Seasoning Clay Boilers

[S_B]

I received a clay boiler from Taiwan for Christmas, Hohoho! It is the Anita boiler that Taiwan sourcing offers. I was wondering if it is necessary to season the clay before use. I have seen very small tidbits in old forums about using starch (congee, or something of the like) to help fill some of the pores up. If anybody has some good advice on the matter, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[.m.]

I have the same one that i've been using for 3 or 4 years now. I dont see any reason for seasoning it beyond boiling some water in it. I think the cornstarch/rice water seasoning is done mainly if the kettle is leaking water. Some kettles need to soak up some water first before use, but i havent been doing it either with this one.

Did you get the light or the dark one? (They both seem to be the same clay.)

PS. As far as i can tell, i think it is also the same maker/clay as those that Global Tea Hut sells.

[S_B]

Did you get the light or the dark one?

The darker one. Compared to my tetsubin, so far I haven't been liking it as much with certain teas (mostly pu'er). It is pretty early in (only two days in) but I'm still exploring combinations with it. I figured there probably wasn't a ton of need to season it, I just wanted to make sure I could make sure I have it "proper" before I keep on experimenting with it. I guess it should be ready to go, so I'll keep testing it out on teas and figure it out best I can! Thank you for the response. If you have any more insights into the boiler, I'd love to hear them!

[.m.]

Me too, i have the dark one, which seems to be simply a tainted version of the other. I've been using a glass kettle before and found this to be a significant improvement, making the water fuller and sweeter. Now there's a plenty of scale inside, so the water probably tastes different than it did initially. I've got my tetsubin in the storage now, so i can't comment on the difference. The obvious advantage is that i can just leave water inside all the time. Over the time I've used it with different electric stove (coil, hotplate) and a gas stove with no issue. While I usually dont use it on the strongest heat, and do not want to discover its limits, the clay seems pretty heat resilient so far.

[Bok]

With mass produced kettles, there is no need for seasoning. The congee method is mainly for artisan handmade kettles of a certain kind of clay. That kind of clay has a certain porosity and will leak water otherwise. It’s advantage is that it interacts with the water making it sweeter.

[plamarca000]

Has anyone used the global tea hut kettle? I’m thinking about buying it

[S_B]

With mass produced kettles, there is no need for seasoning.

Thanks for the heads up, Bok! Is there any harm to doing so anyway? I've read some articles here and there around the web about it for all sorts of boilers. If you think it'd cause harm, what do you think the best ways for "resetting" would be?

Thanks~

[Victoria]

I do tests with new/antique clay kettles; rinse thoroughly with hot water (to remove debris/dust), soak for 24 hrs in filtered water (to hydrate if old pot), dry the outside, add medium hot water, rest for a few hours & taste, check if leaking or too porous, if taste is offensive, boil filtered water in kettle, discard, re-boil new filtered water in kettle, rest a few hours or overnight, if still offensive tasting or too porous, depending on pot;
Cook rice water in pot -to seal porous clay
or
Boil tea leaves (sub-par leaves are fine) to reset smelly clay
or
Slow-route OCTO outlined above -storing leaves in kettle
or
If smelly old kettle follow steps in my instructional when all else fails

[Bok]

@S_B the seasoning with rice won’t have any negative effects whatsoever, rice is pretty neutral. Anything that does not enter the pores will be boiled off quickly.