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...so that's the story anyway
https://www.pageoftea.com/yixing-teapot-sourcing

Idiots boil their teapot.

I like this part

Nice write-up as usual, recommended reading for anyone interested in Yixing.

I also enjoyed reading your post. It confirmed my reluctance to buy a yixing pot, given that it's almost impossible to verify the clay. My next pot will probably be from Hojo or Inge Nielsen.

I look forward to hearing about your trip to Jingdezhen. Maybe you can explain why it's so hard to find small porcelain teapots.

Thanks everyone for reading!

It would probably make a sense to buy some older one and I was tempted when offered the 80's teapot from F1 woman.
However , I had a doubting issue with that one as the pot on surface looked old ( and here husband said he is using it sometimes ) , it had those black lines of tea patina in lines etc. , but inside was very clean. I could see and feel with finger the rough lines of clay. There was a one , from the tool I guess, which was like unintentional , like the surface of baked bread when crust is bursting by heat. I'd expect there would be at leas some of "cha gao" piled up by this time , but also very clean. The price was quite steep and sort of similar pots on TB are like for 99CNY I would hate my self for it rest of my life ;DDD

I know that generally a vendor makes video o writes blog to make some business from that. Like " I went there , sourced from the production and they are all great, buy it now ! ". My blog is like: " stay away fro this " , but I still sell them on shop ;D Probably doesn't make any sense what I am doing. The true is, the clay there , from wherever they source it , Is much different from other clays and it have more influence on tea than some Jianshui , Nixing , Chaozhou etc. That's the main reason we went there.

I think , I'd probably would be able to obtain some local clay and make our potter to do stuff from it, but it would cost me like a week being there ( at least for the first time before I get all ropes ) . Same as Puerh , it is The Business and can't expect locals to give you all intel. In one producing clay company workers didn't want to talk to us. I asked , I want to buy a clay and they weren't willing to give me the boss contact so he can make money? The other clay producer also haven't passed us any direct deal contact, but at least brought us to his friend ( from his hometown, coz they're both not locals. ) who makes pots from his clay So they kinda keep their **it together ;D

What I still haven't grasped is the clay location "misinformation" ( aka lie ) and karma consequences in their heads.
Like with a tea , vendors kinda "get away" ( or at least they think they do ) with Gushu claim as:
1. No official age of tree specification for this label ( so for you it's 300y , but for me could be 50y , so I'm not lying )
2. A Bing Dao which comes from far far village, but still is in Lincang? ( still in my BD understanding area )
3. Passing the claim responsibility on tea farmer / producer ( so I'm not lying again ) .
Clay :
1.Full handmade claim on slab half handmade ? ( I'm using my hands in that slab as well , so it's full hand made ) . Although I kept asking explicitly about that as well.
2. Claiming that clay is from local mine knowing it comes from the place 300km away? ( still in very my Yixing understanding area )
3. Passing the claim responsibility on wholesale clay producer and supplier ?

Nobody lies because they like lying to people but because this "bending truth" helps them to make a sale and so to survive in such a competitive place ( as it's with puerh tea) . My target was to understand that so can avoid it and get something reasonable on our shop. I wasn't chasing an ultimate truth and ultimate real Zisha , but just good teapots from decent clay for money that our clients can afford even with our humble margin on it.

Everybody there have the special teapot torch ( with rounded end light ) and dentist mirror ( to check inside rim around opening ) exactly for that reason ( to check if full handmade ) . Yet, they were laughing at me when I was thoughtfully checking each piece.

And of course common concept of "everybody is teapot maker" . When we were in one master's studio, around 2hrs drinking tea and chat, in that time came probably 20 different people pickup one or few teapots for life streaming. They borrow a teapot, life stream it , if sell , then they send him money. If not, they return the teapot and try different one.
He told us with kind of sad face, that now it's like this, just one or few pieces at the time. Apparently before Covid , it was like hundred pieces batches were sold every day.

Anyway. Jingdezhen is also interesting . Probably will write after Xmas orders done.

Thanks again for reading and support!

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 12:58 pm

It confirmed my reluctance to buy a yixing pot, given that it's almost impossible to verify the clay.

I'm not a specialist to say that like Zi Ni from the Yixing area is way better than from other place in China. I think this country is very rich in rare earths and minerals , so it makes sense that other mines are used for pottery production. Yixing was just one which became famous at the time.
With tea , I can say for sure that nice Bulang shan doesn't come only from the LBZ . You can get also nice tea from different villages around for fraction of the price.
If not sold as LBZ and with fair price, to me it's ok.
The issue with Yixing is , that those teapots are made in Yixing, so they have the name Yixing.
Our goal was to get a well made teapots with different clay than we have so far. The clay which has effect on taste of the tea more the others.
What I'm trying to say is, you don't need to focus only on LBZ if you want to have Bulang taste tea.
Just a thought.

aet wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 9:59 pm

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 12:58 pm

It confirmed my reluctance to buy a yixing pot, given that it's almost impossible to verify the clay.

I'm not a specialist to say that like Zi Ni from the Yixing area is way better than from other place in China. I think this country is very rich in rare earths and minerals , so it makes sense that other mines are used for pottery production. Yixing was just one which became famous at the time.
With tea , I can say for sure that nice Bulang shan doesn't come only from the LBZ . You can get also nice tea from different villages around for fraction of the price.
If not sold as LBZ and with fair price, to me it's ok.
The issue with Yixing is , that those teapots are made in Yixing, so they have the name Yixing.
Our goal was to get a well made teapots with different clay than we have so far. The clay which has effect on taste of the tea more the others.
What I'm trying to say is, you don't need to focus only on LBZ if you want to have Bulang taste tea.
Just a thought.

I agree with you in principle. You don't necessarily need the fanciest tea or teaware to get the taste you want. However, if you're paying LBZ prices for a tea that tastes similar but is a fraction of the cost, you'd be justified in feeling ripped off. For example, I sold a bunch of Dong Ding and other roasted oolongs from Chen Huan Tang. It was quite a hassle and his tea costs more than similar Dong Ding from other vendors. If I sold someone else's Dong Ding for CHT's prices, that would obviously be unethical, even if the tea tasted good. For better or worse, people are paying for a brand.

If I had endless amounts of money, I'd buy a pre-1977 F1 Hongni pot for my black tea. However, they go for around US$600 if you can even find them. Maybe some other Chinese clay works well with hongcha, but I'm not sure what that is. Most people default to Yixing Hongni or Zini because that's what they've been told will work and they don't have the money or curiosity to experiment with multiple pots. That's also why I'll probably buy one of Hojo's Mumyoi pots for my hongcha whenever I order from him again.

It's hard to communicate taste preferences, particularly if there's a language barrier. I've asked my supplier for peachy oolongs and the tea I received wasn't that peachy. It's probably even harder to articulate what you want a pot to do to a tea. It becomes so subjective that people are willing to pay for something they think might be the solution, even if they've never owned a Yixing pot before and the problem isn't something a teapot can solve.

Now that I own some CHT teas, I can determine if I think they're worth the hype and investigate whether I can find similar Dong Ding for more affordable prices (although whether people would purchase it is another question). I hope to do the same with Zhengshantang's Jin Jun Mei one day as well.

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 1:07 pm

aet wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 9:59 pm

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 12:58 pm

It confirmed my reluctance to buy a yixing pot, given that it's almost impossible to verify the clay.

I'm not a specialist to say that like Zi Ni from the Yixing area is way better than from other place in China. I think this country is very rich in rare earths and minerals , so it makes sense that other mines are used for pottery production. Yixing was just one which became famous at the time.
With tea , I can say for sure that nice Bulang shan doesn't come only from the LBZ . You can get also nice tea from different villages around for fraction of the price.
If not sold as LBZ and with fair price, to me it's ok.
The issue with Yixing is , that those teapots are made in Yixing, so they have the name Yixing.
Our goal was to get a well made teapots with different clay than we have so far. The clay which has effect on taste of the tea more the others.
What I'm trying to say is, you don't need to focus only on LBZ if you want to have Bulang taste tea.
Just a thought.

I agree with you in principle. You don't necessarily need the fanciest tea or teaware to get the taste you want. However, if you're paying LBZ prices for a tea that tastes similar but is a fraction of the cost, you'd be justified in feeling ripped off. For example, I sold a bunch of Dong Ding and other roasted oolongs from Chen Huan Tang. It was quite a hassle and his tea costs more than similar Dong Ding from other vendors. If I sold someone else's Dong Ding for CHT's prices, that would obviously be unethical, even if the tea tasted good. For better or worse, people are paying for a brand.

If I had endless amounts of money, I'd buy a pre-1977 F1 Hongni pot for my black tea. However, they go for around US$600 if you can even find them. Maybe some other Chinese clay works well with hongcha, but I'm not sure what that is. Most people default to Yixing Hongni or Zini because that's what they've been told will work and they don't have the money or curiosity to experiment with multiple pots.

I agree, LBZ - speculations always exist as with Yixing , when I see vendor selling full handmade teapot for less than 100$ which way bellow the maker price ( at least from what we fond out there ). But in most cases, I believe...or I want to believe , it is just not having the knowledge about the matter ( real prices, fakes etc. ) or , in worse case, not even bothering to investigate and obtain any ( just doing it as any other business with shoes, phones etc. )
1977 F1 Hongni - from what we learned in Yixing, there is no guarantee that even this particular teapot would do what you want it to do with your tea. It's just so many variables involved that it really makes a gamble , so yes, buying multiple teapots is probably the way but of course based on your pocket. And yes, I agree , that most purchases boil down to the less "risky" clay but same time to less expensive teapots ( which has contra effect on desired quality ) . As one of our customer reported buying some pot on Ebay for 10$ and now it sits as a decoration on the shelf.

aet wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 7:51 pm

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 1:07 pm

aet wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 10, 2025 9:59 pm

[...]

[...]
If I had endless amounts of money, I'd buy a pre-1977 F1 Hongni pot for my black tea. However, they go for around US$600 if you can even find them. Maybe some other Chinese clay works well with hongcha, but I'm not sure what that is. Most people default to Yixing Hongni or Zini because that's what they've been told will work and they don't have the money or curiosity to experiment with multiple pots.

[...]
1977 F1 Hongni - from what we learned in Yixing, there is no guarantee that even this particular teapot would do what you want it to do with your tea. It's just so many variables involved that it really makes a gamble , so yes, buying multiple teapots is probably the way but of course based on your pocket. And yes, I agree , that most purchases boil down to the less "risky" clay but same time to less expensive teapots ( which has contra effect on desired quality ) . As one of our customer reported buying some pot on Ebay for 10$ and now it sits as a decoration on the shelf.

As someone who has had the privilege of being able to play with a few nice teapots, all I can suggest, if I may, is that:

1) it was annoying to hear 'it depends' as a response to how different teapots or clays are meant to perform, but, from my own experience since then, I think that that is a very valid response;

2) teapots are far less important than tea in most cases;

3) something important for vendors seems to me to be to strike a good balance in terms of what customers expect (because some vendors are respected for high-end expensive pots; some for good-value pots; and some vendors aren't respected for their pots at all - like how a jack of all trades is a master of none).

Andrew

So I decided to keep one teapot for my self ( as like I have not enough ). I brewed some random Yancha we got last trip to Wuyishan ( a sample ) with exactly same parameters in gaiwan and gave a blind test to my wife who had no clue what I'm testing.
She thought I'm giving here comparing old batch with new batch Yancha for verification / clarification of the difference. She said that one is weaker , less fragrant so seems like the "new batch" we got is an autumn so we got cheated. I even swapped the cup sides ( left / right) with next steep , just to double check and she spotted the difference ( the swap. ) at first sip. Well the better tasting one was brewed in the teapot .
Just reporting, not marketing, coz I keeping that one ;D

@aet there is never enough teapots for tea drinkers. I am always amazed and fascinated by your journey.

@@aet, I'm glad you got a good teapot from your Yixing trip! I wonder if a relative layperson would be able to tell the difference between the gaiwan- and pot-steeped yancha.

DailyTX wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 13, 2025 10:48 am

aet there is never enough teapots for tea drinkers. I am always amazed and fascinated by your journey.

Thank You!

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 13, 2025 8:04 pm

@aet, I wonder if a relative layperson would be able to tell the difference between the gaiwan- and pot-steeped yancha.

Fair point!