Pairing tea with clay, how do you do it?

[Proinsias]

I've spent the past few years with my yixing-ish pots packed away and have been living with a gaiwan/glazed_kyusu/ingenuitea for some time.
I recently took out the pot I had reserved for shu pu-erh, as I'd been drinking a lot of shu, and remembered why I like little clay pots, I've brewed some sheng and oolong in it too and all was well.

I'm re-evaluating how I pair tea with a pot and just curious as to how others do it.

How do you decide on a pot for a particular tea and how particular are you about what tea goes in that pot?

[Frisbeehead]

Pair teas with a pot that showcases the aspects of the tea that you like. I just try out different kinds of teas in the pot until I find one that really works in it. I'm not too strict about only using that one tea in it after dedicating it, it's okay to use the pot to brew other teas every now and then. I just like to keep it in generally the same category, ex roasted oolongs, shu pu'erh, etc.

There isn't a guide or anything to help you do this, as it is a subjective thing. Perhaps you enjoy certain aspects of a certain tea, while others prefer other aspects. So just test it with different teas that you like until you find one that goes well with it This really is a deep rabbit hole, and has been discussed numerous times before on this forum. Try searching around for info on here, that's mostly how I've learned about tea/teaware.

[steanze]

Experiment and see what you like
I do something like this:

but there are exceptions.

[stevorama]

Flow chart!!!! Impressed. I like it.

[jayinhk]

Profile and shape count too, as well as size. That pot looks perfect for shu and wet stored sheng. If it was 100ml or under it might be a good candidate for high fire Wuyi. I tend to prefer smaller pots for delicate teas and larger ones for tea that can really take the heat for a while (pu erh).

Of course, the tea chooses the pot. I bought a 110ml hongni pot in Taiwan for gaoshan. I felt it took much away. It's now my young/dry storage sheng pot and is perfect in that role.

[Proinsias]

Thanks all, flowchart is cool.

The pot above has been my shu pot for a long while, after a spending a few weeks trying out some different teas in it I'm back to it being my shu pot

I got my wuyi pot out of storage and am fast again coming round to it being my wuyi pot but have more playing around to do. Looking forward to slowly reintroducing my small heard of pots back into daily life and trying some new teas in them.

[stevorama]

Another pairing question...I recently acquired a di cao qing pot. Thick walls, medium or maybe low fired, medium/low profile. I intended it as shu pu pot, but I find it mellows flavor to the point of making tea less interesting. I've tried it with mid aged and young sheng as well. Oddly it paired best with young sheng, but not the best compared to other pots. Any suggestions for pairing?

[Proinsias]

Sounds a little like my now qimen pot.

[stevorama]

That's an idea. I could try it with hong cha. I usually use a gaiwan. What type of clay is your qimen pot?

I don't see the "quote" button on the new format??

[Proinsias]

Not sure on clay type, just a wee brown pot. I got it as a freebie extra when buying a load of tea & teaware from the shop that introduced me to good tea when it was closing down a decade or so ago. The other two pots above came from the same haul. I tried a load of tea in it and it worked well with qimen, a definite improvement over gaiwan brewing imo.

Not particularly thin and seems fairly porous.

[stevorama]

Must be fun to dig out all your old teapots, like buried treasure. That looks like it might be zini with duan ni decoration? I'll try out the red tea this weekend. I haven't been drinking much of it in the past year so I didn't think of trying it. Maybe this will inspire me to drink more hong cha...if it pairs well.

[Proinsias]

Yeah, it's nice to be digging them back out. I went wild and got out my tea tray too. Three out, three to go, I think.

Qimen/Keemun is something I seldom reach for but when I do I binge on it for days.

Do you have a pic of the pot?

[stevorama]

Lighting not so good. Cup for scale!