Zaijian, Yixing :mrgreen:

[bagua7]

Clay pots robs some of the high notes of tea and severely lessens the aroma that porcelain gives which almost fills the room. No matter how hard fired and whether they are 80s zhuni or from the early Republic. Clay absorbs fire/heat and heat is the vehicle of all the goodies we all cherish so much in our brewing ritual.

No more clay pots for me. I just had enough how overrated and mystified Yixing pottery is (the artistic visual appeal is a totally different story), I want to drink and fully enjoy TEA, as opposed to owing something and putting it on a pedestal.

IMO, brewing tea using a gaiwan is a lot more enjoyable.

This morning I had an awesome session with a 2011 Mengku raw puerh which brought me back memories of a tea harvested in the wild. The spirit of the tea, for sure!

[BW85]

I can see where you're coming from. Porcelain will typically give the better fragrance. Though personally I tend to prefer the body of the tea more brewed in clay. I care about fragrance, but only second place compared to the mouth feel clay provides.

And I wouldn't say clay absorbs as in takes heat away from the tea being brewed, quite the opposite. You can do experiments and see that porcelain looses heat much faster.

[William]

You probably have not been able to find good teapots for your teas, but this does not mean that clay teapots are not good for teas. There are bad teapots and good teapots; the good ones, beat hands down ceramic vessels.

Regards.

[theredbaron]

I completely and totally disagree.

Fragrance is a superficial aspect of *some* teas. Far more important is body and aftertaste, and that something special, foremost in Yancha and aged Pu Erh - and there good Yixing adds to the brew.
Also, 4 year old Pu Erh is a bit young - that is when i start tasting it to see its development. I drink Pu Erh after at least 10 years storage here in this hot and humid climate, which ages tea much faster than in more temperate climates.

I can only agree with previous posters - either you have a problem with your pots or your teas, or you might be in need of a proper tea teacher who can assist you in the exploration of tea.

[steanze]

Depends on the tea and on what you want to get from it... I'd also make young pu'er in a gaiwan most of the times, especially if it's from a single mountain. I also like light roast dancong and gaoshan in porcelain. Other teas like aged pu'er and yancha I usually brew in yixing - pu'er in dicaoqing or zini, yancha in hongni or zhuni. I don't think there's a single right method that fits all teas. Sometimes I even brew the same tea with a different brewing vessel depending on what aspects of it I want to enhance. Bagua, if you have been using only yixing for all teas, it can be good to rediscover the gaiwan - in several cases it works very well and for some teas I prefer it to yixing pots. It's definitely a useful benchmark to see how a pot affects the taste of a tea and to decide whether you like it or not. I do think however that good yixing pots can produce better results than a gaiwan for several teas, especially aged pu'er and yancha, but also hongcha. I think yixing is also good for high roast dancong if one finds the right pot, but it took me a long time to find a fitting pot so before that I was using a gaiwan.

[TokyoB]

So which pots are you selling?

[Chip]

So which pots are you selling?

... Hammer?

[bagua7]

I got good pots with me...and I don't believe a clay pot will beat a gaiwan (it will add a different dimension to it in certain cases but in others some of the high notes won't be reflected); whoever claims otherwise has probably developed a 'romantic' idea about it (I used to think like that until just recently as stated earlier).

Maybe with high-fired oolongs and aged puerh Yixing would give an extra edge, but not applicable here since I rarely drink those.

Not selling what I got at the moment, maybe one day.

I live in a subtropical and hot part of the world, Queensland, AU, and fully understand the 'heat loss' issue with those tea lovers who happen to live in cooler climates.

I happen to enjoy young sheng especially the cakes that have added gushu material added to them...and the aroma I am getting from using a gaiwan certainly improves the brewing session, in my case.

I just did a web search if someone else had a similar experience to mine and this is what I found:

I was about to test out Lishan tea in a gaiwan and a yixing pot today when my tea friend, Doug, came to help me take some tea photos. I invited him to taste the teas with me. After I rinsed the tea, we both agreed that the smells from the lids were different. The one from the yixing lid was more creamy, and the one from the gaiwan lid was bolder. We did three rounds of tastings to compare the difference. The Lishan brewed in the yixing pot was full bodied and well balanced, but I thought it lost a lot of high notes. The Lishan brewed in the gaiwan had more flavors and was smoother. I liked the tea that was brewed using both methods, and had a hard time deciding which one I preferred. Doug liked it from both methods, too, and he preferred it from the gaiwan.

Source: http://floatingleavestea.blogspot.com.a ... g-pot.html

[the_economist]

Whoever thinks otherwise just has different preferences. I care very little for high notes in aged puer, yancha, and roasted tgy, quite willing to trade them away for other enhancements. I care a little more about high notes for young sheng, gaoshan, and greener tgy.

What to use depends on mood and preference. Nothing to do with romanticizing the virtues of clay.

[theredbaron]

whoever claims otherwise has probably developed a 'romantic' idea about it (I used to think like that until just recently as stated earlier).

That is quite a presumption.

It may also be that your personal preference for high notes or fragrance brought out stronger in Gaiwan/Porcelain has been well known for a long time, and that in fact you have not re-invented tea drinking, but that most tea people do not look for those high notes or fragrance, and view them as somewhat superficial aspects of tea, but are looking for increased complexity, body and aftertaste (for lack of a better term), and are therefore favoring yixing pots.

[Tead Off]

Doesn't matter. What ever you enjoy about making and drinking tea is fine. We will all never agree on all things.

[Chip]

Doesn't matter. What ever you enjoy about making and drinking tea is fine. We will all never agree on all things.

That is for darn sure ... but we can agree on this.