Oolong and yi xing pots?

[thanks]

While on the subject of oolongs in yixing, I recently ordered this shui ping hong ni pot from Scott for oolongs; http://cgi.ebay.com/Hong-Ni-Clay-Shui-P ... m153.l1262

I was thinking of using it for every oolong that's not a light one. For instance everything from yancha to classic roast dong ding. Is this okay? Or is that too broad, and should I just stick to a separate pot method for each of these, and all the in betweens? Also, Is there any recommendation of a yixing pot that's available online anyone has for dancong?

[Salsero]

That is a darling style pot. Looks like it might pour a little slowly with that long, delicate spout, but you can normally compensate for that. Besides, Scott seems to favor pots with good pour times, so it might pour just fine.

I am of the school that favors a minimal number of pots. "Darker oolongs" sounds to me like a good category, in fact I have a pot for just that group.

As for Dan Congs, so many that I have had require lightening infusions at the beginning of a session, so I favor a gaiwan. If you do get a pot, you might look for a very wide mouth since a lot of Dan Cong leaf is very long. Course, with a wide mouth you will probably get a lot of leaking around the lid as you pour.

[brandon]

Thanks, I have that pot. I am dedicating it to older sheng (10 years and up).

I use one pot exclusively for yancha, but I do not favor roasted Dong Ding or Anxi oolongs. I agree with Salsero about a gaiwan for Dancong.

[ABx]

Dancongs are really kind of a hard one. I agree that they often seem to need to be poured very fast, but they also tend to favor very high heat - which can be hard to do in a gaiwan. I have some dancongs and aged oolongs that I just can't get to come out in a yixing gaiwan no matter hard I try, but in a yixing they come out perfectly. Dancongs can be notoriously hard to brew, however. Then again, the way to really tell if you need a yixing for your dancongs would just be to try both a yixing pot and a gaiwan.

[Salsero]

Dancongs can be notoriously hard to brew

+1

Trying your Dan Cong once or twice in a pot devoted to something else is not very likely to disturb the pot, since DC is not a strong flavored tea. On the other hand, a pot that is very flavored with some other tea may cover up some of the DC taste/aroma. I guess what I am getting at is that it would be good to try DC in a pot while it is still fairly new.

[thanks]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Also, I'm really new to oolongs in general, but especially Dancong's as I've only had two, and both tasted absolutely delicious. They were very fragrant as well. I didn't find them hard to brew, is this just with higher quality Dancong? The two I tried were very cheap, and so probably weren't very representative of Dancong in general.

[britt]

Do you use yi xing pots with good wu longs? I find the yi xing mutes the flavors (or 'absorbs' as some call it). I bought another round of the charcoal dong ding from teance and they recommend using an yi xing for it. However, I found that it mutes the delicate honey flavors of the tea.

I'm wondering if I brewed incorrectly or if good quality wu longs are just better brewed in a gaiwan.

Typically the gaiwan offers the advantage over Yixings for greens, whites, and the very light high mountain oolongs from Taiwan. This is assuming the gaiwan is thin and light and the Yixing is not properly matched for these lighter teas.

[britt]

Of course it's not like 'Zhuni is best for Oolong'. I personally like my Luni pot best for my Wuyi, I'm just surmising best pot might depend on each one's palate.

I have only one Lu Ni Yixing and I have dedicated it to various darker Wu Yi oolongs. It gives exceptional results with this type of tea. Besides using Lu Ni clay, this Yixing is tall and square, and is very thick and heavy for it's 145cc size. I believe the thickness and heavy weight are as much of a benefit to darker Wu Yi's as the clay. I purchased this pot at Jing Tea Shop and they highly recommended it for use with Wu Yi oolongs. After using it for a while, I fully agree with their recommendation.

[britt]

I've been noticing the same thing lately with baozhongs. I've been doing them in a yixing pot for a while, and recently tried it in a gaiwan. I found it came out much lighter and fresher in the gaiwan. Kind of frustrating considering the costs of some of these pots!

The most difficult tea task I have faced so far was finding Yixings that did a good job of brewing greens, whites, and high mountain oolongs. After trying just about everything and having finally achieved decent results, or so I thought, I ordered some Da Yu Ling, the lightest of the high mountain oolongs. It failed the test miserably in the pot that gave good results with lower elevation high mountain oolongs.

I started all over, including switching vendors, with my ultimate test of an Yixing purchased for lighter teas being that it must do a good job brewing Da Yu Ling. I ended up with two Yixings that I feel easily met the standard. One is a thin, light Zhuni mounted on three feet (aids cooling). It is a round but compressed shape. The taste of even Da Yu Ling is light and crisp when brewed in this pot. The Zhuni clay enhances the aroma of teas like high mountain oolongs, so I dedicated it to these.

The second pot, which I use for Taiwanese green and Chinese white teas, is similar to the first but without the feet and the clay is Duan Ni. It is even thinner and lighter than the Zhuni pot. It works very well with the lighter teas and has no heavy taste like that I've found with all other Yixings I have tried with these.

Although I have now dedicated these two Yixings to the teas noted above, I was brewing all three in each with excellent results and no indication of any of these lighter teas affecting the others when brewed in the same pot. I'm not sure if this would continue being true if I continued cross-brewing on a regular basis, but for test purposes in choosing the best match of a tea type for each Yixing, I saw no noticable affect. I would not likely do this with darker and lighter teas in the same Yixing, but if I did I would do all tests on the lighter teas first.

[britt]

Dancongs are really kind of a hard one...Dancongs can be notoriously hard to brew, however.

I purchased my first four Dan Congs from Hou De Asian a while ago. I initially had trouble with them, then remembered that Guang had mentioned in either his blog or the product description that he had also had trouble. The solution was to reduce the amount of leaf. I started with this suggestion.

In their product descriptions, Hou De typically posts great pictures of their brewed teas in white cups. For the Dan Congs, I compared my brewed tea (in a white cup) with theirs and adjusted the brew times and leaf amounts until they matched Hou De's pictures. This has worked out very well and becomes second nature after brewing one of these Dan Congs on a regular basis.

[Bubba_tea]

OK - Brewing question - when you are brewing up sucessive pots in a yi xing, do you pour boiling water over the pot first to warm it? Otherwise the pot is cold and the tea lukewarm..

[wyardley]

OK - Brewing question - when you are brewing up sucessive pots in a yi xing, do you pour boiling water over the pot first to warm it? Otherwise the pot is cold and the tea lukewarm..

Not if you're brewing / drinking fast enough. :>

I usually shower the pot after pouring in hot water, but only shower it before if the pot has had a long time to cool off. That's just me, though.

[ABx]

I usually shower the pot after pouring in hot water, but only shower it before if the pot has had a long time to cool off. That's just me, though.

Ditto. Since I'm often drinking on my own and don't drink particularly fast, I often have to warm it back up. Of course this is harder to do with a gaiwan, but a yixing pot just needs a quick pour over the outside before pouring in to steep

[taitea]

I've been noticing the same thing lately with baozhongs. I've been doing them in a yixing pot for a while, and recently tried it in a gaiwan. I found it came out much lighter and fresher in the gaiwan. Kind of frustrating considering the costs of some of these pots!

The most difficult tea task I have faced so far was finding Yixings that did a good job of brewing greens, whites, and high mountain oolongs. After trying just about everything and having finally achieved decent results, or so I thought, I ordered some Da Yu Ling, the lightest of the high mountain oolongs. It failed the test miserably in the pot that gave good results with lower elevation high mountain oolongs.

I started all over, including switching vendors, with my ultimate test of an Yixing purchased for lighter teas being that it must do a good job brewing Da Yu Ling. I ended up with two Yixings that I feel easily met the standard. One is a thin, light Zhuni mounted on three feet (aids cooling). It is a round but compressed shape. The taste of even Da Yu Ling is light and crisp when brewed in this pot. The Zhuni clay enhances the aroma of teas like high mountain oolongs, so I dedicated it to these.

The second pot, which I use for Taiwanese green and Chinese white teas, is similar to the first but without the feet and the clay is Duan Ni. It is even thinner and lighter than the Zhuni pot. It works very well with the lighter teas and has no heavy taste like that I've found with all other Yixings I have tried with these.

Although I have now dedicated these two Yixings to the teas noted above, I was brewing all three in each with excellent results and no indication of any of these lighter teas affecting the others when brewed in the same pot. I'm not sure if this would continue being true if I continued cross-brewing on a regular basis, but for test purposes in choosing the best match of a tea type for each Yixing, I saw no noticable affect. I would not likely do this with darker and lighter teas in the same Yixing, but if I did I would do all tests on the lighter teas first.

Is it not strange that you are getting similar good results with 2 different clays that have pretty opposite characteristics (duan ni=very absorbant, zhuni=very unabsorbant) ?

[chrl42]

I've been noticing the same thing lately with baozhongs. I've been doing them in a yixing pot for a while, and recently tried it in a gaiwan. I found it came out much lighter and fresher in the gaiwan. Kind of frustrating considering the costs of some of these pots!

The most difficult tea task I have faced so far was finding Yixings that did a good job of brewing greens, whites, and high mountain oolongs. After trying just about everything and having finally achieved decent results, or so I thought, I ordered some Da Yu Ling, the lightest of the high mountain oolongs. It failed the test miserably in the pot that gave good results with lower elevation high mountain oolongs.

I started all over, including switching vendors, with my ultimate test of an Yixing purchased for lighter teas being that it must do a good job brewing Da Yu Ling. I ended up with two Yixings that I feel easily met the standard. One is a thin, light Zhuni mounted on three feet (aids cooling). It is a round but compressed shape. The taste of even Da Yu Ling is light and crisp when brewed in this pot. The Zhuni clay enhances the aroma of teas like high mountain oolongs, so I dedicated it to these.

The second pot, which I use for Taiwanese green and Chinese white teas, is similar to the first but without the feet and the clay is Duan Ni. It is even thinner and lighter than the Zhuni pot. It works very well with the lighter teas and has no heavy taste like that I've found with all other Yixings I have tried with these.

Although I have now dedicated these two Yixings to the teas noted above, I was brewing all three in each with excellent results and no indication of any of these lighter teas affecting the others when brewed in the same pot. I'm not sure if this would continue being true if I continued cross-brewing on a regular basis, but for test purposes in choosing the best match of a tea type for each Yixing, I saw no noticable affect. I would not likely do this with darker and lighter teas in the same Yixing, but if I did I would do all tests on the lighter teas first.

Is it not strange that you are getting similar good results with 2 different clays that have pretty opposite characteristics (duan ni=very absorbant, zhuni=very unabsorbant) ?

Duanni has too many kinds, from many sources. It's more obscure in terms than Zhuni. More purified, redder Hongni is called Zhuni, same for Duanni is called Luni.