Pairing yixing

[alix]

I find this in a blog:

After much looking around, and asking around I came up with a pairing system that I think works for me. I believe that it allows for several different categories of teas to be paired up with a Yixing.

Sheng (AKA Raw, Aged) Pu-erh which is younger than ten years old.
Sheng (AKA Raw, Aged) Pu-erh which is ten years old or older.
Shou (AKA Ripe, Cooked) Pu-erh
Wuyi (AKA Rock Tea, Yan Cha, Wu Long)
Dan Cong (AKA Guangong)
Medium roast oolongs from Taiwan and Anxi China
Taiwanese high mountain oolongs (AKA Geo Shen)

I think this system is decent, but it is a far cry from the best one out there, so if you know of ways that it could be improved please leave a comment!!!

[tingjunkie]

Of course it can be improved... the only limit is the number of high quality pots you have.

[alix]

3-4

[William]

I know many old tea enthusiasts that have the Oolong teapot, the Pu Erh teapot .. Or just the teapot for all the teas.

[.m.]

I know many old tea enthusiasts that have the Oolong teapot, the Pu Erh teapot .. Or just the teapot for all the teas.

[bonescwa]

I'm a young/new tea enthusiast and I have an oolong pot and a puerh pot. Green things (including young sheng and gaoshan) go into a gaiwan.

[miig]

Hi,
this is interesting. I'm not sure if I would do so many divisions between oolongs, but I suppose this depends also on how many Oolongs you drink

I recently thought about this and this is what I came up with:

- Greenish teas don't go into clay pots at all, but into porcelain, that means, green Taiwan Oolong, modern TGY, new Sheng etc. I got a 130ml pot from Taiwan which can be used just like the Yixing pots, but is of glazed porcelain. I didn't really like the effect of clays on this kinds of tea, so you could try how you like them in porcelain.

- For the rest of Oolongs, I'd rather simply divide between light-/middle roast (not green style obviously) and heavy-roast/traditional.
I did think about introducing a seperate pot for my beloved Dan Congs though, which tend to be roasted less intensively than Yancha / traditional TGY. But i'm not so sure if I'll actually do it.

- For Pu, I'd got three pots max: One for Shu, one for rather dry-stored Sheng with some age on it and one for rather traditonally stored Sheng. I think that this might be overkill already and that two pots might do, one for heavier flavours and one for lighter ones.

In the end, I'd try and use as few pots as possible, since the more pots you have, the less you'll be getting to use each one of them. I'd also not buy too cheap since this is such a chaotic market - rather two, three good ones than seven mediocre pots.
Then of course there is the thing that some pots might go better with some teas and not so good with others and that i don't really put up with all these scientific rules considering clay types and so on... so keep in mind that it could be a good idea to just buy one pot at a time and try out which tea comes out best in it.

And keep in mind that it's not necessary to use Yixing and that you don't have to make rocket science out of it. You can, and it can be fun, but many people have enjoyed tea for many years with just a porcelain teapot or a Gaiwan.. but if you like to read up on it, I found these classic articles by MarshalN quite helpful: buying yixing pots and things that matter, things that don't

And the most important thing: Have fun

[William]

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Miig!

I agree with you about the use of a porcelain gaiwan/teapot with super lighter Oolong. Porcelain is a good material for these teas. There are clays that brew these teas extremely well, but most of them are rare to find nowadays and expensive. Better to spend money on teas, especially for us tea enthusiasts at the very beginning of the learning curve.

[kyarazen]

I know many old tea enthusiasts that have the Oolong teapot, the Pu Erh teapot .. Or just the teapot for all the teas.

i've many pots that remain unmatched...

and... strangely amongst my frequent-use pots now, each pot drinks all sorts of tea and junk! only a bit more finicky towards pots for CZGF, but other than that.. anything goes

[mcrdotcom]

I think people take pairing a bit too seriously at times. My system is necessary division and nothing more. I will brew, for example, an oxidised oolong in my green oolong pot on occasion, and I'll brew medium aged Sheng in a shou pot on occasion, but never regularly, and only while the pot is young.

My system:

Roasted oolongs incl. high fired TGY, medium fired TGY and Yancha. *I have a pot for this*

Dancong gets a pot on its own *I don't have a pot for this*

Oxidised Oolongs incl. higher oxidised TGY and goashan *Don't have a pot for this*

Fresher/greener Oolongs like modern TGY, Goashan etc... *I have a pot for this*

Traditional sheng Puerh and shou puerh *I have a pot for this*

Medium aged Sheng (~10-20 years) *I don't have a pot for this*

Old Sheng ( >20 years) *will never have a pot for this*

Young Sheng (<10 years) *Have a pot I'm gonna try with this*

Basically, I see no reason to have yancha separate from high fired oolong (or medium really)... And I see no reason to separate shou and traditional sheng as they are similar, the seasoning on a yixing won't affect it enough to hurt IMO.

[Muadeeb]

I have a pot for green/lightly roasted oolongs, another pot for heavier roasted oolongs, a pot just for TKY, and a pot for Japanese green tea. That's enough separation for me while still being able to use each pot enough to develop them. 95% of my tea drinking happens in those pots and I could probably retire the TKY pot and move those teas into the other pots depending on the roast level, but he's just such a cutie.

At work I have a light roast pot and a dark roast pot, and that's it. I'm not drinking the good stuff there anyway, so it makes less of a difference.

I have a few more pots that I use on occasion, mostly because they are in a smaller 50ml size, or some larger 210ml kyusus when I really want to DRINK SOME TEA. These get very little use, but they're nice to have as an option and aren't worth enough to bother with selling anyway. My gaiwan gets almost no use since I don't drink much Chinese greens or Pu-erh.

[bagua7]

I think this system is decent

Yes, it is, but it can even be broken down to particular clays or pot shapes for those specific teas.

Yellow, white and green teas are missing from the list, so I personally would include them.

Jing Tea Shop collection offers good examples of pairings.

[kyarazen]

for a period of time... the yixing pot controlled and commanded me as to what tea should go into it.. and how it should be steeped..... I was slave to the pot/s.

but now the tables have turned... yoooo feeeble litttle clay vessel.. i command theee to brew whatever i load into you!

so maybe thats how people become "masters"...

[heliospace]

for a period of time... the yixing pot controlled and commanded me as to what tea should go into it.. and how it should be steeped..... I was slave to the pot/s.

but now the tables have turned... yoooo feeeble litttle clay vessel.. i command theee to brew whatever i load into you!

so maybe thats how people become "masters"...

Best advice ever!

[miig]

Yes, absolutely. Well said, thanks for putting things into perspective here