Bubba_tea wrote:
My rishi dragonegg qing shui ni pot was knocked off the counter by somebody who goes unnamed...
And now I'm looking for another in the $30-$50 range. The rishi pot had an air-tight lid (no drip with air hole covered) and I was happy with the quality. I liked the color of the qing shi ni clay - but handling wasn't great of the dragonegg - maybe crown pearl next time...
Couple of questions:
Rishi has 'qing shi ni', 'duan ni', 'hong ni', and 'zi sha' pots - is there any performance difference in the pots, or just color differences? Their prices seem very good considering cost of shipping from 5000friend.
Kam is going to be shipping me something from funalliance - that might be a good option - how are their pots related to the above vendors.
Finally - Tao of Tea has a 'Zhu Ni' Lu Yu pot that looks good - but @ $30 I'm sure isn't real Zhu Ni - regardless, any comments about the quality?
Cheers
There is a difference cos 4 clays come from different part of ore.
Qing Shui ni locates the mid-bottom of yixing ore below layers of 'normal clay' that uses for typical ceramics. Is of unfiltered clays that has many huge particles, and that is capable of absorbing quality.
Duan ni is a mixture of Zi ni and Lu ni. Manytime it's contained with artificial colors to cheap Zi ni(since Lu ni is hard to find). Generally Duan ni also is very powerful in absorbing.
Hong ni is one that contains many iron and most of time it's of small particles. For example, Xiao Hong ni and Zhu ni. Da Hong ni from Huang Long mountain is of bigger particle but comparably less 'breathing' quality than above 2 clays.
Zi ni is most common clay that shows brownish color. Many time it's of mixed stuff such as manganese, iron, quartz..there are numerous type of Zi ni but most of time it's just mixed normal yixing clay.
So you need to pair a character to a tea you want to drink. If you regard aroma as high point, then you need to go dense and small clay like Zhuni or Hong ni.
Or if you like mild taste then other clays will be a fit.
Just don't be deceived by numerous 'fake' yixing teapots that use cheap mud contained with harmful industrial dyes. Good luck.
those crazy canucks!
