bagua7 wrote:...but IMO Yixing clay is so overrated. Too much hype which started with vendors' marketing techniques and later on collectors themselves who think that because they spent a lot of money on them it makes them the holy grail of brewing vessels.
Sorry, strong disagreement, but the the Yixing "hype" started a few hundred years ago, and not just recently with the event of the internet and subsequent instant imagined expertise in everything.
While tea can be brewed in any vessel - good Yixing pots with pure clay *are* the holy grail for brewing semi-fermented and pu erh teas, have been used, cherished and loved in China and South East Asia for centuries.
Wherever you go in Chinese style tea cultures you will see people using Yixing pots. Not just rich people and collectors. I remember when in the eary 90's, for example, i went to Xiamen, before the entire city was remodeled, in front of every shop you saw people sitting on small chairs and drinking tea, using Yixing pots, and when walking by, you were inevitably invited to share a few cups.
At the same time, in the back alleys of Bangkok's Chinatown the scene was quite similar.
And on a different level - there is little more entrancing to be sitting in a tea circle, and a very special rare tea is brewed in a treasured Ming or early Qing pot.
There were times when good quality pots were very reasonable - not everyone needed to spend a fortune on a good pot (while of course there always were the pots that did cost a fortune).
I, for example, was lucky enough that i started drinking Chinese tea when you could still get good pots for not too much money.
It is not really fair to put down an entire culture, art and tradition based on very recent discovery by the west through the internet.
No - Yixing pots are definitely *not* over rated.
... i've seen this all over vietnam, but had to find a photo on line:
