- pot_tea_pairing.jpg (204.3 KiB) Viewed 22650 times
Pairing yixing pots with teas
Some time ago I made a flowchart to provide initial advice on how to pair yixing pots with tea and posted it on teachat. Someone mentioned that it's gone, so I repost it here in case it can be useful. Disclaimer 1: you still want to experiment to see what works best for you. Disclaimer 2: there isn't a single right way to brew a tea, although there definitely are some wrong ways
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Chadrinkincat
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Excellent work!
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Chadrinkincat
- Posts: 902
- Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 8:16 pm
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Interesting chart thanks for sharing Steanze. Curious why Duanni is at the top of chart, since I understand it to be one of three subsets of Zisha?
Zisha: the general word for the clay. 3 sub categories are;
-Zini (Purple clay) - Also known as Zisha
Di Cao Cing
-Hongni (Red Clay)
Zhuni
-Duanni (Green Clay)
Lvni
Zisha: the general word for the clay. 3 sub categories are;
-Zini (Purple clay) - Also known as Zisha
Di Cao Cing
-Hongni (Red Clay)
Zhuni
-Duanni (Green Clay)
Lvni
Hi Victoria! This is because the chart is not a categorization of types of pots. It is a decision tree to pair a pot with a type of tea. If a pot is duanni, it will be very porous, so I'd use it for shu or wet stored sheng regardless of its pouring speed, thickness and so on.
Okay trying to understand your graphic hierarchical logic, or maybe it is not meant to be hierarchical, but rather a train of thought. Duanni is assigned X teas regardless of thickness and pour speed. Why then split-off at 10 second pours into two branches which mirror same clay types? Or was this two way split of same clay types for graphic convenience?steanze wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:34 pmHi Victoria! This is because the chart is not a categorization of types of pots. It is a decision tree to pair a pot with a type of tea. If a pot is duanni, it will be very porous, so I'd use it for shu or wet stored sheng regardless of its pouring speed, thickness and so on.
In a decision tree, you start from the top, answer the questions and follow the branches, until at the end you will receive the answer (in this case, what tea to pair the pot with).
The order of the questions does not imply any hierarchy, it's just a tool to get to the final answer. In some cases, it is possible to build decision trees in which the hierarchy is different, but the input-output mapping is the same Here what matters is the input-output mapping, not the order of the questions. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify this!
Maybe what you're asking is, how did I come up with that tree?
well I tried the various pots with various teas and noticed their effects, and then worked backwards to build the decision tree that generates the output I want so it's quicker for people to find which pot to match with which tea.
The order of the questions does not imply any hierarchy, it's just a tool to get to the final answer. In some cases, it is possible to build decision trees in which the hierarchy is different, but the input-output mapping is the same
Here what matters is the input-output mapping, not the order of the questions. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify this!Maybe what you're asking is, how did I come up with that tree?
well I tried the various pots with various teas and noticed their effects, and then worked backwards to build the decision tree that generates the output I want so it's quicker for people to find which pot to match with which tea.Okay, yes that is what I was asking. Now I see you worked it backwards based on your personal train of thought. End resulting pairings make sense to me, just how you got there had my mind in a noodle. In architecture most flow charts like this are hierarchical, like the branches of governmentsteanze wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:42 pmIn a decision tree, you start from the top, answer the questions and follow the branches, until at the end you will receive the answer (in this case, what tea to pair the pot with).
The order of the questions does not imply any hierarchy, it's just a tool to get to the final answer. In some cases, it is possible to build decision trees in which the hierarchy is different, but the input-output mapping is the same
Maybe what you're asking is, how did I come up with that tree?
Thanks for clearing it up. then the graph gets pretty large. As far as shapes, I'd consider mostly that 1) the sphere minimizes the surface/volume ratio, so the closer to a sphere the greater the heat retention, 2) rolled oolongs which expand benefit from pots that are not too flat. For mouth openings, some teas have long leaves and really benefit from larger openings especially if the pot is small.I didn't have issues with heat retention with my duanni pots, and it's so porous that it significantly reduces the aromas of the tea, so I would not use it for green oolongs where aromas are quite important. I usually get better results in a thin porcelain gaiwan or in thin hongni/zhuni with those teas. Instead, I find that the porosity of duanni does a good job at rounding the flavors of wet storage or wodui. But if you get good results with green oolongs go for it, these are not fixed rules, just a suggested starting point
