In terms of pouring speed, these pots are above average. The larger one, the zhu-ni one by Xu Yan Ping, with a 200 ml capacity, pours at 12.5 ml/s, is actually even faster than the smaller one which is at 11.8 ml/s. The classic and most popular shuiping design, for example, seldom goes above 10 ml/s. Most Yixing pots are in the range of 8 ~ 10 ml/s.
However, some people are concerned with how long it takes to empty the pot because they think that the pot cools down while pouring and the remaining of the pour, since it is still infusing the leaves, but now at a lower temperature, will not be infusing in an optimum condition, and thereby lowers the quality of the overall infusion.
That is a valid concern under these conditions:
- The infusion time is short, e.g. 30 sec etc, so the 10~20 seconds become relatively significant.
- The pot is not thick enough or not of genuine Yixing clay, so it is not holding enough heat to stablize the temperature during pouring. The Chaozhou hand-thrown clay teapot, for example, is not good for this reason.
Since you are using the pot for Longjing or Puer, which I think better quality is brought out only through enough infusion time, so I think the pots are good for you.
Here is one reason why Yixing teapots were not intended for ultra fast pouring:
In Chaozhou, where they used to put out 3 cups, no more, no less, regardless of the number of people to be served, every time tea is infused in a small pot, the tea was poured around the 3 cups in a circle. The pouring time had to allow the tea maker enough time to even out the concentration in each cup by going around the cups with enough repetitions. This was where the term “General Guan going round the city wall” (關公巡城) came from.
I think I should do a demo later when this busy tea season is over.
