Yixing advice

[steanze]

You want to get a Yixing teapot and don't know what type of pot you should get? Ask here mentioning what tea you'd like to brew.

[MmBuddha]

Hi everyone. I’m always interested in yixing advice, it’s seemed so far like something of a bottomless well, and however much you learn, there’s always more to discover, and others to learn more from.

I’d like really to ask these questions of a few different teas, but at the moment I’m particularly interested in finding a yixing pot for Yancha. Wuyi teas seems an area where there can be quite a lot of latitude in terms of pot pairing, but if you were to own only one yixing pot for brewing yancha, what would you consider ideal personally?

Size-wise, if brewing for one, it seems like many prefer pots around 60-70ml. I know that F1 shui pings around this size are popular choices. Others seem to like bigger pots, but do you think a pot around, say, 90ml is verging on the large size if infusing an expensive tea? Due to various high-end yancha vendors offering sample packs at around 8g, perhaps this wouldn’t be such a bad size, but I’d be interested to hear others thoughts.

Clay I’m less clear on. Great hongni like those used at Factory 1 pre 1977 seems a brilliant choice if you can get your hands on it, and I’ve heard it’s a little more porous than some of their later red clays. But I’m also interested in zini/qingshuini (am aware these terms vary in their meaning), and if anyone would prefer it for a general yancha pot? Pots that are currently accessible to me tend to be green label zini or later. I’d be interested to hear how this clay might pair.

Shape seems less ambiguous. It seems like most people like shui pings, and then anything trending further towards a lower, flatter shape. I’ve been looking out for F1 Bian Deng and Tai Jian pots for instance. I imagine the smaller the pot is, the more a lower shape and proportionally wider opening matter.

I hope laying out what I’ve heard or read so far wasn’t superfluous, but really I’d love to hear what others have found to work best, or just any thoughts/preferences you have.

Thanks in advance.

[steanze]

Hi MmBuddha! As you mentioned, I recommend a pre-1977 hongni shuiping around 67-100ml. However, I spoke with a tea person I respect and he said that in his view also a zini is fine. It is important that the pot pours FAST!

[MmBuddha]

Resurrecting a bit of an old thread here, but I’m hoping to purchase a pot for Liu Bao soon, and would be grateful for some advice. For now I’m planning to own only one pot for this tea, so ideally it would do well brewing both more modern tea, and the occasional vintage Liu Bao from the 70s etc.

Pre and early Factory purple clay is off the table due to price, so I’m thinking my best options are probably 70s QSN, or green label zini, though by all means recommend other options if you think they’ll work better. I’m aware the former clay is generally considered more desirable for most teas, but I’d be interested to hear if that’s likely to be the case here.

I’ve heard from a few people that green label zini, while not necessarily the best clay in the world, can be a good match for musty, wetter stored teas. Liu Bao seems like a candidate here, but I’ve tried a limited selection so far. I’m somewhat undecided about the extent to which I’ll want the clay to mute aromatics, and whether or not the generally less porous attributes of F1 QSN (or so I’ve heard) are a better option.

In terms of size I was thinking around 90ml would work well for me. Any pointers on shape and filter (whether multi-hole might be desirable for Liu Bao etc) would also be a big help.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Bok]

In terms of size I was thinking around 90ml would work well for me. Any pointers on shape and filter (whether multi-hole might be desirable for Liu Bao etc) would also be a big help.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

Open leaves with crumbly bits, as is often the case with aged teas will benefit from of a lower profile pot with multi-hole filter. But you can never go wrong with the goldilocks of teapots, the standard medium shuiping shape.

I think in the case of Liu bao even a very low profile teapot could be an option.

[steanze]

Resurrecting a bit of an old thread here, but I’m hoping to purchase a pot for Liu Bao soon, and would be grateful for some advice. For now I’m planning to own only one pot for this tea, so ideally it would do well brewing both more modern tea, and the occasional vintage Liu Bao from the 70s etc.

Pre and early Factory purple clay is off the table due to price, so I’m thinking my best options are probably 70s QSN, or green label zini, though by all means recommend other options if you think they’ll work better. I’m aware the former clay is generally considered more desirable for most teas, but I’d be interested to hear if that’s likely to be the case here.

I’ve heard from a few people that green label zini, while not necessarily the best clay in the world, can be a good match for musty, wetter stored teas. Liu Bao seems like a candidate here, but I’ve tried a limited selection so far. I’m somewhat undecided about the extent to which I’ll want the clay to mute aromatics, and whether or not the generally less porous attributes of F1 QSN (or so I’ve heard) are a better option.

In terms of size I was thinking around 90ml would work well for me. Any pointers on shape and filter (whether multi-hole might be desirable for Liu Bao etc) would also be a big help.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

In terms of clay among those options I'd prefer green label qingshuini. But later F1 zini is fine too, there are just some batches that are not as good as others so it depends a bit on the particular pot. If you can get heixingtu pot with a flat filter I'd go with that.

[Teachronicles]

Steanze, thanks for making this thread, I think it will be very helpful for a lot of people.

Here's a 1960s hongni pot I recently got. As far as I can tell it's pretty thin walled, medium to high fired. From my testing so far it's very slightly muting compared to porcelain and really makes tea smoother. I would love to hear what tea everyone would pair it with. The pour is 12 seconds btw.



Here's some extra pictures that sorta show thickness.

Hongni

[Bok]

Here's a 1960s hongni pot I recently got. As far as I can tell it's pretty thin walled, medium to high fired. From my testing so far it's very slightly muting compared to porcelain and really makes tea smoother. I would love to hear what tea everyone would pair it with. The pour is 12 seconds btw.

Pour is rather slow, so definitely some of the more forgiving teas like Taiwanese rolled oolongs. I remember Steanze saying a good alternative choice for Taiwanese gaoshan for a thin walled porcelain gaiwan is a thin walled 60ies or 70ies hongni

[Bok]

Anyways it was expensive – feed it your best and most precious tea!

[Teachronicles]

Here's a 1960s hongni pot I recently got. As far as I can tell it's pretty thin walled, medium to high fired. From my testing so far it's very slightly muting compared to porcelain and really makes tea smoother. I would love to hear what tea everyone would pair it with. The pour is 12 seconds btw.

Pour is rather slow, so definitely some of the more forgiving teas like Taiwanese rolled oolongs. I remember Steanze saying a good alternative choice for Taiwanese gaoshan for a thin walled porcelain gaiwan is a thin walled 60ies or 70ies hongni

I thought goashan would be a good fit for it but I drink much more roasted oolongs, and would hate to see it get neglected. Side question, is goashan refer to only the greener variety of high mountain or just anything grown at high elevation? I figured youd know this bok.

[Teachronicles]

Another question, related to testing pots. You can brew a fair amount of tea in a pot before worrying about it influencing future brews right? Ive heard different things about how long it takes to season a pot so it'd be great to get some clarification.

[Victoria]

Another question, related to testing pots. You can brew a fair amount of tea in a pot before worrying about it influencing future brews right? Ive heard different things about how long it takes to season a pot so it'd be great to get some clarification.

For roasted oolong I prefer Hokujo’s stellar stoneware kyusu, solid build, dense walls hold aroma and flavor in a most ideal way. For this kind of pot I would assign LiShan, Dayuling, FuShouShan, ShanLiXi etc. But it is best that you compare how it performs, before assigning a pairing. Each pot is different. Washing with boiling water between testing out different teas helps to reset the pot as you become aquainted. If you are concerned a heavy aroma might remain, rinse with boiling water a few times, and even let one rinse sit overnight, and then taste the cool water to test.

[Teachronicles]

Another question, related to testing pots. You can brew a fair amount of tea in a pot before worrying about it influencing future brews right? Ive heard different things about how long it takes to season a pot so it'd be great to get some clarification.

For roasted oolong I prefer Hokujo’s stellar stoneware kyusu, solid build, dense walls hold aroma and flavor in a most ideal way. For this kind of pot I would assign LiShan, Dayuling, FuShouShan, ShanLiXi etc. But it is best that you compare how it performs, before assigning a pairing. Each pot is different. Washing with boiling water between testing out different teas helps to reset the pot as you become aquainted. If you are concerned a heavy aroma might remain, rinse with boiling water a few times, and even let one rinse sit overnight, and then taste the cool water to test.

I actually just spoke with toru from artistic nippon about kohokujo, one of hokujos sons, making a smaller kyusu, similar to the ones sold out on there now, which he's agreed to do. Im pretty sure he uses the same clay as his father and from artistic nippons selection it seemed hokujo makes mostly bigger pots, which I wouldn't use much.

I'll do the boiling water rinses and I hadn't thought to taste the water once it's cooled.

[Bok]

I thought goashan would be a good fit for it but I drink much more roasted oolongs, and would hate to see it get neglected. Side question, is goashan refer to only the greener variety of high mountain or just anything grown at high elevation? I figured youd know this bok.

Mostly only the greener stuff. As the aromas are so precious it is seldomly done to further process them, some consider it a waste and not worth the extra effort when you can already get premium prices for it in the greener state. And you can get excellent roast out of lower elevation material, so the high mountain is not strictly necessary. Dong Ding is considerably lower elevation usually.

If it is done it is mentioned. E.g. High mountain roasted/black whatever.

[Bok]

That said, I just had a 40year old DYL, so anything goes… if one can afford it.