What Tea for Hong Ni?

[edkrueger]

I'm having some trouble finding a tea that works with the pot. It does really badly with Bai Hao and works well with youngish sheng, but I don't need another sheng pot. Any suggestions?

[tingjunkie]

Post a pic of the pot, and tell us the level of firing and thickness of the walls.

[edkrueger]

The walls are medium thick about 2mm. I don't know the firing temperature, from the gloss and sound I'd guess its on the higher side for the clay.

[britt]

Hong Ni may be suitable for black tea or high mountain oolong. I've seen it recomended for both teas and have used it for both with decent results.

[tingjunkie]

I have several medium/high fired hong ni pots from the late 70's through late 00's which I have used for light TGY, high fire TGY, any Wuyi, Gao Shan oolong, aged oolong, and young sheng.

Needless to say, I think good quality hong ni is a very versatile clay. What tea will work best with your pot will have a lot to do with the pots shape, firing, and wall thickness. My favorite method of pairing tea with pots is covered here. In short: 1) Make tea in a gaiwan. 2) Put half the brew in the pre-heated pot, half in a neutral faircup. 3) Compare the two halves to see what effect the clay has on that particular tea. It's a very revealing experiment. Good luck!

[chrl42]

Hong ni is said to be all-around player for brewing

There are many red Yixing clays as well..some tends to be like Zhuni, some like Zini, but for me they have been very practical no matter what teas brewed, what does your preference tell ya?