Cleaning Mold From Yixing

What is the pot made of?

I would clean it with boiling water and then let is sit and dry for a few days. Mold is going to have a hard time living in a dry environment.

I’m so sorry. I would boil it and scrub with baking soda. But not sure. Maybe there are other options

Wow, that is really too bad. Please let us know what ends up happening. I’m marking this thread to remind myself that this is something I would do — and the reason I’m not to invest in any expensive teaware any time soon. I would guess that boiling would fix it, but it probably depends on how long the mold has had to…grow into the porous parts of the pot. It should still kill it, though, yeah?

I’d boil and use. Maybe a couple boils depending on how things look and smell. Then again, I live in a very humid climate and have become very laissez faire about mould. Others may be much more cautious.

Google is telling me vinegar, but won’t that leave a vinegar smell in the pot?

Boil for sure. You can use baking soda to destink it. More extremes I’ve heard was weak solution of vinegar or bleach, but i think baking soda should do it. Maybe the tofu method of seasoning could suck out smells too.

I’ve actually left pots a week later with leaf in it and it was completely dry inside. One benefit I was told with clay pots is the clay sucks in more water, so when you resteep later the leaf isn’t sitting in water like it would in a gaiwan.

It could be climate why mine gets dried out, but you wanna make sure you pour all the water out, or maybe check if the pot does better with another type of tea so everything pours out better.

Wonder if Mandala’s smart soak would work?

Thanks all. The pot doesn’t look/smell so bad, the mold seems to have been almost exclusively growing gone the leaves. So I’m going to try a bit of baking soda and a few good boils. If it smells moldy after it dries I’ll try some harsher methods or relegate it to decoration.

After you do all the boiling/soda scrubbing I would finish it with Vodka.

I did this once with my pot, a simple unglazed clay pot not a real Yixing. I used boiling water and a scrub brush. Let it dry completely and repeated. then brewed a couple pots of poo that I dumped. Then used as normal. Must have worked. I didn’t die from the ordeal.