@sporad @Rmt
It's good to see fellow tea enthusiasts exploring tea to pot pairing. By doing so, you actually learn the individual character of each pot. Just like getting to know your beloved.... hahahaha....
You will also come across very interesting findings along the way that will challenge conventional believes of basic clay pairing. Let your taste buds have the final say. Remember there is no right or wrong in this, only which brew gets your tongue's unanimous approval! hahahaha....
After many rounds of tasting and pairing... you will develop your own line of preferred clay type, pot design and desired outcome.
It's gonna be an adventure!!
Cheers!!!
Looking to pair some pots. Ideas on where to begin?
Had trouble with the sheng last night... Gonna have another go with that same batch now.
By the way, @OCTO, would you recommend I accumulate brews in the pitcher and then pour in the pots, or try to taste every single brew in every pot? Problem with that is that I have too many pots... Then again, I am considering taking one or two out and bringing the number to a more manageable 5.
And should the third tea I test be a different type, like a dark roasted oolong (started with a green Gaoshan)?
By the way, @OCTO, would you recommend I accumulate brews in the pitcher and then pour in the pots, or try to taste every single brew in every pot? Problem with that is that I have too many pots... Then again, I am considering taking one or two out and bringing the number to a more manageable 5.
And should the third tea I test be a different type, like a dark roasted oolong (started with a green Gaoshan)?
No issues accumulating a few brews in the pitcher... after you have shortlisted the more promising candidates... you can repeat the process with individual brews to pick the final candidate. Since you have additional pots, I would usually shortlist 2 and use them for a few months... you can then decide which is the better candidate.sporad wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 5:17 amHad trouble with the sheng last night... Gonna have another go with that same batch now.
By the way, OCTO, would you recommend I accumulate brews in the pitcher and then pour in the pots, or try to taste every single brew in every pot? Problem with that is that I have too many pots... Then again, I am considering taking one or two out and bringing the number to a more manageable 5.
And should the third tea I test be a different type, like a dark roasted oolong (started with a green Gaoshan)?
Cheers!
I really like gong chun pots as well, took me a while to find one. Picked it up from YS last year. Supposed to be some sort of modern zhuni. Hard to get a good look at the clay texture due to the design though... I’ve been using it with yancha and other darker oolongs. Did a pairing comparison today to see how it compared to the lion pot I just picked up from yinchen teapot on IG. Xmy zhuni.
It was challenging to notice the differences in my opinion... there seems to be something going on with astringency and aftertastes in the more bitter brews though. Brewed some qingxin alishan and some cheap rougui. Turns out my previous pairing seems to make sense. Will keep on using the gong chun pot for darker oolongs and the lion pot for lighter stuff.
The smallest of the pots is a chaozhou pot (90-100ml) . Been brewing both dancong and yancha in it with lots of leaf (more economical with a smaller pot). Tbh it’s the pot I own that consistently makes the best tea. Never lets me down. However, it didn’t stand out much in today’s testing...
Also, noticed that the duanni pot is way less muting than before. Found a low res pic of it from the listing. Colour is completely off:
@Rmt CZ consistently good with Yancha and Dancong, or in general?
I find them excelling at Dancong brewing, but generally good with roasted/more oxidised Oolongs.
Friends of mine use them extensively with Baozhong, which I found very surprising... yet the results where pretty good (all vintage/antiques though, so not sure how it would apply to contemporary CZ).
I find them excelling at Dancong brewing, but generally good with roasted/more oxidised Oolongs.
Friends of mine use them extensively with Baozhong, which I found very surprising... yet the results where pretty good (all vintage/antiques though, so not sure how it would apply to contemporary CZ).
@Bok consistently good in general/with everything I’ve thrown in it tbh. Tend to fill it to the rim with leaf and do flash steeps. I guess what I’ve understood to be cz style brewing.
Haven’t used it for lighter oolongs, as the flat bell shape of the pot doesn’t seem suited for the rolled ball oolongs I have.
I don’t know a whole lot about cz pots tbh (or yixing for that matter), but it has a different finish on the outside than the other cz pots I’ve seen. It’s supposedly made by some reputable workshop/potter. Could zhang family be right? The guy in the shop I bought it from said it was fired with some non typical technique. It has a sort of matte non reflective surface to it. Very different from my cz kettle. Would love to pick up another differently shapes cz pot at some point. It’s my go-to pot when I’m only making tea for myself
Haven’t used it for lighter oolongs, as the flat bell shape of the pot doesn’t seem suited for the rolled ball oolongs I have.
I don’t know a whole lot about cz pots tbh (or yixing for that matter), but it has a different finish on the outside than the other cz pots I’ve seen. It’s supposedly made by some reputable workshop/potter. Could zhang family be right? The guy in the shop I bought it from said it was fired with some non typical technique. It has a sort of matte non reflective surface to it. Very different from my cz kettle. Would love to pick up another differently shapes cz pot at some point. It’s my go-to pot when I’m only making tea for myself
@Rmt sounds like a real nice pot! Got some pictures?
Also, don’t discard rolled Oolongs just because of the flat shape! I found it still works all the same if you adjust a little, fewer leaves than you’d normally put for example. Flat Biandeng shape is one of my favourite and I use them for all kinds of leaf shapes.
Also, don’t discard rolled Oolongs just because of the flat shape! I found it still works all the same if you adjust a little, fewer leaves than you’d normally put for example. Flat Biandeng shape is one of my favourite and I use them for all kinds of leaf shapes.
Thank you @Rmt for the details. One question: the lion one is a Zini? Interesting that it is working for lighter oolongs while the gong chun is better for dark oolongs. Very cool. Wondering if it has to do with firing temperatures and also with the composition of that modern zhuni.
So far I’ve tested a high mountain green oolong (somebody thinks it might be a Cui Feng), a Zheng Wei TGY, two gushu shengs: (Jing Mai 2014 and a Da Hei Shan 2019) and today one Yancha to mix it up a bit: Shui Jin Gui.
@gld The clearest difference I’ve found is with green oolongs. Zhuni wins hands down. At this point, I can’t imagine not dedicating the Wen dan to anything other than TGY or gaoshan. The TGY in particular was so good, I could not stop smelling the pot. It dialed the intensity of the aromatics and flavors way up and has turned me into a full-on iron goddess fan. I’ll hold my horses, though, and continue to experiment because I’m very curious as to what this little wendan lobster can do for (and with) other teas.
Shengs have not being as straightforward. I can’t seem to sense a difference between zhuni and porcelain, while zini, DCQ and duanni mute the astringency and flavors a bit but not as much as I expected (especially the duanni, which I assume it’s because it’s high-fired). Perhaps the jiangponi brought it down a bit more while keeping the fruity notes a bit more. But I feel like I need to test many other shengs to get a better sense. But perhaps I’ll use a gaiwan with larger capacity (150ml) to be able to test the first brew across all teapots.
The rock oolong on the other hand became sweeter in the DCQ and also a bit in the jiangponi, which also muted the smokiness a bit more than the rest of the zini pots. I can imagine a smokier yancha benefitting from the Jiangponi treatment (for my taste, that is) and so I’m looking forward to trying that. Zhuni didn’t stand out much.
That’s it for now. No plans yet for tomorrow. Now I’m gonna go make myself more iron goddess in that little zhuni. Maybe I’ll brew it in gaiwan and then transfer it to the pot so I can drink directly from it just the way I learned some people in China do with Xishi pots (it seems like a comforting technique but I can’t imagine grandpa brewing would do this particular TGY any favors, so...).
So far I’ve tested a high mountain green oolong (somebody thinks it might be a Cui Feng), a Zheng Wei TGY, two gushu shengs: (Jing Mai 2014 and a Da Hei Shan 2019) and today one Yancha to mix it up a bit: Shui Jin Gui.
@gld The clearest difference I’ve found is with green oolongs. Zhuni wins hands down. At this point, I can’t imagine not dedicating the Wen dan to anything other than TGY or gaoshan. The TGY in particular was so good, I could not stop smelling the pot. It dialed the intensity of the aromatics and flavors way up and has turned me into a full-on iron goddess fan. I’ll hold my horses, though, and continue to experiment because I’m very curious as to what this little wendan lobster can do for (and with) other teas.
Shengs have not being as straightforward. I can’t seem to sense a difference between zhuni and porcelain, while zini, DCQ and duanni mute the astringency and flavors a bit but not as much as I expected (especially the duanni, which I assume it’s because it’s high-fired). Perhaps the jiangponi brought it down a bit more while keeping the fruity notes a bit more. But I feel like I need to test many other shengs to get a better sense. But perhaps I’ll use a gaiwan with larger capacity (150ml) to be able to test the first brew across all teapots.
The rock oolong on the other hand became sweeter in the DCQ and also a bit in the jiangponi, which also muted the smokiness a bit more than the rest of the zini pots. I can imagine a smokier yancha benefitting from the Jiangponi treatment (for my taste, that is) and so I’m looking forward to trying that. Zhuni didn’t stand out much.
That’s it for now. No plans yet for tomorrow. Now I’m gonna go make myself more iron goddess in that little zhuni. Maybe I’ll brew it in gaiwan and then transfer it to the pot so I can drink directly from it just the way I learned some people in China do with Xishi pots (it seems like a comforting technique but I can’t imagine grandpa brewing would do this particular TGY any favors, so...).
Common knowledge says green Taiwanese oolongs tall shape, right? But I haven’t understood what popular opinion say about dark Taiwanese ones. Also tall? Or flat because they’re dark? I have an acquaintance who brews super dark ball oolongs in the flattest Zini pot (with rounded walls) I’ve ever seen and seems to work great.Bok wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 10:10 amAlso, don’t discard rolled Oolongs just because of the flat shape! I found it still works all the same if you adjust a little, fewer leaves than you’d normally put for example. Flat Biandeng shape is one of my favourite and I use them for all kinds of leaf shapes.
@sporad They are both supposed to be zhuni pots. I think the YS gong chun was called “Golden zhuni”, the yinchen lion pot is xmy zhuni. The two pots have markedly different colors though. The taste differences between them were very small to be honest, but I’ll try some more stuff in both pots for comparison. Just need to restock on teas first...
@Bok here are some pics. Put my kettle next to it for reference, but it’s really hard to capture the color/texture of it. It has a sort of smoky look to it. The bottom photo has the most accurate color I think. The clay on the inside is also much darker than the kettle. It’s still wet from use so can’t take a good pic of the inside. I guess could give rolled oolongs a try in it, but I expect the leaves will not unfurl properly due to the lip shape at the bottom. The interior has the same shape as the outside.
@Bok here are some pics. Put my kettle next to it for reference, but it’s really hard to capture the color/texture of it. It has a sort of smoky look to it. The bottom photo has the most accurate color I think. The clay on the inside is also much darker than the kettle. It’s still wet from use so can’t take a good pic of the inside. I guess could give rolled oolongs a try in it, but I expect the leaves will not unfurl properly due to the lip shape at the bottom. The interior has the same shape as the outside.
So maybe tall for high mountain if it's more like Si Ting rather than a flat-bottomed cylinder shape, no? Would you consider a Sang bian round or what you mean by round is that the base rounds up? So curious about the different techniques to adapt a pot shape to the leaf. I assume it has to do with pouring techniques. Maybe also includes some slight swirling of the pot during brewing?
This is also making me wonder about the lid shape and proportions as well. I assume it makes a difference it's close or flat to the lip or rather it bulges up (like in a Si Ting).
I only have one teapot with a domed lid, but I find it doesn’t keep the fragrance in as much as flatter lid. I’d be interested to hear what others have experienced.
I never noticed that the lid shape had any influence on the taste at all... more so in terms of practicability, tall kid skirts tend to make it impossible to close without water splashing out(if I wanted to go for dry brewing), some are difficult to control like the super flat ones of a Julunzhu and slide around, etc.
@sporad round as in body round. What matters is more that the shape is not extreme: not extremely flat, wide, high etc. All others can be adapted to
@sporad round as in body round. What matters is more that the shape is not extreme: not extremely flat, wide, high etc. All others can be adapted to
@RmtRmt wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 8:26 amI really like gong chun pots as well, took me a while to find one. Picked it up from YS last year. Supposed to be some sort of modern zhuni. Hard to get a good look at the clay texture due to the design though... I’ve been using it with yancha and other darker oolongs. Did a pairing comparison today to see how it compared to the lion pot I just picked up from yinchen teapot on IG. Xmy zhuni.
It was challenging to notice the differences in my opinion... there seems to be something going on with astringency and aftertastes in the more bitter brews though. Brewed some qingxin alishan and some cheap rougui. Turns out my previous pairing seems to make sense. Will keep on using the gong chun pot for darker oolongs and the lion pot for lighter stuff.
The smallest of the pots is a chaozhou pot (90-100ml) . Been brewing both dancong and yancha in it with lots of leaf (more economical with a smaller pot). Tbh it’s the pot I own that consistently makes the best tea. Never lets me down. However, it didn’t stand out much in today’s testing...
Also, noticed that the duanni pot is way less muting than before. Found a low res pic of it from the listing. Colour is completely off:
Very good findings.. keep it up!
Cheers!