Official/Different Yixing Show Off Topic!

[needaTEAcher]

That looks like amazing clay, immortal. Congrats on the gift!

[tingjunkie]

Looks like a nice pot to me!

[ImmortaliTEA]

Thank you both very much! I am indeed extremely happy with this gift as it seems to be one of the better quality clay types of all the yixings in my collection. I would probably rank the clay quality 3rd best of all of mine after the 80's Blue Mou Lvni and the 73' Orchid Zi Sha.

[achyle]

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Pin Zini
110ml
bought from JTS
I love that UFO style shape, it makes stellar tea, I pair it with medium roasted yancha.

[ImmortaliTEA]

Clay: Di Cao Qing. Medium-High Fired.
Size: 30 ml
Age/Year: Teapot= Modern. Clay= 80's
Walls: Medium to Medium-Thick.
Pour: +/- 4 sec. No drips. Great lid fit. Deep Lid Wall.
Source: Gift from parents
Tea Pairing: Aged Sheng Puerh. High quality samples.
Info: I have been a fan of the Shi Piao shape for a long time and ever since I first purchased my 180 ml Duan Ni Shi Piao, I have been looking for a more miniature version of this large beast. As soon as I saw the picture of this tiny 30 ml gem I knew I had to have it so I could have something to conserve my more expensive aged sheng samples without wasting too much precious tea. There is a wonderful feeling involved when you use just the right amount of a high quality tea without wasting any and are able to drink well over 30 infusions in one session without having a stomach ache from drinking too many large brews.

[ImmortaliTEA]

Clay: Super Sandy Duan Ni (Possibly similar to beach sand of TJ). Very High Fired.
Size: 100 ml
Age/Year: Modern- late 2000's.
Walls: Medium.
Pour: +/- 9 sec. No drips. Perfect lid fit.
Source: Bought in Vancouver Chinatown
Tea Pairing: Traditional Roasted Anxi Tieguanyin or Roasted Taiwan Oolong.
Info: This is a very different type of Duan Ni pot from the other 4 I have. All of my other Duan Ni pots are either medium-low to medium fired with a lot of porosity that tends to mute flavors quite heavily while softening the mouthfeel quite a bit as well as covering up the aroma. This teapot is quite different in that it is very high fired with a high pitched metal sound when tapped but still made of the porous Duan Ni. What this higher firing does to a porous clay like Duan Ni is that it still very SLIGHTLY mutes the occasional off flavor or high roasted astringency, but it does so without sacrificing aroma like a lower fired Duan Ni pot would almost always do. This is why it works perfect for the higher fired balled oolongs from Anxi or Taiwan because I still get the wonderful aroma but at the same time the mouthfeel is slightly thicker and if the roast is too strong, only the very strongest of these roast flavors gets muted just to accentuate the perfectly balanced caramel/roasted fruit taste and aroma.

[achyle]

[quote="ImmortaliTEA"]

Jeez ImmortaliTEA, you make me jealous
that one above is pretty well made for 30ml, nice one!
how long you've been collecting?
any of them you wanna trade?

[Poohblah]

WOW! Amazing pots, everybody! I don't intend to start a Yixing collection any time soon, but you guys are giving me great ideas about what to look for in a nice pot.

[ImmortaliTEA]

Jeez ImmortaliTEA, you make me jealous
that one above is pretty well made for 30ml, nice one!
how long you've been collecting?
any of them you wanna trade?

Thank you very much achyle. I have been collecting yixings for about 4 years now but most of my better pots were purchased during the last two years. I would certainly be willing to trade one or two of mine if you had something that would interest me. Do you have a Flickr account? If not please share some pictures of your yixings so we can talk about a possible trade!

[ImmortaliTEA]

Jeez ImmortaliTEA, you make me jealous
that one above is pretty well made for 30ml, nice one!
how long you've been collecting?
any of them you wanna trade?

I am especially interested if you have any yixings in the 50-80 ml size range! I have been searching for teapots in this size for a while and I need a few to complete my Xiao Pin collection!

[ImmortaliTEA]

Clay: Qing Shui Ni. Low Fired.
Size: 75 ml
Age/Year: 1980's
Walls: Thick (Proportionally)
Pour: +/- 4 sec. No drips. Decent lid fit.
Source: Chinatown Tea Shop
Tea Pairing: High Roasted Wuyi Yan Cha.
Info: This is perhaps the most porous yixing teapot I own and it mutes almost all traces of the charcoal roast taste in a high fired Yan Cha. However, the odd thing about it is that it does so while bringing out a delicious sweetness that I don't taste out of these teas in any other type of clay. It is extremely unorthodox for a low fired porous teapot because it brings out all the great roasted fruit sweetness (caramelization), while somehow preserving the aroma and at the same time softening the mouthfeel to almost a thick "cherry syrup" (Shui Xian). Best pot for Yan Cha I have ever used and seasons extremely fast.

[ImmortaliTEA]

Clay: Modern Zhuni (I believe?). High Fired.
Size: 100 ml
Age/Year: Modern- late 2000's.
Walls: Very Thin.
Pour: +/- 6 sec. No drips. Perfect lid fit.
Source: Chinatown
Tea Pairing: Green Anxi Tieguanyin. Taiwan Gaoshan oolong (green style). Light to Medium Roast Wuyi Yan Cha.
Info: This is an extremely versatile pot and it has been one of my favorites for a very long time. I used to brew solely green style oolongs in it and they always came out perfect with the aroma fully intact and the thin walls creating less heat retention which helps to bring out the wonderful buttery quality I love so much in green Gaoshan or Anxi oolongs as opposed to the harsh and even sometimes bitter vegetal taste these green oolongs can have if brewed with too thick of walls or too hot of water. However, this teapot brews a wonderful pot of Light or Medium Roasted Yan Cha as well if one was curious to taste these Yan Cha's in a more lightly brewed fashion so as to taste the more subtle nuances of the leaf itself as opposed to the Extremely heavy handed Gong-Fu approach with a full pot of leaf and flash infusions that are just overflowing with powerful Cha Qi. Not that I don't enjoy the full pot approach, (as a matter of fact I probably brew Yan Cha that way more often), it is just nice to have a change of pace and try to detect some more subtle flavors especially the vegetal qing tai wei as I mentioned before as well as the Yan Yun itself.

[needaTEAcher]

Wow, amazing pots Immortal. I mean wow. Lovin' them.

Can you clarify for me Xiao Pin and Shi Piao? Which one is that triangular pyramid shape? I am trying to learn shape names in Mandarin, and it is hard!

I bet I'm not the only one wondering: how many pots do you have and how long have you been collecting?

Please accept my belated welcome to teachat!

[ImmortaliTEA]

Wow, amazing pots Immortal. I mean wow. Lovin' them.

Can you clarify for me Xiao Pin and Shi Piao? Which one is that triangular pyramid shape? I am trying to learn shape names in Mandarin, and it is hard!

I bet I'm not the only one wondering: how many pots do you have and how long have you been collecting?

Please accept my belated welcome to teachat!

Thanks a lot needaTEAcher. Yes I would be happy to clarify. Shi Piao is the pyramid shaped one you speak of and I believe the actual translation of Shi Piao would be "Stone Spoon" or "Stone Ladle". Xiao Pin is not a shape name in fact it is the term for very small yixing teapots. I'm not positive on this but I believe the term Xiao Pin refers to any teapots 100 ml or less. As for me, I have been collecting yixing teapots for just about 4 years now but I only bought about 10 during the first 2 years. Nearly all of my better quality yixings were bought during the last two years. In total, I have around 62 yixing teapots, over 40 of which are Xiao Pin. Thanks for the welcome to teachat I have been reading these threads for quite a few years and have never even thought of posting until the last couple of months.

[TIM]

Some pure, heavy walled purple sand (Zisha). From the 90's.
These group of "China, Fujian tea company's gift" are all hand made, with heavy lid proportion and size varies. The lid fits are too tight so the pour is a bit slower.

The Huang Long Mountain original mine zisha lid was half the weight of the body! Good for some newer roasted ShiuXian.