i reached 200kg, then the new goal became 292Kg + some extra dozens ( anticipating potential fails & other factors ) which i'm about to reach/surpass with my next large order... now i need to expand further & focus on the shu department ( hei cha is becoming quite pricey these days ) foreseeing my wife's future needs .

[Bok]

@Maerskian but I get my teas probably a lot cheaper, closer to the source and all…

I used to do high leaf ratio on larger pots before (120-150ish), but back then I drank teas at half or third of the price that I’m drinking now… which is why I’ve mainly switched to 60-90ml pots max. 4-8g in that volume on average.

[Maerskian]

Maerskian but I get my teas probably a lot cheaper, closer to the source and all…

Fully aware of it. Arguably that's one of the first realities the vast majority of western drinkers usually need to deal with, accept, move on & develop some kind of inner rules regarding purchasing practices, prices, etc... fitting each particular situation.

Granted, sometimes pricing becomes quite relative and you can find fairly priced decent teas on the western market on those strange cases where prices suddenly raise quickly on the asian market with western ones being out of the loop ( or simply those few stores that doesn't "update" prices ) like the now famous early LaoManEr factory LBZ cakes years ago, the more recent Fangmingyuan case where those cakes were more expensive at their Beijing store than Tea-Encounter's or even some decent cakes fairly priced cakes ( Mangfei laoshu, Hekai & Kunlu gushu sheng from Farmer-Leaf's golden years when they were known as... BannaCha i think ? ) on the Euro market and well below asian market's prices the moment i grabbed 'em. Certainly not the norm but it can happen.

I used to do high leaf ratio on larger pots before (120-150ish), but back then I drank teas at half or third of the price that I’m drinking now… which is why I’ve mainly switched to 60-90ml pots max. 4-8g in that volume on average.

It's a natural reaction.

At first was also concerned about using too much leaf ... and then concluded: "life's too short to be restricted to too little leaf" ( if the 20's decade we're living doesn't burn this lesson with symbolic lava on our minds nothing else will ), so i just go along with taste, satisfaction & tolerance levels.

I do have three 100ml pots ( one ceramic , two purion ) for the usual extra samples i get or any other weird-sized/shaped tea gifts received. Some of 'em are small ( 7-10gr ) so i need to use those pots ( needless to say, for 5gr samples will go with gaiwan ) to keep something close to 1gr/10ml, however... must confess i also must resource to those tiny pots when using the kind of tea i don't have much of it around ( from custom-size samples around 40gr i need for further reference... therefore i need to split 'em, or the usual tea i don't have much around & it's already sold out, more expensive tea... )

[Bok]

"life's too short to be restricted to too little leaf", so i just go along with taste, satisfaction & tolerance levels.

That's the essence really. My exact same thinking

[Maerskian]

"life's too short to be restricted to too little leaf", so i just go along with taste, satisfaction & tolerance levels.

That's the essence really. My exact same thinking

Sometimes feel quite the paradox to pay attention to so many factors that could be affecting our tea to the point that - from an outsider's perpsective - can feel like some demented obsession ( once again, from a non-tea person's point of view ) : theories, tools, brewing methods, timing perfection, decorations, all kind of references, papers & studies pointing to ideal levels of X or Y, water recipes, storage tricks ( granted these last two become vital the moment you lack acceptable conditions to begin with )...

And then you kinda - metaphorically - throw everything through the window and go with your own impressions becoming a more natural process ( what it should have been from the very start ) .

Probably a parallel with the way humans evolve, the moment you walk on your own then you're an adult.

@pedant , @Victoria
Makes me wonder if Teaforum would benefit of an added "tea age" profile stat being so similar to how we grow. Undeniably "pace" is a factor ( not the same to learn about tea daily for years on a daily basis than reading something once... then leaving everything ... then going back some years afterwards ) but in a way could help.

At 5.5 yrs old i certainly consider myself to be still a "child" ( been tempted to go for the easy "cha" wordplay here ) and would have to pay more attention from those ever cocky "teanagers" ( sorry, couldn't help it this time ) sharing their experiences talking about the tea-world ... but then, when adulteas speak... we better listen, let alone elders ( if we're even honored to have somebody with so many decades of experience drinking tea ) .

Arguably one of those rare moments where plenty people would rather be considered "old".

I'm guessing some birth date entry form function should be available, only it would be used for the day we were born into tea . Just a thought in the air.