first yixing pot

[LaybackPandas]

Everything is fine with my teapot just a little bit disappointed with the spout.

hahahaha that made me laugh!

[betta]

Lately I have a lot of sparetime, so I'm back to tea.

It reminds me of my first yixingpot at the same price range, which was acquired from other non-ebay vendor. It had none of spout-lid-handle at the same line. Well I gave it away since the vendor refused to accept any complain and the pour was horrible.

I've ordered a custom-made dicaoqing pearl pot from Chen. I believe that it will be a good experience so I'll post it here as a reference.

[cheaton]

I obviously haven't had enough tea today or I would have caught that!

Understandable, lack of tea causes abnormal brain function.

[betta]

So here is another custom-made pot from Chen:


The craftmanship is without argument good. Lid fit perfectly with the body and it doesn't drop when pouring tea at 90°. All spout, knob and handle are in a line. It has medium thickness with stamp and joint line inside the pot. I assume it is completely handmade.


The pot is heavier than other pots I have but works perfectly.
It's one of my best buy up to now.

[Tead Off]

How does it compare with your best pot for making tea? Aesthetics are one thing but performance is quite another.

[betta]

How does it compare with your best pot for making tea? Aesthetics are one thing but performance is quite another.

I can't say which pot is the best one because some of them brew one tea better but less satisfactory when they are used to brew other teas. I just tried to use it to prepare green high mountain taiwan oolong and compare the result with my thin old pot. Many other experienced drinkers here knows better how to compare than I. I am not an experienced drinker so I just try to brew for enjoy. Since the volume is slightly different, I also used different amount of tea and steeping time.
My thin pot gave me more floral but more astringent brew, while this pot produced less floral but more pronounce sweeter body, really less astringency.
I don't know whether it is because of the wall thickness, temperature or really the clay does some magic.

[t4texas]

You wrote that it was custom-made. How is it different than the ones on their site?

[betta]

You wrote that it was custom-made. How is it different than the ones on their site?

The custom-made ones are totally handmade since one can specify the desired volume as well as the type of clay.
In my case, I choose 130-140 mL volume with clay which is claimed to be dicaoqing from Huanglong mountain mine no. 4.
Pure handmade pot normally isn't as "perfect" as those made with help of mold and that gives the "character" to the pot though for me it doesn't matter. What I care the most is functionality and clay to brew good tea.

BTW since it is said to be totally handmade, there're characters like very very tiny hairline appear at the joint between handle and body of the pot due to thermal shrinkage stress out of the kiln. I found this kind of line in older pots as well.
Chen says it's normal for handmade pot and won't grow larger and I'm still observing it for some time to make sure it is so.
I have a bao ti (thin wall) pots in the past with hairline which grew across the pot everytime I use it. Therefore I care about these hairline issue as I wrote in my older post.

[t4texas]

I see. So what kind of price difference is there for one totally handmade without use of molds?

[Tead Off]

This shrinkage near the handle is a common feature that I see in many older pots, especially the red ones. They don't grow as they are not hairline cracks. Hairline cracks are a defect and a problem. I have one pot with a hairline crack. I can't figure out how or when it happened as it was not there originally.

[finddream2020]

I see. So what kind of price difference is there for one totally handmade without use of molds?

you can go to my website, click the "special order" link on the Navigation.

[finddream2020]

How does it compare with your best pot for making tea? Aesthetics are one thing but performance is quite another.

I can't say which pot is the best one because some of them brew one tea better but less satisfactory when they are used to brew other teas. I just tried to use it to prepare green high mountain taiwan oolong and compare the result with my thin old pot. Many other experienced drinkers here knows better how to compare than I. I am not an experienced drinker so I just try to brew for enjoy. Since the volume is slightly different, I also used different amount of tea and steeping time.
My thin pot gave me more floral but more astringent brew, while this pot produced less floral but more pronounce sweeter body, really less astringency.
I don't know whether it is because of the wall thickness, temperature or really the clay does some magic.

yes, you are right. our dicaoqing is 70-90's, it is very pure, and dicao qing has a very good Double structure than zhu ni and qingshui ni etc. so the clay "does some magic"

and dicaoqing has more magic, when you drink some times, you will find the pot become more and more ruddy and beautiful.

and you will see some gold sands in the pot which named "jin sha yin xian".

[xuancheng]

yes, you are right. our dicaoqing is 70-90's, it is very pure, and dicao qing has a very good Double structure than zhu ni and qingshui ni etc. so the clay "does some magic"

and dicaoqing has more magic, when you drink some times, you will find the pot become more and more ruddy and beautiful.

and you will see some gold sands in the pot which named "jin sha yin xian".

Very interesting! so, do you have several different 'levels' of dicaoqing quality? can we specify which sort of DCQ we want when we custom order a pot?

[finddream2020]

yes, you are right. our dicaoqing is 70-90's, it is very pure, and dicao qing has a very good Double structure than zhu ni and qingshui ni etc. so the clay "does some magic"

and dicaoqing has more magic, when you drink some times, you will find the pot become more and more ruddy and beautiful.

and you will see some gold sands in the pot which named "jin sha yin xian".

Very interesting! so, do you have several different 'levels' of dicaoqing quality? can we specify which sort of DCQ we want when we custom order a pot?

yes, we have two level, the frist is 90's dicaoqing, it is very pure. the sencond is 70's and 80's dicaoqing which is hard to find, but more pure than 90's

[betta]

BTW since it is said to be totally handmade, there're characters like very very tiny hairline appear at the joint between handle and body of the pot due to thermal shrinkage stress out of the kiln. I found this kind of line in older pots as well.
Chen says it's normal for handmade pot and won't grow larger and I'm still observing it for some time to make sure it is so.
I have a bao ti (thin wall) pots in the past with hairline which grew across the pot everytime I use it. Therefore I care about these hairline issue as I wrote in my older post.

I think it's interesting to share and clarify the hairline issue so here we go.

I've asked opinions of of teachat members, interlocal call to my relatives in HK as well as test the pot myself. It's true that many old pots have this kind of line (thanks to Tim and also my uncle for sharing their experiences) but since they're old I can't compare with hairlines of new pots. From pots I ever owned, either in use, re-sold or broken, only 2 don't have such lines (one is old zhuni bao ti and one is new zini from Nada). And among my older pots, none of their hairlines grow as well.

But I had experiences with two new pots, which developed hairlines ON THE RIM AND BODY OF THE POT and grew to become crack horribly fast in only two tea sessions even I pour at the rim of the pot to heat up the pot in and out evenly. Perhaps because I used to pour hot water during brewing session like everyone here doing.

I'm kind of person who test my doubt right away.
Simply say, I've abused Chen's pot for days just to check whether the hairlines really grow. So what I've done was:

1. To subject the entire part of the pot to sudden temperature change during tea sessions. So I waited until the pot was cold (+15°C) and pour boiling water in and on it. Plus each time I intentionally used brush to brush the water to penetrate the hairline. BTW, the two pots I mentioned above didn't survive this test.
The capillary force exerted by water in such capillary is large. FYI it is the force which causes the porous wall in a toilet deformates and exfoliates.
Result: hairline didn't grow.

2. Repetitive boiling and subcooling of the pot inside a kettle. For this, I didn't dare to pour direct boiling water on subcooled pot. No one will in practice does so anyway. FYI the entire kettle+water+ was frozen, and then reboiled 5x (yes, I expect my electricity bill will increase this month).
FYI density of water decreases upon freezing. It means if water seeps through the crack and gets frozen, it occupies larger volume than it does in liquid form and exerts large force to tore the crack. So if it is crack, it will grow or vice versa.
This is more extreme method I tried. I don't know whether all other pots will survive this test, but the pot survived this one and the hairline didn't grow either.

So at last I called my uncle in Hongkong (yes, for the first time, and it took me 5 minutes to get him remember that I'm his nephew), who is gongfu cha practitioner for Ca. 50-55 years said that hairline on the join is something normal. He regards it similar to root in and on jadeite surface and it isn't a crack. When buying jade one must differentiate crack and root/hairline. Crack will grow upon contact with sweat and wear in a normal wear, while hairline/root is stone's character and stable. Hairline/roots are used in authentification of jadeite as well.

From his experience, a growing crack are usually (but not 100% guaranteed) originally from either large visible crack or exfoliated surface or from initially invisible crack. Moreover crack on body (not on join) of the pot will most likely (but not 100% guaranteed) grow larger.

In brief, the hairline on a pot found very often on handmade pots. Similar to jadeite's case, these give character to the pot that they're handmade.
They are aren't regarded as cracks and stable.
However I don't know exactly why they don't grow; but I guess at the pot's join artist apply a thin paste of zisha on the outer surface. And since it's only outer surface, it isn't similar to crack which grow deep into the clay body. Maybe this join is the proof that this particular part of the pot was made by hand.