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Posted: Apr 18th, '09, 12:56
by Tead Off
ck2998 wrote:Its nice to have some gold in your teapot.

All else being equal (size, capacity, shape etc), how much more does a Qing Shui Ni and Di Cao Qing teapot cost over a normal Zisha one?

If one is to brew Puerh in all 3 pots, will there be a noticeable difference?
Many prefer puple clay with Puerh. Real Zisha should get the most out of the Puerh. If you read my post in another thread, i recently tasted Puerh with water from a tetsubin and the tea in bankoyaki, a Japanese purple clay which is very high fired. Fabulous. The best Puerh I have ever tasted.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Oct 21st, '09, 14:03
by jackdaniel
So, if I were to get four different teapots (one for shu pu, one for sheng pu, one for light roast oolong, and one for dark roast oolong), which type of clay and shape or style of pot would be best?

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Oct 22nd, '09, 03:17
by betta
jackdaniel wrote:So, if I were to get four different teapots (one for shu pu, one for sheng pu, one for light roast oolong, and one for dark roast oolong), which type of clay and shape or style of pot would be best?
For Puerh, either raw or ripe puerh, generally the brown-dark clay is good.
For oolong, I can't comment much because I dislike roasted oolong so I don't try a lot of this. Ask Tead Off for oolong, he knows a lot about this.
I drink mainly non roasted oolong like TGY and if you after the floral aroma more than anything else, look for thin walled Zhuni.
Consider the shape of the pot, there has been a discussion about it somewhere here. But generally shui pin suits well with all kind of teas as far as I know.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Oct 22nd, '09, 10:06
by Tead Off
For me, I would choose the following:

Puerh- Zisha purple/brown clay.
Green Oolong- Zhuni, rounder, taller shape, thinner or med walled.
Wuyi-Zhuni, flatter shape, medium thick.

Trick is to get older zhuni and zisha clay. Unfortunately, more expensive. You can also try banko purple clay for Puerh and I have had good brews of green oolong in bizen teapots, both Japanese, and, both less expensive than older Yixing.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Oct 24th, '09, 01:54
by Oni
There are small 150 ml banko teapots on the nmarket, but Hojo recomend it for ripe puerh or 10 years and older raw (for me real) puerh.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Oct 24th, '09, 03:10
by Tead Off
I drank some sheng in Hojo's shop in a banko cup with water from a tetsubin. Very delicious. The Hojo god claims the tea coming into contact with the cup also changes the flavor. There was clear difference between this and porcelain in a side by side test. I don't drink enough Puerh to give a real opinion between the effect on newer and older sheng.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Nov 30th, '12, 07:27
by needaTEAcher
Is there any darker di cao qing? HIgher fired maybe? Most of what I have seen is pretty light. I think Tim's photo on this thread is the darkest I have seen, and that seems due more to the patina.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Nov 30th, '12, 10:57
by TIM
needaTEAcher wrote:Is there any darker di cao qing? HIgher fired maybe? Most of what I have seen is pretty light. I think Tim's photo on this thread is the darkest I have seen, and that seems due more to the patina.
Since you are in Yixing and working with a studio there, why don't you ask these questions and let us know the answers? Btw, your company hired the potter or you are join venturing with one, if I may ask? Thanks ~ T

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Nov 30th, '12, 21:03
by needaTEAcher
I ask too many questions already! The language barrier is a pain, so I try to bring my overflow here! :oops: Also, I find that a lot of of the folks here are a bit...well...high-brow! So they will look at dcq clay that is really low quality, and say, "Meh, that is not dcq," even though another person might say it is! One guy even argues that if there are any additives at all then it cannot be sold as zisha! That's why we don't sell any mao lvni. But that is ultimately my curiousity...if lower grade dcq clay is less reddish and darker, maybe closer in appearance to normal zini or qing shui ni. I will poke around here and see.

We have recently closed our previous factory, and opened a brand new factory (Korean-Nak Seng Do Ye; Chinese-Le Sheng Tao Ye; English-Happy Life Ceramic Arts; please forgive my awful transliterations!) with 8 or 10 artisans, fully employed by us, and 2 full time state-certified masters, with a whole handful of other masters who come and go, doing bits and pieces for us. But the American branch, tentatively called G.U. Earth Tea, will only have 1 or 2 master pots, and low-level masters at that. The Korean stores have pots ranging from US$100 to US$50,000 (only 3 or 4 of those, made by grandmasters-and wow are they pretty!), with a lot of master pots in the US$600-$10,000 range. These will not be imported to the US unless there is a dramatic shift in the market in the coming years. :)

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 2nd, '12, 21:30
by bagua7
needaTEAcher wrote:Is there any darker di cao qing?
I think earlier decades produced darker clays. Here's one I got using 80s stock:

Image

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 3rd, '12, 04:03
by needaTEAcher
Nice pot Baggy! Where did you get it/who told you it was dcq? Can anyone else verify?

I really, really like it. I actually have a pot very similar, and it feels so so so soft. I thought it was dcq, but it was too dark, so.....fingers crossed!

Panel of peers: evaluate!!

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 3rd, '12, 21:31
by bagua7
The seller I bought it from in eBay. Yes it is very soft but brews excellent ripe puerh. Photos of the difference between 80s, 90s and 00s clays were sent to me so I could see the difference. I have pots made in all those decades, the 90s is not as dark and the one of the last decade is a lot lighter.

But the 80s pot I got is of medium di cao qing quality. The 90s one I purchased from Chen is exactly the same as the one she posted on the first page of this thread and it is not bad but high-fired, something that I am not very keen of for brewing ripe puerh tea. The last pot (2000s) was purchased from a Shanghai based dealer (not eBay) and the colour is similar to the following QSN pot:

http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/prod ... roduct=112

This one is low fired and it also brews excellent puerh.

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 3rd, '12, 21:41
by needaTEAcher
Groovy. Thanks Baggy. I appreciate the documentation!

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 6th, '12, 16:59
by TIM
Image

Good example of high grade Zisha by master 顧陸舟 brother of Gu Jingzhou.

Image

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKjjab5Z3RI

Re: Grades of Yixing Zisha

Posted: Dec 8th, '12, 00:18
by Maxwell2079
Good example of high grade Zisha by master 顧陸舟 brother of Gu Jingzhou.
That clay looks so smooth, really impressive!!