Just saw this claim on Meileaf. This is exactly the opposite of what I understand to be the dif b/w Yixing and CZ clay. Could this be right?
"The porosity essentially determines how much the tea will be affected by the minerals in the clay. Yixing clay is very porous and so has a very pronounced effect but Chaozhou red clay seems to be less porous (perhaps because of higher temperature firing rather than primary porosity). This means that the mineral effect is more subtle which can be a good thing for brighter and lighter tea."
https://meileaf.com/teaware/master-wu-c ... -clay-pot/
Is Yixing more porous than CZ??
Seems a very general and erroneous claim... with Yixing clay having so many different properties depending on the vintage, clay type, firing, etc. Not sure how many kinds of clay Chaozhou has, but chances are any kind of clay can have different effects depending on how it was processed and fired.
I would just discard this kind of misleading half-information and not trust that vendor to much in general.
I would just discard this kind of misleading half-information and not trust that vendor to much in general.
+1 very general and incorrect. Usually chaozhou clay is a lot more porous than some yixing (zhuni, hongni) and similar to or less porous than other yixing (duanni).
Wasn't Mei Leaf the same place that was recommending to keep tea leaves that had been used for 1 infusion only in a cloth inside the fridge for up to 1 week and reuse them? And then someone came along asking why their tea had become a ball of mold?
They seem like nice people but I would take information and advice about tea coming from them with a massive grain of salt
Wasn't Mei Leaf the same place that was recommending to keep tea leaves that had been used for 1 infusion only in a cloth inside the fridge for up to 1 week and reuse them? And then someone came along asking why their tea had become a ball of mold?
They seem like nice people but I would take information and advice about tea coming from them with a massive grain of salt
CZ clay is getting used for pu erh on the Mainland by some! I have found it quite muting, but in a different way from my thicker-walled pin zini/qsn pots.
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leaf_biter
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My understanding is that CZ clay is supposed to be more porous than zisha, at least according to a potter I know in CZ who also spent a lot of time in Yixing... That said, there are different types of CZ clay, such as their own DHP clay, which may have a different porosity.
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tingjunkie
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In my experience, antique CZ pots have very porous clay on the interior. This makes sense, as the original CZ kung fu tea was designed to make the most of teas that were not top quality, and had some flaws to cover up.
Modern CZ pots are closer to modern Taiwanese red clay and are not very porous, AFAIK.
Modern CZ pots are closer to modern Taiwanese red clay and are not very porous, AFAIK.
I had a recent experience with a modern CZ pot and indeed there was not much of a muting effect on the tea (Dancong).tingjunkie wrote: ↑Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:00 amIn my experience, antique CZ pots have very porous clay on the interior. This makes sense, as the original CZ kung fu tea was designed to make the most of teas that were not top quality, and had some flaws to cover up.
Modern CZ pots are closer to modern Taiwanese red clay and are not very porous, AFAIK.
So in this case antique CZ would in fact be not a good investment for brewing with good teas?
Been toying with the idea to find an at least Vintage CZ pot for use with Dancong.
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tingjunkie
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I got extremely lucky and found my pot for the cost of a couple beers. Otherwise, they are not cheap, and "investment" is the right word. I use my as it was intended- traditional gong-fu tea with high fire Chaozhou oolong. In my experience, dancong does best in a gaiwan, and even a thin zhuni pot may not be an improvement. I'd think an antique CZ pot for modern dancong would not work very well at all.
Cheers for that I info!tingjunkie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:58 amI got extremely lucky and found my pot for the cost of a couple beers. Otherwise, they are not cheap, and "investment" is the right word. I use my as it was intended- traditional gong-fu tea with high fire Chaozhou oolong. In my experience, dancong does best in a gaiwan, and even a thin zhuni pot may not be an improvement. I'd think an antique CZ pot for modern dancong would not work very well at all.
Rarely ever saw a CZ pot in Taiwan at least not advertised as such. “Only” vintage Yixing and of course the myriad of fakes.
I have had good results for Dancong with my usual Taiwanese wood fired clay pots. Modern CZ was also noticeably smoother than in a Gaiwan. But then this not based on a large experience of drinking DC, so to be taken with a grain of salt.
I have found modern CZ clay to be very muting compared to F1 hongni.
There are probably some different clays used in CZ as well as in Yixing.
The one I tried, was a rather dark intense red and the pots were very finely made with a greatly designed spout! Rare to see such attention to detail on a spout in Chinese teaware, usually more often found in Japanese pots.
Yes that could be. I have a vintage Chaozhou pot and a nice (expensive) modern one and both are equally muting to me!
I would add that though CZ pots generally enhances the flavor of DanCong, I have personally came across many other yixing teapots that brews equally good DanCong. Tried DuanNi, LueNi, ZhuNi, HongNi, DiCaoQing, QingShuiNi and ZiSha... ranging from ROC to modern era pots... all yielded good results.
A lot depends on the roast level of the tea.
Cheers!