Another Yixing/Gongfu Question ...

[hopeofdawn]

A question for the yixing aficionados: when brewing tea, is it better to let a yixing teapot sit in the excess water of the tea tray/bowl/teaboat? Or should it be on a pedestal of some kind, so that water can drain off of it? Does it even matter when it comes to caring for your teapot (preventing water spots/lines and so on), or is it purely a matter of personal preference?

The reason I ask is that I've seen people use their yixing pots both ways, so it's hard to tell if there's a 'right' way to do this or not ....

[wyardley]

Someone asked about this last night.

I think the stands with drainage holes are mostly for people who are concerned about the way the pot's patina will build. Especially if you're lazy about pouring out the water you showered the pot with, or other water that builds up in there, you can get some weird stains around the bottom of the pot. However, the original purpose of these devices is to hold in heat around the pot, so having a stand clearly defeats this purpose. I don't really like the way the little stands look either. With most purpose built tea boats, they're removable.

Personally, I sometimes use a thin cloth pad, but I don't use a stand under the pot. The pad reduces the noise (and possible damage to the pot or tea boat from whichever is harder) caused when the pot is put down on the tea boat, but it does potentially make the ring around the bottom of the pot problem worse. I have 3 different kinds of pad - one is made of felt, another is a very thin one from Ten Ren (not sure what kind of material), and the third type is sort of like the kind of patch you'd sew on a uniform.

I usually pour off the excess water out of the tea boat after each brew, and most of the teas I make can handle a fair amount of heat.

[tingjunkie]

Yeah, I'd agree with what wyardley said. I like using a pedestal myself to avoid ring around the pot.

[Oni]

There is an article about the in the-leaf.org online tea magazine, it is a question of heat, if your tea needs a lot of heat that use the bath plus shower the teapot, if it needs less heat do not use bath or shower, put it on a stand, but after 1 or 2 infusions I empty the bath from the teaboat so that it never cools down, and after each infusion let the steam escape from the yixing teapot, take off the lid until the steam escapes, so that it does not cook the teapot.
As an example if you brew gong fu style; for aged puerh use a thick wall yixing and use bath plus shower to maximize heat, preferably use a tetsubin to heat water, aged tea needs heat, but if you are brewing taiwanese high mountaing oolong, specially low fired low oxidized like Li Shan, DYL, use thinner walled teapot and ceramic kettle and no teaboat, no shower on the pot, otherwise the tea might overheat.

[IPT]

There is no real "right" way to do it. It's all up to personal preference.

One thing that I noticed though is that people in the West seem to really worry about the eveness of their zisha's stains. Here, in China, most people don't worry about it at all because it'll eventually all even out.

Some people so worry about the ring on the bottom, but from what I've noticed most people don't and let their pots sit in the water.

There are two thoughts here. Some people want their teapots to be clean with little stain, and the others look at the stains as a sign of use and take great pride in them. I like the staining myself and do not try to avoid it.

I'd say about 80% of the people who buy teapots in my shop, actually leave them behind and ask me to constantly pour tea over them to darken them. I wouldn't do it myself, but it does season and stain them quicker than they would probably do it if they took them home.

I just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here. Of course, everyone is different and you should do what feels best for you.

Most of my teapots have dirty bottoms.

[Tead Off]

Agreed, no right or wrong way, just preference. I also know people who will leave their teapot at a shop for 'seasoning'.

When I first bought some of my pots, I used a zisha tea boat with a thin cloth pad under the pot as wyardley describes. I just let them sit in the tea water. After a number of years of doing this, the pots looked like hell. Terrible uneven staining. I decided I didn't like this approach and now prefer to keep the pots clean and polishing them after every use with a tea towel. I hardly ever use a boat these days.

[the_economist]

tead, do u mean you allowed them to sit in the teawater even after ending the session? my impression was that after use with a teaboat, one goes on with the usual business of wiping down the pot and drying it.

[hopeofdawn]

Thanks for all the replies--I'm definitely learning a lot!

Sounds like the best compromise for me might be to use a tea boat, but drain off the water regularly so as not to 'stew' my pot ...

[Tead Off]

tead, do u mean you allowed them to sit in the teawater even after ending the session? my impression was that after use with a teaboat, one goes on with the usual business of wiping down the pot and drying it.

When you are sitting around with friends or distracted by something else, the teapot just sits. I still don't always wash my pots immediately after using them.

[IPT]

Here's an example of what we've been talking about. I don't use a tea boat, so this is from years of sitting on tea trays. this is one of my zhuni teapots. It's very dark from use. It used to be much lighter.