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Hello to everybody who enjoy the skillful way of drinking the tea.
I
began gong fu cha preparation taking seriously just a few months back
(though i did it occasionaly for several years now). I own one nice low
profile high fired teapot and use it mostly for darker teas (I want to
make my teapots in the future more specialized, but this is not possible
for me for the time being).I keep wondering, what is your
opinion on using yixing clay fort subtle teas? I keep getting mixed
opinions about this. Most sites, books and other forms of advice I have
taken recommend to never brew chinese greens in yixing, because it will
bake the leaves and make them constricted in such a small vessel, not
allowing them to fully bloom. Then I encountered second opinion, that if
the teapot is thin enough and allows a lot of movement for the leaves,
then it is okay. But then again, some people just plainly state:
porcelain or glass gaiwans (being neutral) will do delicate teas more
good.I am really curious what is your take on this.
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I think you should separate tea by taste styles for each teapot, not color. Green tea in Yixing teapot is not an argument. It is better if you choose the right teapot. In the beginning it was only green tea and it has since always been the clay teapot. Yixing clay of course is the best.
However, in Japan we can’t all afford real Yixing teapots but some of our clay teapots are very good too. Generally for making tea in a nicer way, not necessarily gongfu style, we still use 300~400 cc teapots with 10g of tealeaves, or more. We use mostly very nice sencha, kabusecha, or gyokuro. They are all green tea.I think glass is not a really nice ware to brew tea in it. Strange taste from the same tea.If you use very thin porcelain ware, your infusion time needs be short, or temperature drop too much for good infusion. -
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Clay kyusu has a long history in Japan for making green tea in. Indeed, when Yixing teapot began to take its place as the de facto teaware for connoisseurs, the overwhelming majority of tea in the market was green. Poems and literature have presented them as pairs since the 17th century.
Personally, I think many green teas don’t show their true face unless they are prepared with a properly seasoned Yixing pot. However, for people who prefer sharper tastes the porcelain is a great category of infusion wares.For white teas, I mean true white teas, I prefer porcelain over Yixing, as they are soft as they are, any further rounding of the body seems a bit too much. I’d rather shorten the infusion by using more leaves and higher temp for some briskness. I drink white tea by the gulp, unlike I would fine greens.In choosing the proper Yixing clay for the tea, I’d consider the taste profile of that particular tea rather then what category it belongs to. I’d also consider how I would drink the tea: small cup, medium cup, normal cup, or large cup? This also determine the decantation speed, the pot size, and thus the needed thickness and density and in turn affects the body and texture.If we don’t regard the above factors and confine ourselves to smaller pots and normal spout speed and shorter infusion time, then for softer teas you use a higher density clay and sharper teas a lower one.Another factor that most people overlook when judging a pot is the need for proper seasoning of most genuine pots. Thicker clays need more seasoning than thinner one. Clays blended in more silica need less than those purer ones. Softer teas are affected more obviously when prepared with an under-seasoned pot than sharper ones.The way you pour water into the teapot and the shape/size of the teapot affect the infusion effects and seldom is the case of stuck green tea not having enough room for spreading, when you know what to do.I agree with Hokusai that glass really is not an ideal infusion ware, unless it is really thick. -
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@Sofie1212, some shopkeepers allow their customers to test the pot properly before buying, but you have to know what you are doing well and ask permission first, because hitting a piece of ceramic for sound can mean breaking the piece, many would not allow any customers to do that. Trust would need to be established first.
However, if you are beginning, I think it is better to buy a few not so expensive ones and explore them in order to know more about the basics before advancing to such ideas as density. -
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