Learn about the benefits and advantages of brewing with an Yixing clay teapot, and what you can do to start your teapot off right with careful seasoning and rinsing. More on Yixing teapots: verdanttea.com/...
Hi @knittingtheblues I would definitely avoid using toothpaste on a new pot. The mint flavor, flouride, etc might partially come out in the long steep, but I am not confident in that always being the case. It is true that many machine-made pots have a lot of dust and grit in them, in which case I would just use the water sprayer on a kitchen sink to dislodge the grit before boiling. Immersion in water for seven days won't hurt the pot. Yixing doesn't mind the water. Hope that helps.
I have that same water heater. I like all your videos, keep them coming. Can't wait for Christmas, so that I can get some more tea ware and VT teas, of course!
Thanks so much. I'm re-doing my Yixing after making the mistake of using tap water and a cheap Longjing. I suspected this is why my tea was ending up bitter only when using my Yixing. I was following the directions from a blog telling me to boil the pot with tea inside for 20 min then let it sit in it overnight. I knew this would produce a bitter tea but thought I'd follow the directions anyway. Your method makes much more sense - to brew the pot in filtered water, good tea, and remove the leaves.
Hello Verdant, thank you for the wealth of tea knowledge you have made available to the average joe. I have a question about seasoning Yixing pots. I just recently purchased 2. The first one I put the lid and pot in at the same time and turned the heat up until bubbles were coming out of the hole in the lid. The second pot I did the lid separately. I noticed that when I had both the pot and the lid in, it was only boiling under the lid. Not the rest of the pan. So that teapot didn't get to a full boil. With just the Teapot in I was able to get to a full boil. The pot that reached a full boil had a Stone or Rock smell afterwards and stole all the flavor of my first and second brew. The teapot that didn't reach a full boil didn't smell like anything. It also didn't seem to steal the flavor of my tea. I'm wondering if the "pores" didn't open up all the way because the water wasn't fully boiling when I first cleaned it? Thank you very much for your time.
I was skeptical about using toothpaste, too. I decided to use baking soda instead, which is a mild abrasive. Baking soda dissolves in water very quickly, so it only requires a few drops of water to make it a paste.
Thanks so much for this video. I hope you are checking here and can answer a few questions. I have read the following: to use tooth paste and a tooth brush to clean a new pot, to leave in boiling water for 30 minutes for initial cleaning and one site said to let your pot steep for seven days. Can you comment? Thanks.
I enjoyed this a lot and learned something too. I was told just to boil the pot is a pot of water with the tea. I like the refinement here of using the basket and or spoon to stop the rattling because it the makes it easy to just lift it out. (You can also put a small piece of towel in the bottom to prevent). But I will try the seasoning method with multiple pours. In the end are you letting it sit in the brewed tea plus the spent leaves?
The difference of teapot depend on the craftsman who made it and the clay that used. The craftsman are rated into 4 or 5 degrees, each degree have their recommend price. As to the clay, the unique clay that making yixing pot comes from an ore mine,the raw material is in the form of stone. the traditional way is put the stone under the sun and wait them being weathering and then precipitated under water, it tooks years to be fine clay, or just grain by machine, that make the difference
Is this terracotta or something else I just bought one but know nothing about it mine is Japanese with a built in strainer on the inside of the pot spout I have only used electric metal kettles am from England
I have watched a few videos and no one has mentioned the tray, they will pour tea over the pot to season it, and the tray gets all wet, is this a certain kind of tray?
It's probably a tea board. It's a tray that allows draining of some kind, be it grooves, double layered being woven, etc. If you've seen those special "bread cutting boards" that have two layers and slots in them so that the crumbs fall through cleanly, kinda like that. (Verdant sells them on their site, you can get them other places, etc.)
Thanks so much for your response. I didn't use toothpaste and have been enjoying a yixing teapot that I received as a gift many years ago and was intimidated by at the time, dedicating it to one tea threw me. I have another question-yesterday I brewed an oolong (3rd or 4th rebrewing of leaves) and forgot about it. Hours later I found it and the tea had become bitter. Will this ruin my pot or is there something I can do to save it? I really love it, it has sentimental value, I hope it is okay.
VerdantTeaChannel I've also read that first we have to scrub the teapot, rinse it after and fill it with water for 10 mins before putting the teapot in the pot of boiling water. I didnt see you did that or tell us to do it in this video, so we can skip that part of scrubbing?
Thanks for this wonderful clip. I was wondering when you brew tea with Yixing Teapot and after we poured our tea into the tea cup do you recommend that we get rid of the tea leaf right away or can we enjoy our tea and than worry about cleaning later?
@@berneemartin4383 I don't know what he meant with that question. You wouldn't just steep it once and then throw the tea away, if you brew gong-fu style, you steep it a lot of times. I usually steep it as long as I enjoy the tea. Then after the session, I remove the leaves. You can leave the leaves in there for a bit if you are too lazy to clean them out right after you had your tea session, but not too long (I avoid overnight for example) or else the leaves can grow mold and that can't be good for the pod obviously.
Thank you for this. I'm hoping to get a teapot off ebay to do this. I'm guessing because of the flavor stealing, it'd be better to use a bolder tea to season? (Matcha instead of gyokuro)
This was nice, I've been loving your company. I did find I loved the big red robe Wuyi oolong. We mostly drink white jasmine or green tea though. If one just prefers clay teapots, does it hurt to do that over glass or a gaiwan?
Generally - if you enjoy the tea you are brewing, then that's great! Many folks tend to avoid tea pots for green tea simply because one of the strengths of an Yixing pot is its capacity to maintain a high temperature while brewing, and many prefer green teas at a cooler temperature. That said, I know many Yixing artists who brew up green tea in their pots, and its tasted great! If you are concerned about temperature, you can try brewing with cooler water and brew without your pot's lid to keep things from staying too warm. All that said - brew with your heart! If you love the way you brew your tea, then you don't have to feel pressured to change (unless you have fun just trying something new!)
Hi, enjoy watching your video.. quick question.. after you fill the bowl with tea. then let it cool and then take out the teapot.. Do you have to rinse teapot with fresh water or you just let it dry with the tea still sticking into the teapot ? Thanks!
For this first seasoning, we generally let our pots dry with tea (the brewed tea liquor - not the tea leaves); it is ready to use after the pot has dried completely. Between regular sessions, however, we often will rinse our tea pots with boiling water after removing the tea leaves. One benefit of doing this between sessions is that the pot will be quite hot after this final water-only brew, which means everything dries much faster. This means there's less danger of putting your pot away with the lid on and condensation still inside (which can lead to musty aroma and even mold).
After boiling my pot, when it dried, there is a white residue on the pot. Is this minerals from the water, the clay or what could this be? hoping that i did not ruin my yixing pot...
This is just minerals from the water. If you used tap water, this might be because it is very hard water. You really need filtered water for this process.
Maybe, the teapot hit the ground of the pot. You should use a towel or something to protect the teapot, so the teapot can't hit the heavy ground of the pot.
