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While some of the usual suspects on here have already been really helpful with starting to educate me in this area, I thought maybe it was worth having a specific thread here to talk about this category of clay so we can all learn and share experiences and photos. Despite drinking almost only fermented teas and having gotten more and more into wet stored teas over the years for some reason I still haven't tried out this clay, so I've been trying to get myself up to speed a bit before deciding to try anything out. 'Duan ni' seems to be as wide a net to cast as just saying zini - thus the 'and friends' which I guess would consider Jiangponi and perhaps other odd ore mixtures I don't even know about. Though the percentage of Duan ni seems to often be quite low in jianponi, it being a pretty fluctuating mix I figure it makes as much sense to include it here as it would when discussing zini or hongni since some batches do appear much more orange/yellow than others.

Elephant in the room here as always being that there are vast differences between antique/vintage, factory era, and different modern batches of Duan ni due to composition and mining location, firing, so on... I am yet to have experience with any so comparisons or information on anything is great.

Various bits I have collected from around through reading and other info so please feel free to correct/add/so on...

Ben Shan generally seems to refer to specifically a blend from Huang Long no.4 mine and its a blend of duan ni, lüni, and possibly also some zini clay which when fired is light greyish yellow in color and on the sandier side. Lüni being a rarer pure or less mixed type of duan ni with less iron and is softer and lighter in color. Huangjin being a category of rarer darker colored duan ni that seems more grainy and orange after firing.

There also seem of course to be various proprietary blends between different studios and makers - Yann Art gallery having a very orange 'Old Golden Duanni' that they say imitates that of Qing pots and is aged - whether this mean imitates appearance or more its character imparted on tea I don't know. They also have a "Lao duanni" which is aged for less time but is, it sounds like, older ore. Their 'Snow Duanni' is I am guessing maybe Lüni?

Another blend is the 'Colorful Duanni' used by Hui Xiang Yun - very expensive but conceivably at least available to those with the pockets made accessible to us in the west via Essence Of Tea - really remarkable and amazing looking grainy yellow red and orange clay that has the effect like seeing granulated color separation in watercolors.

Whether Jiangponi posseses any of the more muting effects for storage or smoke like Duanni is known for maybe someone else can shed some light on this or whether they would classify it as behaving more like Zini.

The further back in time we go I am guessing the less specific we have of these different clays/blends and we probably start talking about some very different behaving clay...

I think that this is an interesting topic; thank you for mentioning it.

My vague impression is that we hear about old zhuni a lot, and about factory hongni and zini a lot, but not much about duanni (possibly because it isn't shiny like zhuni, and they didn't mass produce shuiping shapes from it during the factory era).

For my part, I only have two duanni pots so far, both quite large; one decorative factory pot from the 70s (from what I was told), and the other an LQER pot (this one: viewtopic.php?p=41047#p41047 and viewtopic.php?p=41781#p41781).

Both have been excellent for high mountain tea and fresh white tea, but I appreciate that I may be a bit strange in my preferences in that regard. I did try each of them with some old loose puer, and some more roasted teas, but it felt like they brought about a sense of freshness with lighter teas which did not work as well with the heavier teas.

I look forward to hearing from others (and seeing some nice photos, of course).

Andrew

@Andrew S not strange at all - I do use Duanni for greener teas like Gaoshan and Baozhong myself. It’s not unheard of among Taiwanese tea drinkers. The other popular choice is factory Puerh, but neither do I drink these nor do I want to imagine the stains it would leave…

Duanni is also less heard of as it’s simply less available (for old pots). The few that pop up are sought after and expensive. I’d guess prob 1 in 100, thereabouts.

I think I have posted this pic already, but it fits: three shades of Duanni on same sized pots from LQER.

This pot is what some call Baini. Duanni with probably Baini blended in.

Benshan Lüni and ROC Duanni.

The one on the left is also Duanni, reduction fired.

Thanks for the photos @Andrew S and @Bok - lovely pots. just from a purely visual perspective I love the grain and color palette this clay produces.

I have noticed how rare older duan ni is - I'm guessing under old firing methods it being a more sandy clay it was difficult to work with or broke quite often? Given its availability I have the feeling I'll be trying out a modern pot.

Bok wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 4:16 am

I think I have posted this pic already, but it fits: three shades of Duanni on same sized pots from LQER.

salivating...

wonderful thread!! love 'em yellow rainbow pots... Brilliant clay that is amazingly honest, yet keeps the final chapter hidden from sight. Keep those lovely pots coming....

wave_code wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 4:37 am

Thanks for the photos Andrew S and Bok - lovely pots. just from a purely visual perspective I love the grain and color palette this clay produces.

I have noticed how rare older duan ni is - I'm guessing under old firing methods it being a more sandy clay it was difficult to work with or broke quite often? Given its availability I have the feeling I'll be trying out a modern pot.

Good post! Duanni is a very nice clay type... it is a bit less common than zini (although there are many different grades of zini, really top zini is also not so common)

in ROC you can find some examples, the most frequent shape usually found in a smaller size is the julunzhu:
Because of its lighter color duanni was often used for teapots with carvings:
Sometimes it creates an "old paper" effect:

The teapots with carvings are usually a bit larger, 200ml+
Sometimes in the larger pots it is processed to a very fine grain:

Wow, such lovely pots with a beautiful texture!!! @Andrew S, @Bok, @steanze

My little sponge bob ... a brutally honest pot which I use often with aged oolong.

OCTO wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 19, 2022 7:28 am

My little sponge bob ... a brutally honest pot which I use often with aged oolong.

Wow looks amazing with the chicken!!!