YIXING TEACUPS

[manolis1978]

Hi. I am newbie in tea and i want your opinion. I drink oolong and jasmin green tea. In my country Greece there is a famous store about its best quality tea. The site is http://www.madras.gr/en/ but i think the english version doesn't work properly. It sells also Yixing teapot. I buy today a yixing teacap. I have uploaded some photos.

http://oi57.tinypic.com/25a54s6.jpg
http://oi58.tinypic.com/oarn60.jpg
http://oi62.tinypic.com/mbmtet.jpg
http://oi61.tinypic.com/264ta3t.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/j8jlli.jpg

Now I use a porcelain teapot and a cup to drink oolong and jasmin green tea. I would like to ask you 2 questions.
1) Can you say something about the quality of the Yixing clay that the store sell? I am intresting to buy a pot and i want your opinion.
2) What type of tea can i drink in the cap i bought. An oolong tea or a green jasmin tea or both?

Thank you in advance!

[steanze]

Hi Manolis!
The clay of the cup seems reasonable, nothing special but not fake. However this says nothing about the clay of their teapots, because it's almost certainly different from the clay of the cup: we'd have to see a picture of the teapot to say something about it. The same store can have some things made of ok clay and other things made of bad/non-yixing clay. Try to take a picture of the teapot if you can.
I would use the yixing cup for pu erh or liu bao, darker teas that you want to be thick and smooth. For oolong and jasmine tea I would prefer a porcelain cup In any case, you can experiment and see what you like!

[manolis1978]

photos is difficult because pots is in a shop window and the seller is strange. The site says that all the pot have a certification of authenticity. But all the pots are from 250ml to 1000ml. From my extra little experience I think the same with you because these capacity isn' t traditional. So nothing special. I think i will use the clay with the oolong and the porcelain for jasmin.

here is a photo from the site. A pot 300 ml 50 EURO.

Do you think that the cups that i have bought have the same issue with the absorption of a clay pot

[theredbaron]

the pot is rubbish.

[manolis1978]

LOL thank you. I think that rubbish is the tea also. But i cant prove it now.

[Curly]

@theredbaron: I'm curious what it was you saw in the photos to make such judgements. I'm hoping to learn more about yixing wares.

[steanze]

@Curly,

Welcome to the forum! I have to agree with @theredbaron. Here is what I see:

1) The color and texture of the clay look like this isn't natural yixing clay, it looks like either colorants (oxides) were added to very low quality yixing clay, or this isn't yixing clay. This kind of pot is very likely to make the tea taste worse than a porcelain gaiwan/pot.

2) The shape of the pot shows that the workmanship is very rough, and the calligraphy is terrible.

There are thousands of these crappy/fake teapots out there... after seeing several examples of real/decent yixing pots it becomes quite clear that a pot like this is not worth the space it takes up in your home. You can see some examples of good yixing clay here: http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=20655

[Curly]

Thanks! That's what I was looking for.

[manolis1978]

although the clay of the cup that i bought is not something special, I was wondering if its ok to use it to drink my tea... About health fisrt of all and socondly about the the taste of the tea.