ferg wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 12:17 pm
Hello Andrew. As suggested, I’ve taken many ‘before’ pictures. Went a little snap happy.
Curious if you have any input on this silver smudging on top of lid. Almost resembles a fingerprint, of some type of slurry. Apparently, an attempt has already been made to remove. It’s been further suggested I sodium percarbonate the thing and then try to use a magic eraser. I worry doing so could cause the outer coating to also come off.
I welcome any input you may have.
Ha, I'm not a source of knowledge; I'm only just starting to learn myself.
Like others have said, feel free to try to clean it off, but also feel free to start brewing away in it and get to know your pot. I like how 'honest' these old pots look, and some chips and marks seem perfectly consistent with that.
Teaware pages can sometimes look like they're only about the teaware and not about the tea that they brew, but you should try some different teas in your pot and let us know how you go.
I've had great experiences with both heavily-roasted yancha and lightly-roasted yancha in my few examples, plus some other kinds of tea that I've tried, but that's mostly a reflection on what I brew.
I used to assume that CZ pots were too 'porous', 'muting' etc, but it really is more complex than that. I've found that nice clay doesn't mute tea, but instead interacts with it, and it's fun to learn how it makes teas present themselves differently.
Andrew