Interested in buying a couple of yixing teapots
Right. Puerh has me well and truly under its spell now I have experienced the range of its flavour
So yixing teapots
should I get 3, shu, aged sheng and young sheng?
also, what size is a nice size – they will be for two people at the most, anyone with experience, 160ml-200ml sounds about right to me, but advice is appreciated.
I really want cheapest possible – im not bothered if they are handmade or anything, just the right clay for the right taste, and good pouring for accurate brewing, again anyone with experience in cheap and not-so-cheap would be great
I’m guessing all the vendors that I drink puerh from will sell decent pots, not so sure about trusting aliexpress for things like this, or can you get decent clay which does the job?
There are two vendors on EBay that I have bought from and liked what I got. One sells cheaper pots than the other. I have been happy with both but particularly impressed with the seller missteapots. When you buy one of her more expensive pots she ships it in a really nice gift box with a teapot wrap. She ships her cheaper pots with a teapot wrap.
http://stores.ebay.com/missteapots/
http://stores.ebay.com/liwz88/Porcelain-and-Pottery-/i.html?fsub=2999043010&sid=1077450330&trksid=p4634.c0.m322
I like the missteapots ones – there are quite a lot I like the elegant, flattened shape, or the egg-shaped ones.
I highly recommend her teapots, I have five or six of them. I have bought the cheaper ones in the $60 range and the more expensive up to around $250 range. She will tell you in each case who made the teapot on her web page I think. Even the cheaper ones are nice. And she has excellent service. She once just decided to ship me a gift of four teacups and a tea pet. I have been very impressed with her. The only thing I don’t like is I am now usually looking for pots smaller than 100ml and she really doesn’t have them.
I would think carefully about how you drink your Tea before deciding on a size. If it’s normally just you drinking by yourself and you normally drink a Tea gongfucha style you might find these sizes too big. I’ve taken some Sheng close to 30 steeps before. I have 3 Sheng pots at the moment a 100 a 110ml and a 150 ml. The 150ml one is my sharing pot. I really like my 100ml pots but wouldn’t mind a smaller one.
You can get away with a larger pot for Shou. One of my friends prefers a 120-150 ml pot for herself.
As for vendors as well as the above I know people who have bought decent pots at the Chinese Tea Shop in Vancouver, Mandala Tea, Taotealeaf.
Essence of Tea often has smaller pots, cha-shifu seems to have nice ones. There are several others.
As for Aliexpress I’m sure there are some legit and decent sellers on there. I haven’t bought one from there yet so I’ll stay away from that potential minefield:-).
I found this source helpful when searching for pots. http://www.thechineseteashop.com/how-to-choose-teapot.html
Taiwan Tea Crafts have some for under $50 and small ones for $35.
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/shop/product-category/teaware/teapots/page/2/?v=7516fd43adaa
I have 4 of them, they preform incredibly well.
my gaiwan puts out about 60-70ml of liquid, and my day-to-day cups of which I have a set can hold 140ml.
I do have some smaller cups but use the bigger ones more because sometimes I double up.
Easier to do with a smaller teapot rather than put too much in a larger one – I will look for ~100ml pots then
Be careful of really cheap pots. The clay in cheaper pots tends to be soft and can add a muddy flavor. You can tell if you smell the inside when wet, if it smells like mud, then return it.
i’m back to being a gaiwan kinda guy. Shu in my teapots but most everything else is just gaiwan.
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