Genmaicha in a yixing? (Foolish?) narrative + question

[Corymickey]

If this forum constitutes a city of tea, I feel like I'm probably about to reveal myself as the village idiot. Anyways,

Today I bought myself my second yixing from Teavana, having bought myself one from there last winter and dedicating it to one of their oolong blends. I know many of you tend to scorn Teavana but I typically get all my tea supplies there, because even though there are things about it that annoy me and I've exhausted most of their tea options, I still tend to enjoy a number of teas I've gotten from there so don't really feel properly motivated to find another source.
I've kind of been wanting to buy another yixing for awhile, I sort of bonded with my first one although i feel silly saying that, but don't always want to be drinking that specific oolong. Anyways today I stood around in the store for quite awhile and finally picked out a pot I liked (am I a fool for buying yixing from them? Is it even real yixing? ) but was a bit distressed to realize I couldn't think of what tea to use it for. The person in the store told me it was a bad idea to use them for black tea, which is what I usually drink, and I kind of wanted to use it for something other than oolong. Unfortunately black and oolong is pretty much all I drink.
But then, as if guided by some sort of higher god of tea, I overheard the aforementioned store helper mention genmaicha to a different customer in the store. I realized I had never tried it before and immediately became curious. I typically can't stand green tea (read: have regretted every purchase of it ever made), but the description of it that I overheard sounded like a tea I had the other day at a sushi place that hadn't been too bad. So on a whim I bought 3 oz of it with my new yixing, and a few other blacks/oolongs I needed to restock on.
Now tonight I found myself reresearching the yixing preparation stuff since I can't remember doing it before too well, and I stumble across a few people saying green tea in a yixing is a bad idea. And that black is alright. So now I find myself cursing that store clerk for telling me black tea in a yixing was a cultural no-no, or something like that. Also I feel like genmaicha might just be a sketchy tea in general and not worthy of yixing. But I brewed some in my all-purpose pot and took a quite a liking to it (though it has yet to stand the test of time). So I suppose my question now is, can I use a yixing pot for it? Would I be able to show my face in the tea community ever again? Now that I've already begun to associate the pot with genmaicha in my head, I've sort of psychologically prepared the pot already and it may be past the point of no return. Should I just try to develop a taste for coffee?

Thanks for any help, sorry if this turned into a long and rambling post.

[hop_goblin]

The fact of the matter is that can brew any tea in a Yixing pot. Black a cultural no-no.. that is the first time I have ever heard of that considering I have chinese "black" teas. The only rule that I have heared about types of teas and Yixing is that Green or delicate teas are better off not being brewed in a them since they retain more heat.

[Geekgirl]

Don't have a culturally "correct" answer to your question... well, yes I do. You would probably want to use a thin-walled, small kyusu for your genmaicha to be culturally correct. But who cares? If your little yixing makes a good cup of black or genmaicha, then go for it.

*shrug* I cross brew ALL the time.

Anyways, your post made me want genmaicha. So I had some. Yummy.

[Pentox]

The rule of thumb around here seems to be, whatever floats your boat.

personally I wouldn't yixing a genmaicha. The reason primarily being that I have a tokoname kyusu. With tokoname kyusus the clay has an iron content which is said to reduce the astringency in green tea and make a smoother cup.

Whatever you like though.

[devites]

I personally never cross cultural grounds. Tea has been drunk out of these devices for at least a hundred years and I don't know the scientific reasons, but hey I just go with the history.

[Marky]

I don't know much about yixings, but lack of knowledge never stopped me from sharing my opinion. My concern would be the starch from the rice in the genmaicha getting caught in the porous clay of the yixing. I have had the experience of genmaicha gumming up strainers.

[chrl42]

I've said it before but I want to say it again.

I've tried that recently, brewing green and white tea in porous clay(duanni) and non-porous clay(zhuni).

As for greens, brewed taste from duanni was one of mildest tea I've ever had. Had its own charateritics distinct from gaiwan brewing. From zhuni, I haven't found many differences I should try that again.

As for white(bai mu dan), result was rather better. Even from duanni, I didn't find it changed, maybe bai mu dan already has 'plain' taste? Result was plain, mild, lingering bai mu dan.

Personally, I'd still prefer green and white brewed in a gaiwan. One of my hobbies is watching floating leaves in a gaiwan.

And as Hop Goblin pointed out, I don't find specific reason for those teas brewed in yixings cos one reason is thermal conductivity. Oolongs are often rolled, and made with grown leaves which are more resistent to heats. And yixing's heat retaining nature brew them in a quicker time and often their leaves are ugly. So I don't mind their view blocked from yixing wall.

[hop_goblin]

Personally, I'd still prefer green and white brewed in a gaiwan. One of my hobbies is watching floating leaves in a gaiwan

I like that!

[britt]

Tea processing and the resulting tealeaf are very different for Chinese and Japanese teas, as are the brewing methods. The design, construction, clay, and filters of the pots designed to brew each type are also very different.

Hundreds of years of tea history in these countries has resulted in very different tea and teaware from each, leading me to believe that I'm better off using Chinese teaware for Chinese tea and Japanese teaware for Japanese tea.

As with everything, we learn by trying. We can try everything or we can narrow down the variables and concentrate on those we believe are the most important and the most productive. There's still plenty to learn about brewing technique when brewing tea in the pots that were designed for them, so I personally don't wish to add another variable.

[britt]

You would probably want to use a thin-walled, small kyusu for your genmaicha to be culturally correct.

For typical genmaicha, which uses either cheaper bancha or low grade sencha and calls for higher water temp, I've found a heavy, double-walled Somayaki kyusu to work very well, as it holds the heat better.

I've just ordered some genmaicha from Zencha.net which claims to use high grade sencha (judging by the price, it probably does). For this one, I'll use a thin, light kyusu as a starting point because high quality sencha needs to release the heat faster for best results.

I believe the intent of adding rice to tea was to enhance the flavor of lower grade or later harvest tea, so I'm not sure if it makes sense to make genmaicha with high quality sencha. Regardless, I want to try it at least once.

Tea-teapot matching is more a case of physics than culture. I doubt that any Yixing is a good match for every Chinese tea, just as different kyusu's work better with different Japanese teas. I have found the Japanese kyusu to be less sensitive to tea types, but the differences are still there.