2g tea in 50mL yixing
Flash rinse, 205 degree water
1st 10 seconds
Woodsy, aged, sweetish, no bitterness
2nd 30 seconds
Very similar to first, but a little richer; strongly reminiscent of an aged puerh.
3rd 1 min….and out to 3-4 minutes by the 8th infusion, still similar—woodsy tea. Quite nice, pleasant, but not really revelatory.
Preparation
Comments
Before the yixing envy starts, bear in mind that the only things I am sure of regarding my tiny pots is that they are ceramic of some kind, hold tea, and cost $5.99 apiece from Wing Hop Fung, my local Chinatown tea shop. Even so, it took a year or so of stopping in every 2-3 months to get a little set of them.
Here’s most of the ‘family’ out for their scrub and restart on seasoning:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/4557338076/in/set-72157621917341148
And probably the best closeup for looking at the clay of this group
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/4319889299/in/set-72157621917341148
Pots like these are eminently usable. No matter if they’re zisha or not. Teapots from Guangdong are more frequently small than those from Yixing. Perhaps at least some of these are from Guangdong. The way the chinatown shop name is romanized sounds like the owner might be from around there.
Unfortunately, my shop seems to have stopped carrying these—the ons I’ve seen in the past year have a single spout hole, and these have a six hole strainer.
That makes a big difference, the six hole strainer. Sometime, you can fix a bit of stainless mesh over the single hole to prevent it from clogging frequently.
Should add: found a place where I’d more carefully documented the volumes and these little pots are mostly 60mL—only one of them was really 50mL. I did pick up an even tinier pot, listed here by Dragon Tea House on e-bay as 40mL, but my measured capacity (full to the brim, too full to put lid on without spilling) is 30mL.
It’s so small it’s not easy to fill without spilling from my full-sized kettle, but it was brilliant with a spot of very expensive aged puerh from Essence of Tea.
Where did you find a 50ml Yixing teapot? Those are rare :-)
Before the yixing envy starts, bear in mind that the only things I am sure of regarding my tiny pots is that they are ceramic of some kind, hold tea, and cost $5.99 apiece from Wing Hop Fung, my local Chinatown tea shop. Even so, it took a year or so of stopping in every 2-3 months to get a little set of them.
Here’s most of the ‘family’ out for their scrub and restart on seasoning:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/4557338076/in/set-72157621917341148
And probably the best closeup for looking at the clay of this group
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/4319889299/in/set-72157621917341148
I don’t care if they’re only $5.99, I’m still jealous. I need to try to find some like these.
Pots like these are eminently usable. No matter if they’re zisha or not. Teapots from Guangdong are more frequently small than those from Yixing. Perhaps at least some of these are from Guangdong. The way the chinatown shop name is romanized sounds like the owner might be from around there.
Unfortunately, my shop seems to have stopped carrying these—the ons I’ve seen in the past year have a single spout hole, and these have a six hole strainer.
That makes a big difference, the six hole strainer. Sometime, you can fix a bit of stainless mesh over the single hole to prevent it from clogging frequently.
Should add: found a place where I’d more carefully documented the volumes and these little pots are mostly 60mL—only one of them was really 50mL. I did pick up an even tinier pot, listed here by Dragon Tea House on e-bay as 40mL, but my measured capacity (full to the brim, too full to put lid on without spilling) is 30mL.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-Flat-Xi-Shi-Yixing-Zisha-Clay-Tea-Pot-40ml-/230391946760?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35a46e1e08
It’s so small it’s not easy to fill without spilling from my full-sized kettle, but it was brilliant with a spot of very expensive aged puerh from Essence of Tea.