Yixing

[TeaTotaling]

steanze Good point. Room temp hovers around 71. I leave hot water from the sink in the teapot while bringing the kettle to 180°F, so it's pretty instantaneous.

Thanks for sharing!

One thing I like about the approach I suggested is that I don't need to go back and forth between tea table and sink. I just dump the water in a waste water bowl, so everything happens at the tea table. It is fast and convenient, and it eliminates the need to transport the teapot from a place to another, which always adds some risk.

Very true. Slippery hands in the sink can result in an easily avoidable mistake. Thinking about it makes me cringe Thanks for the tips!

[steanze]

Very true. Slippery hands in the sink can result in an easily avoidable mistake. Thinking about it makes me cringe Thanks for the tips!

You are welcome!

[Mark-S]

I usually just use one of those thin wooden tea scoops to lightly tap the body. It has the same effect, but 0 risk. It's much safer then all the other methods involving the lid etc.

I tried this but apparently this only works with thin walls. This is the method I use for my pots:

If I want to be careful, I pour room temperature water in the pot, then I empty about half, and add hot water from the kettle slowly (you can first pour the water from the kettle in a pitcher and from the pitcher to the pot if you want to be extra careful), then when it's full let rest for 30 seconds-1 minute, pour half out, refill with hot water from the kettle, rest for 30 seconds - 1 minute, pour all out, add tea and start brewing.

That's a very nice and easy technique. Thanks for sharing

[steanze]

If I want to be careful, I pour room temperature water in the pot, then I empty about half, and add hot water from the kettle slowly (you can first pour the water from the kettle in a pitcher and from the pitcher to the pot if you want to be extra careful), then when it's full let rest for 30 seconds-1 minute, pour half out, refill with hot water from the kettle, rest for 30 seconds - 1 minute, pour all out, add tea and start brewing.

That's a very nice and easy technique. Thanks for sharing

Welcome!

[Mark-S]

Mark-S How do you like the functionality of your 40ml teapot, and what tea have you devoted this pot to?

After about 150 to 200 infusions I can finally tell you that I really like this pot. It's harder to control the temperature but it can be managed, and the size is not too small in my opinion. I used this pot for heavily fermented Taiwanese oolong tea. At first, I did not like the tea because it tasted of tobacco in my opinion, but the pot eliminates most of it. So I will probably continue using this pot for this type of tea. The patina is developing nicely. There are some stains around the rim because I was too lazy to use a brush, and the patina on the lid is not that strong because I don't pour tea over the pot. I tried to remove those stains with a cloth and a very soft toothbrush. It did not work that well, but it does not matter.

[Bok]

Mark-S How do you like the functionality of your 40ml teapot, and what tea have you devoted this pot to?

After about 150 to 200 infusions I can finally tell you that I really like this pot. It's harder to control the temperature but it can be managed, and the size is not too small in my opinion. I used this pot for heavily fermented Taiwanese oolong tea. At first, I did not like the tea because it tasted of tobacco in my opinion, but the pot eliminates most of it. So I will probably continue using this pot for this type of tea. The patina is developing nicely. There are some stains around the rim because I was too lazy to use a brush, and the patina on the lid is not that strong because I don't pour tea over the pot. I tried to remove those stains with a cloth and a very soft toothbrush. It did not work that well, but it does not matter.

Small annotation: there is no Taiwanese fermented tea. Aged yes. Unfortunately gotten mouldy yes. But no fermented tea in the common sense of Heicha or Puerh.

[Mark-S]

Small annotation: there is no Taiwanese fermented tea. Aged yes. Unfortunately gotten mouldy yes. But no fermented tea in the common sense of Heicha or Puerh.

Sorry, I just used the vendor's description. I think you would also not use the word "tobacco" to describe the taste, but that's what it tastes like for me.

This handmade oolong is heavy fermented (oxidized) and baked over firewood flame.

Origin: Guo Xing Village (Nantou)

[Bok]

@Mark-S yeah the use the wrong word, oxidised would be correct.

[Mark-S]

Mark-S yeah the use the wrong word, oxidised would be correct.

Okay, thanks for the hint.

[Youzi]

Mark-S How do you like the functionality of your 40ml teapot, and what tea have you devoted this pot to?

After about 150 to 200 infusions I can finally tell you that I really like this pot. It's harder to control the temperature but it can be managed, and the size is not too small in my opinion. I used this pot for heavily fermented Taiwanese oolong tea. At first, I did not like the tea because it tasted of tobacco in my opinion, but the pot eliminates most of it. So I will probably continue using this pot for this type of tea. The patina is developing nicely. There are some stains around the rim because I was too lazy to use a brush, and the patina on the lid is not that strong because I don't pour tea over the pot. I tried to remove those stains with a cloth and a very soft toothbrush. It did not work that well, but it does not matter.

You shouldn't pour tea over the teapot if you want to evaluate the quality of of the clay. It should season naturally even if you do dry brewing.

You can add teastain on any pot and make it shiny, but it doesn't suddenly make the clay it's made of good.

[Mark-S]

You shouldn't pour tea over the teapot if you want to evaluate the quality of of the clay. It should season naturally even if you do dry brewing.

You can add teastain on any pot and make it shiny, but it doesn't suddenly make the clay it's made of good.

As I said before I don't pour tea over the pot (only hot water for the longer infusions to maintain the temperature). There are tea stains around the rim because I fill the pot to the top, and when I put the lid on the pot sometimes a little tea accumulates between lid and rim. I've read that a tea brush could help but a) I am too lazy and b) the tea brushes smell of wet pig because they are not made of synthetic hair. I know that you don't think that this pot is made of good clay. That's why I did not mention the clay's quality. It's a $100 pot and not a $1000 pot after all. And here we go again...

[Mark-S]

In addition, I don't like the look of it if you pour tea over the pot. It's very ugly in my opinion. The stains on my pot are just below the rim and very subtle in comparison to this pot for example:

https://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 28ddf99d2d

Sorry, if this hurts somebody's feelings.

[Youzi]

You shouldn't pour tea over the teapot if you want to evaluate the quality of of the clay. It should season naturally even if you do dry brewing.

You can add teastain on any pot and make it shiny, but it doesn't suddenly make the clay it's made of good.

As I said before I don't pour tea over the pot (only hot water for the longer infusions to maintain the temperature). There are tea stains around the rim because I fill the pot to the top, and when I put the lid on the pot sometimes a little tea accumulates between lid and rim. I've read that a tea brush could help but a) I am too lazy and b) the tea brushes smell of wet pig because they are not made of synthetic hair. I know that you don't think that this pot is made of good clay. That's why I did not mention the clay's quality. It's a $100 pot and not a $1000 pot after all. And here we go again...

I don't know why you think I think it's not good clay. I haven't said that. I just said that letting tea stain build up on the outside of the pot cannot be used as an evaluation for the quality of the material. I don't know if it's a pot made of good clay or not, since I'm not able to test it, then how should I know.

Btw, you can just rinse the pot with hot water after you put the lid on, then you avoid uneven stain.

[Mark-S]

@Youzi

Sorry, that I misunderstood you.

I won't pour tea over my pots, because I really don't like these stains you can see on the pots from teachat. They are ugly and maybe even unhealthy.

Btw, you can just rinse the pot with hot water after you put the lid on, then you avoid uneven stain.

Thanks, I am already doing this, so maybe these stains are from minerals in my water.

[Teachronicles]

Youzi

Sorry, that I misunderstood you.

I won't pour tea over my pots, because I really don't like these stains you can see on the pots from teachat. They are ugly and maybe even unhealthy.

Btw, you can just rinse the pot with hot water after you put the lid on, then you avoid uneven stain.

Thanks, I am already doing this, so maybe these stains are from minerals in my water.

I'm not sure how that person (in the link you posted) got those stains from just a few weeks of use. You can pour the rinse on your pot and ime, it does not end up looking like that. I agree, I do not like how that looks, to each their own of course, but it just looks dirty to me. Pouring the rinse on my pots has not resulted in my pots looking like that, even pre wiping with a cloth and pre using a brush, they looked more like your pot, with just some light staining around the opening.