A tea enthusiast I met at YHF recommended this vendor to me. It's a Taiwanese snack shop also carry loose tea leaves - Taiwan tea exclusively. I bought a Zisha teapot from him along with a Dong Ding Ooglong. He gave me a free sample of the Taiwan Lung Jing as well. He's a hard selling sales person, over informative as well. I was a little annoyed.
Medium minus quality tea pot. I have seen many teapot made with mixed clay with sparkling particles, usually it's a bad sign. The mineral cause tea to taste alkine resembling soap.
This pot also has the sparkling particles. I am not sure whether I'd use it, maybe I'll try a sample.
10 comments:
Imen, you beat me to the punch in saying about Bamboo Tea House. I was just there yesterday because it's just a 10-minute walk away from my work.
I bought a Japanese tea set for my in-laws (easier to brew, just chuck in leaves in the big pot). I also got a small Vietnamese tea jar.
They also have a branch in Clairmont.
Oops, I meant to post the above comment under your gaiwan post.
Phyll,
what is a vietnamese tea jar?
Imen,
I'm surprised by what you say about sparkling particles.
I have some on all my teapots, including my best pure zisha (and even a little in duanni), and for me it's a sign of quality : I've always heard and read that the clay for teapots should contain a lot of iron, and this one is present both melt and crystalized.
Ok it's presence varies a bit, but I allways see some.
Does anyone know more about this ?
It's a tea jar, made in Vietnam (according to the tag). It's this one:
http://tinyurl.com/l6ohj
It's about 15cm / 5.5" high. Cost me $11.50.
Jerome,
Sparkling particles can be numbers of mineral. But it shouldn't be iron. Iron is usually red in color. While I might not be entirely correct on that subject, it could depend on the kind of mineral composition of the particles, some may enhance the flavor and some don't. I in general avoid them. May I ask if you season those pots before use and how and how long have you been using them? Maybe "raising" it will improve the taste eventually like the good pots.
Phyll,
Are you using it for aging your tea collection? It looks nicely hand painted.
I notice one thing about ceramic made in Vietnam. The clay is not compact like good china wares made in China or Japan. Therefore more porous, lighter in weight and can be easily broken.
I hope yours is well made and it will made your tea age finely.
No, I don't plan to age anything in there. It's on the dining table for convenience. I can put in breakages of sheng or shu pu'er from the beeng/tuo or those individually wrapped mini shu tuo's. It does feel more porous than the usual Yixing clay. I don't think it's airtight enough to store oolongs, even short term, imo.
Imen,
Thank you for the precision. The only seasonning I do for my teapots is rincing them alternately with cold/hot water until the mineral smell has almost disappeared. The oldest one is about 5 years old, the last is brand new, and there are all used for gong fu cha.
Jerome,
Maybe I should boil it with hot water instead of jump right into boiling with tea. My good pots didn't even need seasoning or boiling at all. This is somewhat new to me even I have heard of many ways to season a pot. Thanks for sharing!
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