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May 23rd, '13, 12:09
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In defense of "big" pots.

by futurebird » May 23rd, '13, 12:09

I like big pots and I cannot lie...

OK that was uncalled for (but irresistible) Seriously, though ever since my husband started drinking tea too I've been using my 220ml and 280ml teapots much more often. I still pack them fairly full, but it's just too much work to fill the cha hai with a 80ml pot.

When I'm on my own I still use the small ones, or when we want to taste several teas in secession.

A 220ml pot filled with leaves last all day and then some, it's so easy I can see why the bigger styles are more popular.

So in general:

one person 75-150ml
two people 150-300ml
three people 300-475ml
four people 475-550ml
five people 550-625ml

30ml pots are for 3-tea tastings for one or 4-5 tea tastings for two.

what's the most teas you tried in a single session?

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May 23rd, '13, 13:17
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by Tead Off » May 23rd, '13, 13:17

No defense needed. I have a Seong il 600ml pot that get pulled out when I have several people here and we're drinking Darjeeling or other black/red teas.

Many reasons to have some larger pots on hand.

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May 23rd, '13, 13:48
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by amaranto » May 23rd, '13, 13:48

Agreed. For me, it always depends on the types of tea I will be tasting, whether I will be trying things out alone or with one or more people, etc. If I have people over to sample teas, I use several different pots and/or gaiwans that I feel are best-suited to the teas at hand, and I have tried up to five or six teas in one session using this method (imagine the nice buzz that resulted in).

I personally prefer a 150 mL brewing vessel while I'm working (and usually use a gaiwan), though most of my Yixing pots are between 70 and 90 mL and suit me just fine.

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May 23rd, '13, 13:56
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by debunix » May 23rd, '13, 13:56

Yes!

I adore my small pots, and when I am sitting quietly for a tea session by myself, they are in use more often than not. But today I just finalized the purchase of another larger brew vessel (250mL shibo) to use at work, because my trips down the hall with the tea pitcher or yuzamashi now sometimes involve filling 7 cups as I go. I'm scouting for a larger yuzamashi eventually too.

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May 23rd, '13, 15:04
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by amaranto » May 23rd, '13, 15:04

But today I just finalized the purchase of another larger brew vessel (250mL shibo) to use at work, because my trips down the hall with the tea pitcher or yuzamashi now sometimes involve filling 7 cups as I go.
Yes, this kind of thing can be annoying. I ended up moving my Bonavita to my work desk during the day for this reason. I still have to keep the water pitcher filled, though, but it's pretty big.

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by saxon75 » May 23rd, '13, 16:22

Out of curiosity, debunix, where did you get the large shiboridashi?

I have been interested in getting some new brewing vessels and doing something closer to gongfu-style preparation, but the thing that trips me up when it comes to gaiwans and clay pots is that I'm just never interested in having less than about 200 ml of tea at a time, even if I'm alone. In fact, when I'm at work I usually want more like 350 to 450 ml at a time, and stacking that many little infusions is just a pain in the rear.

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by debunix » May 23rd, '13, 16:51

My 250 mL shibo is on its way from Petr Novak.

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by saxon75 » May 23rd, '13, 16:58

Wow. I just looked him up and he makes some beautiful pieces.

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May 23rd, '13, 19:03
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by gingkoseto » May 23rd, '13, 19:03

Your example of 220ml "big pot" is a typical "small pot" in the sense of Yixing professional community. :P
When art critics talk about how Shi Dabin of Ming Dynasty made the "revolutionary move" to create "small size" yixing, the examples discussed are small teapots of 200ml or slightly larger.
Big and small are all relative. About 90% of the "smallest-sized-yixing" users I've ever known of are from teachat :mrgreen: And I guess that's largely due to peer influence among each other.

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by Chris418 » May 23rd, '13, 19:16

debunix wrote:My 250 mL shibo is on its way from Petr Novak.
Where can we buy Petr Novak tea vessel ?

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May 23rd, '13, 19:31
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by 茶藝-TeaArt08 » May 23rd, '13, 19:31

Chris418 wrote:
debunix wrote:My 250 mL shibo is on its way from Petr Novak.
Where can we buy Petr Novak tea vessel ?
On his blog you can view his "available" pottery/ceramic. Also, below the slideshow on the blog are various links to vendors that sell his wares online: http://keramikstudio.artkeramika.cz/en/ ... a-pottery/

Click on the "Contact" portion of his blog. You can email him or you can send him a personal message here on TeaChat. You can as well post in the "Teaware Artisans" subject head here on TeaChat in his thread: http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... &start=660

May 24th, '13, 00:48
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by theredbaron » May 24th, '13, 00:48

gingkoseto wrote:Your example of 220ml "big pot" is a typical "small pot" in the sense of Yixing professional community. :P
When art critics talk about how Shi Dabin of Ming Dynasty made the "revolutionary move" to create "small size" yixing, the examples discussed are small teapots of 200ml or slightly larger.
Big and small are all relative. About 90% of the "smallest-sized-yixing" users I've ever known of are from teachat :mrgreen: And I guess that's largely due to peer influence among each other.
Then i belong to the 10% - i have been using small tea pots before i knew that there is something like the internet existing and had no clue how to use a computer :wink:

I have drunk Chinese tea for the first time in Singapore - in a small pot. When i went to China first, i got mostly influenced by the way how southern Chinese drink tea - a concentrated liquid with short steeping times in small pots. And so forth...

Basically, as i mostly drink tea alone, i use small pots - around 80ml mostly. Anymore and it would be difficult to finish when i do 10 + steepings. Also - using big pots can get quite expensive on the tea. Many of my teas are rare, and not cheap.
I am generally not in favor of several day sessions with the same tea. I think that there are health risks. This counts especially in the hot climate i live in.

The biggest Yixing pots i use are about 120 ml, for every day teas i drink while working at the computer, or when i just don't feel drinking my high quality teas. I have a few slightly larger Japanese pots - maybe 200 to 300 ml pots, for every day Sencha. My better Senchas or Gyokuros are just too expensive for such a large pot.


Too small though is not ideal - like 40 ml or less. I just have one such small pot, as a pocket traveling pot, or when i just want to have a bit of taste of tea.

It depends very much how many people take part in the tea session. That's also why traditional counting is done by cup, and not by ml - 2 cup, 3 cup, 4 cup, 6 cup, 8 cup, etc.
But i have taken part in sessions with several people where small pots were used for very rare teas, or larger pots were only filled partially with water, as the teas were just to rare and valuable.

Sometimes, when i drink tea with several people, such as introducing Chinese tea to people who don't know tea yet, i still use small pots, as i can show them different teas and how they develop in the same session, without overwhelming them.

It's about the taste, not about quenching thirst.

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May 24th, '13, 09:09
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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by lordsbm » May 24th, '13, 09:09

Not sure if you remember the qing hui sheng pin I posted a while ago in show off yixing thread. After burning it ended up as a 320ml pot, I still took it as it'll be perfect size for my wife and I to have tea together. 200ml gaiwan always seems not enough for two, especially when certain steeps you wish to have more than a cup :lol:

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by hopeofdawn » May 24th, '13, 11:54

I have a couple of very large pots I use for company--not sure about the size, but they're 4-5 cup pots, easy. But I find I use larger (200-300 ml) pots about as often as I do the smaller (100 ml or less) when brewing tea just for myself, usually when I'm working on art or doing something else where I'm not necessarily concentrating on the tea, but just want to fill up a yunomi to carry around and sip from ...

For the super-expensive and rare teas, though, I always go for the smaller pots and more full-bore gongfu style brewing. Teas like that deserve my full attention! :)

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Re: In defense of "big" pots.

by gingkoseto » May 24th, '13, 15:36

theredbaron wrote:
gingkoseto wrote:Your example of 220ml "big pot" is a typical "small pot" in the sense of Yixing professional community. :P
When art critics talk about how Shi Dabin of Ming Dynasty made the "revolutionary move" to create "small size" yixing, the examples discussed are small teapots of 200ml or slightly larger.
Big and small are all relative. About 90% of the "smallest-sized-yixing" users I've ever known of are from teachat :mrgreen: And I guess that's largely due to peer influence among each other.
Then i belong to the 10% - i have been using small tea pots before i knew that there is something like the internet existing and had no clue how to use a computer :wink:

Basically, as i mostly drink tea alone, i use small pots - around 80ml mostly. Anymore and it would be difficult to finish when i do 10 + steepings. Also - using big pots can get quite expensive on the tea. Many of my teas are rare, and not cheap.
I am generally not in favor of several day sessions with the same tea. I think that there are health risks. This counts especially in the hot climate i live in.

The biggest Yixing pots i use are about 120 ml, for every day teas i drink while working at the computer, or when i just don't feel drinking my high quality teas. I have a few slightly larger Japanese pots - maybe 200 to 300 ml pots, for every day Sencha. My better Senchas or Gyokuros are just too expensive for such a large pot.


Too small though is not ideal - like 40 ml or less. I just have one such small pot, as a pocket traveling pot, or when i just want to have a bit of taste of tea.
I have similar volume range as yours and I do see this range in a lot of gongfu tea drinkers and puerh drinkers. The astonishingly small sizes I talked about earlier are smaller than this range and I mostly see them on teachat only.

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