I have a silver pot that I absolutely adore. It was purchased from Yunnan Sourcing for $420. This is the only western facing vendor I have seen that regularly has stock. Crimson lotus sells them, but stock appears limited. I have seen them on ebay, but they look similar and priced similar to YS. I would love to hear about other vendors. I did contact a maker in china that was asking $900 for a similar sized pot. I wonder why the prices are so different.
I began pursuing silver for the exact opposite reason that we all like yixing. Yixing takes on the properties of all the tea that has been through it. It rounds out tea and tends to cover up some of the flaws that a tea may have. Why would I want to always do that?! I have spent a great amount of time searching for the highest quality teas that I can get my hands on. I want to put them under a microscope and know exactly what they are. The good and the bad. I have heard that silver makes water taste sweeter. I have tested this, and it does not seem to work on me.
I have had mine for about a year and a half. I have primarily been using it with gaoshan, and comparing it with porcelain and high fired clay. Clay and silver are like 2 different worlds. I sometimes have trouble telling the difference between 2 teas with clay. “was this Lishan or Alishan?”. I find that porcelain and silver, while more similar are still very different. Silver for me tends to make the tea much sharper, bringing forward the high notes. I feel that it also tends to make the tea a bit smoother. I can brew a little longer than porcelain without getting bitter. I find that I will notice things more clearly than with porcelain. Sometimes I will notice a feature to a flavor with silver that I didnt notice with porcelain, and I will go back to porcelain and realize that it is there, just more subtle. Sometimes they are good, sometimes not, but always interesting! I do find that this sometimes overpowers the creaminess I get with some teas.
I find that brewing parameters are a little different as well. Silver heats up very quickly and loses that heat very quickly. This helps to make sure that you don’t get that steaming effect that can sometimes happen. Ive also found that the extra liveliness I get with silver takes a toll on the longevity. I find that the leaves lose their flavor for me a steep earlier than with porcelain. This is with gaoshan which I find doesn’t have great longevity anyway.
I bet a lot of people look at the price and think “I can get 1 or 2 nice yixings for that price”
You sure can. But you will dedicate it to one tea. If you drop it…well, lets not even talk about that
