Small glazed pot with good heat retention

[wayneberndz]

Hello there..

I know there are a million threads about yixing pots, but I have one specific question I haven't found an answer to. I've read a few recommendations to use a glazed clay pot if you want to brew different teas in the same pot. I know that the glazed inside will prevent the clay from casting its magic spell on the tea, but I want to experiment a bit and maybe the good heat retention is more important than the absorbing clay anyway.

So what I'm looking for (and haven't found anywhere, I looked at a lot of vendors) is a small (80-150ml) glazed pot which retains heat very well (should rule out kyusus). I've seen some discussions about unhealthy chemicals in the glaze, so of course I'd like to omit that. Since it does not have to be yixing, it can be made outside of China too. It does not even need to be clay, just something with optimum heat retention, if there are alternatives.

If you know something fitting, you just can post the link if that's okay.

(And I promise I won't start many more threads )

[Tead Off]

I think that kyusu are generally safe and do not have toxic ingredients in the clay. The Japanese are very careful about this. Tokoname and Banko kyusu are usually not glazed but there are some that are. There are myriads of glazed teapots to choose from both in Japan and elsewhere. This should be an easy and fun search.

The question of heat retention is another matter. Is glazed better than unglazed? Personally, I don't think so. But, this is something for you to discover yourself and experimenting is a must. Clay absorption and heat retention are 2 features of a good pot. You cannot acheive clay absorption with a glazed pot.

As for brewing more than 1 tea in an unglazed pot, you can do it. The purists will argue vehemently against this but it is done by many. And, for your purposes at this stage, why not?

[wyardley]

I'd go for a plain white porcelain pot, or else one of the glazed Taiwanese pots like the ones Lin's makes. Or what about using a gaiwan instead of a pot?

[Smells_Familiar]

Hello there..

Doctor Lawrence Jacoby? Well, goodness....you found my ping pong ball!!

so you want a brewing vessel that has good heat retention and won't absorb much flavor from the tea brewed in it? are you brewing lots of puerh?

i'm not sure where to buy vessels with viterous glazed interiors... and, in the long run, i don't think this is what you would want.
i will say that i reckon you'd be happy with a kyusu or a dense high fired yixing pot. these have good heat retention properties and won't absorb much aroma from the tea. if heat retention isn't such a big deal, i'd definate;ly go with a gaiwan for everything.

[TokyoB]

I was also thinking of a Lin's Ceramic Studio glazed 100cc clay pot. This model is called the Prosperity Pot and is available in 5 different colors. It is also available unglazed.
Here's a link to a PDF catalog. It is on the 3rd page, numbered page 1.

http://www.aurlia.com.tw/images/stories/cataloguea.pdf

I think someone showed the black/red one here on TeaChat:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=90

Good luck!

[xuancheng]

I'd go for a plain white porcelain pot, or else one of the glazed Taiwanese pots like the ones Lin's makes. Or what about using a gaiwan instead of a pot?

Can you go for the Gaiwan? You could get a thicker one. Using more leaf, you could shorten the infusion time and thereby make heat retention not so important.

Gaiwans are great for everything! Do you have one already? Or do you need the pot for some other purpose?

[wayneberndz]

Okay, here's what I got so far:

• 100 ml thin porcelain gaiwan
• 90 ml clay outside/porcelain inside gaiwan on its way from Dragon Tea House, but the clay does not look very thick on the pictures
• 320 ml unglazed Kyusu from O-cha (thanks to you of course and it arrived today), I don't really want to use it for more oxidized teas
• a cheap 300 ml porcelain pot and an even cheaper 300 ml clay pot which stinks so bad I won't consider using it

Now that i've listed it, that's a lot to begin with. I'm just trying to get a good overview of all sorts of tea available without buying three clay pots, that's why it should be glazed. I'll do some veeery scientific experiments this weekend to check the heat retention of my gaiwan and pots.
Of course gaiwans are fine and I'll try the clay one as soon as it arrives, but for heat retention clay pots maybe really would work best. Not that it's very important for a beginner like me, but hey.. I'll just try to get the best out of tea from the beginning.

So Lin's Ceramic Studio looks really interesting. I'll try to let the machine translate a bit of it. Are there prices on their site? Has anybody ordered there and could tell about their experience? Especially what price range they are in (slightly higher?), shipping costs and time.. Maybe I'll send them an email.

Buying one good unglazed pot and just try using it with very different teas (ie darjeelings, various oolongs) also seems an option. Or do you think that would ruin the tea, even if I rinse the pot after each use with boiling water?

Thanks for all your input.
(And I'm afraid "hello there" isn't Jacoby's catchphrase )

[Oni]

I think porcelain gaiwan set is good for practice, in fujian province it is often used, the only difficulty I found that you cannot control the pour when filling the cups directly, with a good yixing I move my hand as if it is moved by the wind and pour into cups directly in an alternative manner.

[wayneberndz]

If anyone's interested, here are my experimental results

I meassured the temperature of the kyusu, gaiwan, 300 ml porcelain pot and clay pot once without preheating and once with preheating about 1:30 after putting boiling water in. There was almost no difference, neither concerning preheating nor different pots. Without preheating it was 78-83°C, with preheating 80-85°C, porcelain highest and gaiwan lowest.

I'm really curious to try that with a small good quality clay pot. Atleast looking at this numbers I think some people maybe overrate the temperature difference with different vessels. Of course the temperature development from pouring to 1:30 could be more varied than the end results.

I'm studying physics, maybe that's why I like doing this. Btw, I just used water without tea here. Maybe some teas are sensitive to a few °C difference, but I can't really imagine. I'll have to investigate...