studio: Chengdexuan, vol: 100ml (to the brim)
The painter doesn't seem as skilled as the one who did the reference pot in the tmall photo (wonky bridge, flagellated stones, water serpents instead of serpentines, mountain boobs, etc.).
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But the pot still manages to be striking somehow, mostly due to the intensity of the blue. It's by far the cheapest pot available from the company's tmall store, so maybe that explains the painting. At least I can be sure it's hand painted
The lid hole doesn't reach the top of the knob but bends sideways. Looks gimmicky but works well for me, avoiding the need for finger tactics when things get very hot.
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Overall, it feels nice & makes good tea. I thought maybe it'd be too small (cooling too quickly) for my high mountain oolong sessions but no issues so far. If anything, I concentrate more on the taste and aromas when drinking smaller cups than what I'm used to with my 140ml M&L pot.
It's less translucent than the M&L pot and a bit heavier (but, unlike M&L's pot, doesn't feature a large hole at the bottom of the filter, so it's more versatile):
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The blue is very pleasant, even if the pics can't quite show it.
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Looks like it will become my goto pot for most teas, along with the M&L. I seem to prefer porcelain for anything other than sencha.
Is it worth the price? Probably not, if you're happy with a cheaper porcelain pot. But if you're bothered by the rough, porous unglazed clay around lid/rim of AliExpress & similar porcelain pots (that can be smelly, too), bad pour/surface imperfections, etc.--this is a nice upgrade. The snow white bare clay around rim/lid is even smoother than M&L's pot--it can be difficult to tell it's not glazed. I guess you can have these things (sans the painting) for just a couple of bucks, if you know exactly where to source it, but I don't (& like the blue paintings), so it works for me.
Got a cheap Zheng Shan Tang-branded Dehua gawain to travel along with this pot (tmall link: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=643889964570). Best gaiwan I've used by far--widely flared, no burns, and with a pleasant pour (didn't know gaiwans could have a nice pour but this one has). Looks identical to one recommended on this forum previously, sold by TWL (but sold out)--even if TWL's says JDZ (not Dehua).
Buying quite expensive piece which doesn't correspond with presented photograph and receiving something about what not being sure it's even hand painted with conclusion that probably not worth that much money. And on top of that , buying from TM ( which I assumed, for foreigners it is the platform for sourcing very cheap stuff but not some artisan pieces ).