New Yixing tea pots for me

[zipp]

My wife just bought me two yixing tea pots for my birthday, a very cool gift!

Well these are the first I have ever had. I do have a couple of oolongs that will work well with them. So I went online to look up how to season the tea pot. Well as you may know there are a huge number of methods that I have seen, I decided to use a bit of this and a bit of that to come up with my own. I hope I have not messed up.....

I started by scrubbing out the inside with a soft bottle brush rinsing it out with filtered water. Then I boiled the pot and lid for about 40 mins in filtered water. Pulled out the pot and lid replaced the water with fresh (filtered) and boiled with about 3 tblspn of the oolong I will use in the tea. I will let the pot sit in the tea water over night and pull it out in the morning.

But in my looking around I came across a video of seasoning a tea pot where after the first boil the person used toothpaste and a toothbrush to clean the inside and outside of the pot and lid. I thought that was kinda strange........

Huh... there really is no question in this post I guess I am excited about getting some cool teapots and wanted to share.

[guitarfreak2641]

Toothpaste? You arent suposed to clean yixing pots with anything that has a tast or smell. Thats weard.

[scruffmcgruff]

There is a dead blog (I forget the name) where someone showed how to use odorless denture cleaner to clean a very, very, very dirty old yixing teapot, but as yours are new, I don't think this is at all necessary for you.

As for seasoning, I don't think it's very easy to mess up. I've also heard from some people that seasoning isn't even necessary, unless you have a strong clay taste coming from your teapot.

Anyhoo, I will also be getting my first yixing pots in the mail relatively soon, so I share your excitement! Have fun!

[Mary R]

Ahh, that dead blog you are thinking of is TEAfiles. And don't forget the videos that Hop posted at Ancient Tea Horse Road detailing how to open/season and maintain yixing pots and such.

I'd say something about how I'm not such a geek in real life...but that would be lying, and lying is wrong.

[Mary R]

Tooootallly helps to read the beginning of the thread before barging in.

The videos Hop posted also show a person using a bit of what looks like toothpaste (and a toothbrush, but that bit is obvious) to open up the yixing. Personally, I wouldn't use my favorite minty toothpaste for this, but I think the intent is sound. The goal as I understand it is to knock as much dust and stuff out of the clay pores so that all the tea-y goodness can seep in to maximum potential. Toothpaste is essentially a porcelain cleaner, and not much is used so I guess it makes a decent substitute. Still...mint?

Wheee, insomnia!

[miro]

Hello , this is a reply to Zipp on "new Yixing tea pot .."
As a general rule you have done you seasoning correctly,
Here are some suggestions for your seasoning:
-you need to make sure you do not "Boil" water, you should have the water "gently rolling". This will prevent the teapot from moving around the pot and damaging the ceramic.
-Also make sure you have clean Catton fabric on bottom of our stainless or glass container which you are using for seasoning. This will prevent any damage from ceramic moving around the pot and it will be gentle when you remove teapot from container.
-when you add tea at your final stage, you should also have the water just rolling, but then turn the heat off.
-Do not use any brushes for scrubbing or any other means of cleaning.
-Good quality Yixing will be very clean and will not have much to remove at all , just some of the traces of clay smell.
Any-way I thought I share some of my thoughts, enjoy the feel of beautifyll Yixing teapot and tea from it.
Tx

[MarshalN]

Yeah, toothpaste is.... a bad idea.

I think you did just fine.