Yixing teapot - maintain temperature with surrounding water?

[TeaTotaling]

I have a simple practice that I picked up myself during my sessions.
Basically I preheat the pot.
Then Rinse the tea. (pour the rinse into the cup, so it picks up some aroma, stays warm)
Do the first infusion.
Pour out into the cup. (rinse is poured into the waste jar)

Then basically blow out the hot steam air inside the pot. It's enough to quickly drop the temperature around the leaves, but still keep the pot fairly warm and the laves, so they don't cool down too much. After this, I put back the lid, to preserve the temperature. I found teas to last more infusions this way, and produce more consistent results.

No need to play with water, and 100% dry brew compatible.

This is my school of thought as well.

Personally, I use a good quality spring water, so for me dumping out water would be wasteful. I don't really bother to rinse the tea at the start of my sessions either. I have to experiment a little more to understand the benefit of "opening" the tea before the first steep. I try to keep high quality tea on hand, so I would probably drink the rinse. There would certainly be some beneficial tea compounds lost, even in a flash rinse with hot water.

Pouring tea or water over the pot, might cause an uneven patina to develop. I like the inside out approach, the more you brew, the more it shines.

@Youzi Blowing excess steam out and replacing the lid makes sense. I'll have to experiment with this. Normally, I keep the lid off, but I tend to roll through infusions, lining up a few cups.

[Youzi]

@TeaTotaling
Depends on how you brew really. I usually take longer times to sip through an infusion so if I don't put the lid back after blowing out the hot air, then the tea and the teapot would cool down too much.

So of course you should adopt for your style and how fast you brew, but I observed a quick blow can help a lot, after each infusions, to get more out of the tea.

[TeaTotaling]

TeaTotaling
Depends on how you brew really. I usually take longer times to sip through an infusion so if I don't put the lid back after blowing out the hot air, then the tea and the teapot would cool down too much.

So of course you should adopt for your style and how fast you brew, but I observed a quick blow can help a lot, after each infusions, to get more out of the tea.

Right, right. I do take time to enjoy a cup, but I'll have three lined up, roll through infusions, and then slow sip back-to-back-to-back. I like your idea, I'm definitely going to implement it and see how I like it. Thanks!

[Mark-S]

Basically I preheat the pot.
Then Rinse the tea.

I also do it this way, but I wondered if it's always necessary to do it in two steps. When I brew a tea with 95-100° C could I just combine both steps? Thanks

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The lid of my small pots is attached to the body. For this reason, to preserve the leaves between infusions, I put the lid on top of the rim/handle. With the larger pots I just take it off and put it to the side (I brew pretty fast).

[Youzi]

Basically I preheat the pot.
Then Rinse the tea.

I also do it this way, but I wondered if it's always necessary to do it in two steps. When I brew a tea with 95-100° C could I just combine both steps? Thanks

-

The lid of my small pots is attached to the body. For this reason, to preserve the leaves between infusions, I put the lid on top of the rim/handle. With the larger pots I just take it off and put it to the side (I brew pretty fast).

Sure, you can combine the two, if you use the pot regularly. Or depending how delicate is the teapot it might need more gentle preheating. (Zhuni)
I usually do it, because when you add the tea to the heated pot, you can smell a different kind of aroma, and that's also part of the game.

Letting the leaves or the wall of the pot get too cold is not good, and neither it's good to keep them hot. A balance has to be reached between your infusions. preferably, the teapot walls warm/hot, while the leaves less so. So that the leaves won't overcook, but the teapot won't take away too much heat from your 2/3/4/5th infusions.

[Bok]

I’ve found that whatever one does to prevent over cooking leaves, it matters little after 3 infusions(or thereabouts), after that maintaining heat becomes more important to get the rest of flavour out of the tea. Depends on the individual tea though.

[Youzi]

I’ve found that whatever one does to prevent over cooking leaves, it matters little after 3 infusions(or thereabouts), after that maintaining heat becomes more important to get the rest of flavour out of the tea. Depends on the individual tea though.

So in that sense, the best approach would be to space out the first couple of brews (it's not so about overdrawing, but about preserving the tea)
then the later steepings you'd do them after each other, in succession, without wait, thus minimizing the time for the teapot to cool down. If maybe not for 4th infusion (depending on your leaf/water ratio), but definitely this is a good practice for later steepings, when your time goes into the minutes territory.

[Rickpatbrown]

I think that's a good explanation, thanks, Bok

but I dont see that being a big deal for the first steep.

And after the first steep you empty the water in a wastewater bowl/jar? I am asking because I have seen people nearly drowning the teapot in wastewater during the whole session and this definitely cools down the pot a lot. If it's only for the first steep then it's not a big problem in my opinion.

Yeah. I see that we were describing differnet things. I hold my pot over the waste bowl as I'm pouring the rinses over the pot. It never sits in a pool of cooling water.

I think that pouring boiling water over the teapot and leaving it to surround the pot which is sitting in a bowl, would keep it hotter longer. The more hot mass you add, the longer it will take to cool and the more it will raise the tea and pot temperature.

I don't do this, though. It seems a little extra to me. It pretty cute, though. I think it's probably half a style thing based on the tiniest of logical reasoning.

[Iizuki]

I second the physics @faj presented. Sitting the pot in a lake isn't probably going to be the best course of action whether you want to cool off or retain as much heat as possible. That being the case, maybe it's a reasonable way to stay in between?

Personally I think that the whole cooking effect is exaggerated, and not necessarily a bad thing to begin with.

I only ever pour (hot) water over my pot if I happen to have a large gap between brews. The water drains down into the depths of my tray.