Sketchy Yixing pot?

[xmfi]

I bought this pot in Xitang, one of those little touristy water villages outside of Shanghai, just over a month ago. Nothing about it seemed particularly suspect at the time. It was sold to me as new, neither cheap nor expensive, lid fits well, pours reasonably well. (It did smell a little weird at first, along the lines of air pollution and cigarette smoke, but that's how everything there smelled and it went away after boiling it at home for a while.)

I just used it for the first time a week or so ago to make some aged pu erh. After just five or six infusions, it's quickly taking on a blackish coloration in some areas. This seems strange to me. Of course, the ability to develop patina is one of the attractions of clay teapots. However, I have several others, Chinese and Japanese, and none have ever changed color this dramatically this quickly. Note the discolored areas, which cannot be washed off:







To add to the weirdness, the inside does not seem to have changed color at all:



Unfortunately, I neglected to take any "before" pictures, but basically it was just a uniform reddish orange.

Any thoughts? I have no idea what kind of clay this pot is made from; I don't know if it is perhaps more porous and just absorbing the tea more quickly than my other pots, or if this is something to be concerned about. The fact that the inside still looks brand new seems particularly strange to me.

Thanks!

[xmfi]

To clarify, I say "Yixing" due simply to the style of the pot. I actually have no idea whether it was made in Yixing or not.

[Tead Off]

Would love to help but I can't tell anything from the photos. It looks like the clay is a more absorbent type and would take on tea staining more easily than a highly burnished pot. How is the tea it makes? Do you enjoy it or is there something strange about that too? I think a lot of people don't know what to expect out of a pot and tourists are routinely sold suspect goods. This is why I always recommend buying from a trusted vendor. Mistakes are less likely.

[xmfi]

Would love to help but I can't tell anything from the photos. It looks like the clay is a more absorbent type and would take on tea staining more easily than a highly burnished pot. How is the tea it makes?

That may well be the case. I've never had a pot this matte before and don't know either way whether it's normal for it to change color this rapidly. The tea it makes is good (no strange taste or anything like that), in my opinion, and the 'performance' of the pot is good.

Do you enjoy it or is there something strange about that too?

I like the pot in and of itself and, again, the tea it makes is decent! Wondering if there might be something questionable about the quality, though, does affect my enjoyment of it to an extent!

I think a lot of people don't know what to expect out of a pot and tourists are routinely sold suspect goods. This is why I always recommend buying from a trusted vendor. Mistakes are less likely.

Agreed. I bought it accompanied by Chinese friends who didn't think anything seemed sketchy; however, we still bought it in an area where almost anyone, Chinese or not, is a tourist. Typically I buy tea and teaware from vendors with whom I have experience and trust. I happened to see and like this pot in a tourist area, though, and the price was reasonable enough that I thought it was worth the risk. Now I'm just trying to determine whether there's anything wrong with it or not.

Thanks for your reply.

[Tead Off]

My suggestion is to keep using it until you either discover something 'strange' or simply stop questioning whether there is something strange.

After you are through with your session, empty the leaves and run very hot water through the pot and over the pot. Then, take a towel and rub the surface vigourously until dry, both the lid and body. This will distribute any tea staining and help you develop the overall look of the clay. Just don't drop it. And, let it air dry with the top off of the pot.

[gingkoseto]

I am not sure, but this is what I think - as far as I know, some authentic red clay (yours is, I guess) will have iron accumulated after the pot is made or used for a while. It's quite normal and a few of my red teapots has flee bite size iron blocks. Yours seems to have more than usual level of black, which I heard could happen on duan ni or red clay pots but I've never experienced it. But I do have a little red clay used teapot which is black all over, and I don't yet know if the teapot is good to use. But yours looks fine to me.

P.S. I also heard the cause of black all over is either clay material is not good enough (but still harmless and authentic) or the kiln temperature is not high enough. My used teapot with black all over, I can somewhat tell it's clay is not dense enough, probably due to low fire. But since I don't know where it's from, I am not sure if my teapot is normal black due to iron.

[Tead Off]

Gingko, can you post some photos of this black pot? I would like to see what it looks like.

[gingkoseto]

Gingko, can you post some photos of this black pot? I would like to see what it looks like.

Here it is

[MarshalN]

In response to the OP: Your pot looks fine, but like gingko said, it looks like it's underfired and yixing clay, for whatever reason, tends to spew black dots when that happens (and when hot water hits). Does it smell funny when you pour hot water in it and then pour it out?

Also, the line around the rim is probably just tea stains -- you should be able to wipe that off with a wet cloth.

Does the pot sound a bit hollow when you knock the lid on the body?

[TIM]

What should you do if it smell funny?

[tenuki]

What should you do if it smell funny?

Panic.

[TIM]

What should you do if it smell funny?

Panic.

Ho Ho Ho!

[xmfi]

Thanks for all of the replies. I think I'm going to continue using the pot for now and see how things go. Really, I just wanted to make sure that nothing about it jumped out at or seemed unusual to anyone else.

(I think seeing the enormous spectrum of consumer goods' quality in China, from the very high quality to the very, very low quality, may have made me a little paranoid when the teapot did something unexpected!)

Thanks again.

[chrl42]

It's called 吐黑 (Tu Hei), happens to some large-particle clay and when it's not fired high enough, Yixing potters tried many ways to avoid that common black stain from firing to mixing clay.

I believe it causes from tea juice snuck into uncrystallized spaces of particles..to remove it, you might need to fire it again I mean if it really is Tu Hei..