Cheap aliexpress yixing teapot: Is it any good? [with taste test] 

I got a new teapot today and am so excited to try it out, so it's fun to see how you are trying your new pot. I hope mine goes better! Mine was not so cheap, so I may have better luck.

I have a fake Yixing for about the same price. It gives the same "drying" feeling to teas. It also had long-lasted wet clay smell. I am not using it out of safety concerns.

Nice video thank you for your insight. I made similar tests in the past and had a wide range of results. Zhuni seems to not impact the taste by much, while my zini does round up the tea a bit and removes some bitterness but also some high notes and duan ni even more. I guess it does have to do with the porosity of the clay. I also compared my +100€ pots to a ~30€ pot from Taobao, and taste-wise they are really really similar, the small differences they have seem to be coming from the clay but not in a negative way. But the price difference is really noticeable in the smoothness of the pour, the overall manufacturing and finish. On the other hand, I once bought a really cheap teapot in a local Chinese supermarket, its glased but some parts inside the spout, for example, were left out, on this one I get a weird strong smell of cheap clay in a way plant pots to smell like so I don't use that one for tea. Overall I would say don't go below 30€ when you are ok with not having perfect manufacturing, and to be safe buy our pot in a local store so you can inspect it :) .

you should boil the tea pot in hot water 30 min and then boil it one more time with some tea that you drink. I think the taste will better. and i think you can not know what cheap what expensive

I bought one at similar price point and agree to the tongue drying effect. This is definitely not safe for consumption use. I also bought matching cups as well. I'll open a dispute on aliexpress and hopefully can get my money back.

Did you season the pot?

Silicate added to the cheap clay I think

You should try blind folded from beginning after first try you knew the taste so ... pointless for me

I don't know man that spout looks pretty average to me. Above average, really. Especially if it has a great personality.

Surprising... someone with a storefront is anti cheap goods in lieu of their own cheap marked-up goods. A true comparison would have been with two brand new teapots, both seasoned the same way, with a sample size of 4 or more test cups, there is a 50% chance of simply GUESSING which is which using only two cups.

Water coming out in an uninspiring way. Mhhh yes 🙄🙄🙄