New Shigaraki Kyusu Are Up On Hojo's Site

[Alex]

I was able to order one of these Shigaraki beauties but I haven't decided yet on which type of tea to use it for. Are there Teachatters who tried sheng pu-erh in these kyusu? What would you recommend?

i'm intending its use for sheng pu-er and perhaps yancha

I could see that being a great fit.

[Sasameyuki]

Good advise, thanks.
I have a glazed shiboridashi by Petr Novak which I will probably use as 'neutral' point of reference.

[Chip]

... I suspect he may have known they were pretty much sold out as I did not even get the email notification despite Akira knowing I was very interested ... and have been asking about them periodically for a while.

Maybe he knew they were not in the volume range I was seeking ... but they are very appealing little guys.

I now stand corrected ... I did receive the email, BUT ... his email was dated the 26th and it JUST arrived. Won't help me get one though.

[kyarazen]

... I suspect he may have known they were pretty much sold out as I did not even get the email notification despite Akira knowing I was very interested ... and have been asking about them periodically for a while.

Maybe he knew they were not in the volume range I was seeking ... but they are very appealing little guys.

I now stand corrected ... I did receive the email, BUT ... his email was dated the 26th and it JUST arrived. Won't help me get one though.

no worries, the bigger ones are coming soon

[kyarazen]

anyone playing with their shiggies yet?

[Ceoltoir]

I got mine just a while ago. It looks beautiful, althought I expected something a little bit different. it looks greyish with a great deal of brown/orange dots. I haven`t tasted water from it, yet.

[NPE]

I got mine on Friday but only now got around to test it head to head with my trusted Yixing from EoT http://www.essenceoftea.com/teaware/cla ... eapot.html.

The teapot itself is very pretty to look at, very thin material for such grainy texture and very nice to the touch. The spout is not 100% symmetrical but that does not take anything away from its overall good looks.

I have to apologize beforehand for the mental images that I use to illustrate the taste - no denying that I am a slightly aged female nerd

The tea I used for the taste test was the 2013 New Amerykah from White2Tea - truly a pu-erh with bite. Grainy and nutty and, as the description aptly says, plenty of brute strength and bitterness. Verrrrry tasty stuff but not for the bitter-phobes.
To illustrate how the tea did in the different brewing vessels, I offer you my mental pictures:
In EoT yixing: Duncan MacLeod (please google if you do not know who I mean) returning from an intense fight, slightly injured, disheveled but still very tasty.
In Shigaraki: Duncan MacLeod, nicely groomed, giving an intense smouldering look.

To put it in more normal words: the shigi gives the tea a sweeter taste, taking away a bit of the bitterness and rounding the taste nicer than any yixing. I do not have the feeling that anything gets lost, only that someone turned the treble down. The sound quality is very good but without the high notes hurting the ears.

So, yes, I do think that the clay possesses some lovely qualities that I have not experienced with other clays. I am definitely happy that I fell for the Shigaraki-hype

[bonescwa]

Nice description. I wonder if the effect is due to the thin walls if the Shigaraki dissapating heat more quickly than the EoT pot?

[kyarazen]

Nice description. I wonder if the effect is due to the thin walls if the Shigaraki dissapating heat more quickly than the EoT pot?

it is reduction fired so one might be able to expect a bit more metal ions such as iron leaching into the tea.

the shigaraki also has an interesting thermal profile which's not seen in yixing materials, off the boil there is a quick brief period of very extreme hot (95-97 degs) and then it suddenly plummets rapidly and cools faster than any yixing that i have owned.

i see the benefits mostly in the aromatics of the tea, the reduction firing help present some new aromatic notes that was not very noticeable in an oxidation fired/gaiwan in some teas, brought about clarity. with good teas the body was ample but on some average teas the body thinned out

all in all a very fascinating and fun pot to own

[tst]

I would imagine multiple factors ... differences in clay compositions, wall thickness, etc.

[kyarazen]

I would imagine multiple factors ... differences in clay compositions, wall thickness, etc.

wall thickness is not the big deciding factor here.

around the same volume, and roughly same shape, i have a 1mm wall thickness pear skin zhuni and also in comparison another pot with about 4-5mm thickness, yixing.

the shiragaki stayed hotter than both of the above yixings for the first 30 seconds, and then cooled way faster than both of them. in some way, it mimics a cast iron tea pot, and since the clay is reduction fired, there are quite some visible bits of iron-ish like particles.

[Chip]

Really, these are reduction Shiggies? I will have to check Hojo's site.

I have an earlier edition which is lighter and more tan than this latest edition. I got it second hand from a member, but I assume this one is oxygen fired ...

[JBaymore]

..........and since the clay is reduction fired, there are quite some visible bits of iron-ish like particles.

It is important to note that even with exceptionally strong and early reduction firing in the kiln, the Fe2O3 (red iron oxide) that is either present in the clay to start with, or is converted to that form on the way up (in oxidation), is not reduced to raw Fe. FeO is as far as it gets, and that FeO is a POWERFUL low temperatuire flux on SiO2. So when the iron is reduced to the black state, it immediately goes into the glassy phase part of the body, so it is reasonably well tied up in an iron fluxed glass.

You are not going to ttypically find much free iron in a reduction fired pot. MAYBE at the core of a hematite nodule.

best,

..............john

[Chip]

... Hojo does not mention on his site that these are reduction. So, does the presence of black iron spots indicate reduction firing?

Usually I associate reduction with entire black surface (or similar) as seen with Tokoname, not black dots.

[dshu]

I happened to come across this article last night. It mentions shigaraki at the end.
http://hojotea.com/en/posts-59/