Teapot for Black Tea

[Maitre_Tea]

I don't know if this belongs here or in the Black Tea section. I'm a little curious whether or not you using a yixing teapot would work for black tea. If that's the case, what should I look for? Should it be a compressed shape? Should it be Black Clay? I usually drink keemun and lapsang souchang, but I'm also interested in Yunnan Gold

[taitea]

I see no reason why you shouldn't use a yixing fro black teas. My guess is anything with thick walls would be fine, in order to retain the high heat needed for blacks. A ball filter might be a good idea too.

[wyardley]

I don't know if this belongs here or in the Black Tea section. I'm a little curious whether or not you using a yixing teapot would work for black tea. If that's the case, what should I look for? Should it be a compressed shape? Should it be Black Clay? I usually drink keemun and lapsang souchang, but I'm also interested in Yunnan Gold

I do think a yixing pot is appropriate for red (black in the west); in fact, most of the Yixing potters supposedly drink a local red tea (yang xian hong cha - 阳羡红茶; yang xian is an old name for yixing). This was posted about recently on the Black Tea forum. I tried some once, and it was really delicious (and I am not usually a big red tea drinker).

When I was at a tea shop on my recent trip to the Pac NW, which I've written about in some other posts, I saw some small, tall (proportionally), and very narrow pots, and wondered what type of tea they could be used for; the proprietor said red (i.e., black) tea. I have another friend who frequently brews red tea in some small, one-hole spout (no filter), shui ping pots (zi ni on the inside; hong ni on the outside). She says it comes out well.

On a practical level, I'm guessing you'd ideally want some sort of filter on the spout for most types of red tea, since the leaves tend to be smaller than other types, and for that reason, a fairly small volume might be appropriate as well. I don't drink enough of it to have much personal experience in terms of what shapes work well.

[Salsero]

a local red tea (yang xian hong cha - 阳羡红茶; yang xian is an old name for yixing). This was posted about recently on the Black Tea forum.

I take it that Grand Tea's Yixing Souchong is an example or yang xian, as mentioned in Corax's Cha Dao post in March of last year. Do you know of any other sources for this tea?

[wyardley]

a local red tea (yang xian hong cha - 阳羡红茶; yang xian is an old name for yixing). This was posted about recently on the Black Tea forum.

I take it that Grand Tea's Yixing Souchong is an example or yang xian, as mentioned in Corax's Cha Dao post in March of last year. Do you know of any other sources for this tea?

Not 100% sure one way or another whether it's the same tea or not.

I found contact information for a few factories, but so far haven't had much luck contacting them by phone or email. I'm working on a couple of other ways of getting some for myself. Overall, it's not a very common tea, and I think it's not that famous or popular other than with Yixing potters and / or folks around that area.

[Salsero]

I think it's not that famous or popular other than with Yixing potters and / or folks around that area.

Corax's review of three examples was not overly enthusiastic. In addition to Grand Tea, he also references a vendor site in Chinese that I was not able to read.

[chrl42]

Do you know of any other sources for this tea?

Yixing Hong Cha is pretty common here, I should send you some

Slightly over-priced than Keemun or Dian Hong, and the leaves as big as dian hong's.


As for Yixing, I've heard they would work nice with pattern good with retaining heat such as circular pattern etc..

This is what I use for Hong Cha, 'Mei Ren Jin'(beautiful woman's shoulder), a large one giving it one quick brew..

[wyardley]

I think it's not that famous or popular other than with Yixing potters and / or folks around that area.

Corax's review of three examples was not overly enthusiastic. In addition to Grand Tea, he also references a vendor site in Chinese that I was not able to read.

I am not usually a fan of red / "black" tea, but this one was very nice to my taste. I stupidly didn't write down the name of the manufacturer, or find out of I could buy some to take home. I remember it having a pretty sweet flavor; very pleasant. It's been a while, so I can't really describe the taste much better than that. It reminded me a little of oolongs that are close to red tea on the spectrum, like Oriental Beauty.

None of the sites he referenced seemed to be selling it anymore. I don't know how good any of those ones in particular were, and of course it's possible that Corax hasn't had a lot of experience brewing that particular tea. The guy who brewed it for me brewed it very well.