demonyc wrote:
Thanks for your informative reply, kyarazen. One more thing that your comment brings up for me: in your opinion, exactly what properties of a pot provide for greater or lesser margins of error?
it depends on the definition of error first which we can systematically identify
1) tea is too thick, coats tongue and leaves a saturated layer that is uncomfortable
2) tea is overbrewed, bitterness that makes one uncomfortable (depends on individual threshold)
3) undesirable notes, i.e. cooked vegetal notes especially with green oolongs from spring. (autumn teas are more resistant to heat)
4) tea is too thin, off balance, watery
etc etc etc..
the rectifications are as follow
1) if the tea is too thick, is it because the leaf quantity is too much? or is the tea pot pouring too slowly? there are some pots that can take up to 18 seconds or more to empty, whilst the fastest can be in 5 seconds+. as you are dispensing the tea, if its too slow, the leaves are still steeping. choose a pot with a suitable pour, if not, if one is depending on fixed steep intervals, one can choose to reduce the steep interval by five or ten seconds correspondingly
2) bitterness is most obviously experienced using Sencha, dancong, new sheng pu-erh from spring. if you cold steep any of these teas, or use reduced temperatures, the brew can be delightfully sweet, but missing the middle and weighty bottoms of the teas. if you use boiling water, with the wrong leaf quantity, too long steep duration, and if the pot retains heat very well during the steep duration, bitter compounds come out easily. a slow pour also can lead to over-steeping
3) undesirable notes from green rolled oolong, particularly high mountain spring tea, this is when the water is too hot for too long, you can put some of these leafs into a thermos and boiling water to experience the vegetal notes. heat retension by vessel may have a role to play, but if rolled teas are put into a flat pot, the limited swelling also makes the tea not as good as it should be. if the water is not hot enough too, the rolled teas cannot open well nor fast enough, the first couple of steeps are very delicate. the way to overcome this is to use a rounder pot like a xian-piao, but work on the water dispensing method from the kettle to generate more moderate temps.
4) tea is too thin, watery, the easiest and most common time this is experienced is when one uses really tiny pots, 1 cup, 2 cup type of pots, these type of pots cool the fastest, pre heating, a nice saucer or tea boat to hold some water etc, will help.
5) many more! one has to define what "error" is, and then look for how to rectify it to improve
thats how people become "tea masters", when they can brew heavenly tea in all sorts of conditions and pots, cups, gaiwan, or bowls, reproduce conditions and experiences for people. tea experts of the past centuries had very much lesser distractions than us today, many of the small pots were not cheap items and not mass produced. now, with added abundance and varieties, pot collecting is serious business, so is pot making, and pot selling, pot reselling etc. 
