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Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:59 am
by Teachronicles
So I'm shopping for a storage/display cabinet for my teapots and a lot of the options are wood. I read somewhere (I think it was marshaln's blog but not sure) that teapots, scan absorb odors. Does this sound right? And will that affect tea brewed in the pots?

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:34 am
by Bok
In my own experience not too much, nothing that doesn’t dissapear after a good rinse with hot water.

Not sure about super porous pots… in any case the odour would have to be super strong.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:54 am
by Elise
+1 with Bok’s opinion.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:59 am
by tealifehk
Have you considered a glass display cabinet? All of my Yixings at home are in glass cabinets. It makes it easy to admire them without handling and I can pick which one I intend to use before I open the cabinet!

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:00 am
by Teachronicles
tealifehk wrote:
Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:59 am
Have you considered a glass display cabinet? All of my Yixings at home are in glass cabinets. It makes it easy to admire them without handling and I can pick which one I intend to use before I open the cabinet!
Yea, I was leaning towards a glass one, but wanted to ask anyways.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:26 am
by pedant
cabinets can definitely make your teaware smelly and negatively impact brewing.
leave the cabinet closed for about a day (or at least a few hours) to let potential odors build up inside. then open it and quickly smell.
if there's any kind of a smell, don't use it for your teaware.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:42 am
by Teachronicles
pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:26 am
cabinets can definitely make your teaware smelly and negatively impact brewing.
leave the cabinet closed for about a day (or at least a few hours) to let potential odors build up inside. then open it and quickly smell.
if there's any kind of a smell, don't use it for your teaware.
Does glazed unglazed make a difference in your experience?

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:48 am
by Teachronicles
Teachronicles wrote:
Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:42 am
pedant wrote:
Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:26 am
cabinets can definitely make your teaware smelly and negatively impact brewing.
leave the cabinet closed for about a day (or at least a few hours) to let potential odors build up inside. then open it and quickly smell.
if there's any kind of a smell, don't use it for your teaware.
Does glazed unglazed make a difference in your experience?
I ask cause I don't store any of my yixing unglazed pots in wooden cabinets but do some glazed ones. So far I can't smell anything on the teapots, maybe I'll air them out every so often.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:10 am
by Bok
Glazed would be nearly impossible to absorb odours. The ones that stick will air out quickly.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:13 am
by pedant
in my experience with using an unsuitable cabinet, glazed and unglazed are equally affected.
i could smell the cabinet on my pots and cups i had in there.
Bok wrote:
Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:10 am
Glazed would be nearly impossible to absorb odours. The ones that stick will air out quickly.
odors can adsorb onto glazed and unglazed surfaces alike.
ime, leaving them to air out didn't quickly fix it.

the deposited smelliness could be easily and quickly removed from glazed wares with soap and water, but i didn't want to use soap on unglazed pots.
it took several boiling water rinses, lackluster tea sessions, and a bit of time for those pots to go back to normal. i think they're fine now, no long term harm done.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:33 am
by Bok
Better safe than sorry then! Guess I had never had such a smelly cabinet ;)

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:50 am
by Manttea
Put a chaozhou teapot into it's own cardboard box when I moved away for a bit. It took forever to get rid of the smell, but still performed well. Won't do that again tough.

Re: Can teapots absorb odors?

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 1:03 am
by Bok
I have noticed that packaging sent out of China often have some crazy smells going on! Never mind the weird sort of net-like wrapping they use to pack several packets together – comes with original road dust and sand! Scary stuff.