Clay Lined Tea Tumbler

This Christmas my generous friend and mentor Mr. Chen gave me a very special gift. It is a small tea tumbler lined with yixing clay.

As is often the case with Chinese gifts, this tumbler came in a very handsome silk-lined box. The package also included a pretty little booklet providing some history of Yixing clay and some information about the company that produced the cup. The design is titled bai jia xing (百家姓) and features over 500 golden words printed on a red background. For me it was love at first sight.

I've never used a cup like this before. On those rare occasions when I take my tea-to-go I usually just use a mason jar. Mason jars get the job done but the tea gets cold so fast and they will not fit in my car's cup holder. I also have a polycarbonate Chinese tea tumbler (seen here) which I use during longer trips or vacations but I was never crazy about that plastic teacup. 

Since Christmas I have used my clay lined tumbler many times. It has become my vessel of choice when I take my son to preschool on these cold winter mornings. First I brew my tea in a small teapot, usually it will be a Chinese black tea like dian hong, qimen, or bai lin gongfu but I've also tried it with dong ding and shui xian oolongs, then I decant the liquor right into the cup. To me, the flavor from this cup is much better than tea drunk out of an all metal tumbler. It is noticeably smoother, richer and sweeter.

Right now I'm not overly concerned about mixing different types of tea in this cup. I realize the clay will continuously change and that will affect the flavor of the teas, but as long as it tastes good I'll be happy. 

Yixing Ming Cha

Recently my family and I visited my wife's aunt Mel. Mel is a wonderful person, an incredible chef, and a connoisseur of spices and coffee.

One afternoon, Mel showed me a pretty tin of Chinese tea that a friend had given to her. She had no idea what kind of tea it was or how best to prepare it. She had tried several times to enjoy it but unfortunately she was never able to brew it well.

I recognized the four Chinese characters displayed on both sides of the tin. They said Yixing Ming Cha (宜興茗茶) which I translated as "young and tender tea leaves from Yixing." A close inspection of the dry leaf indicated to me that this is a green tea with lots of fuzzy silvery buds. It looked like it was already a year or two old but the combination of a foil bag packed inside of a tin seemed to have benefited the leaves as they still had a nice aroma. I told Mel what I knew about Yixing, and their famous clay teapots, but I admitted that I didn't know too much about teas from this area.

The dry leaf.

I made a noble effort to brew the tea using Mel's six cup stoneware teapot and tap water boiled in a sauce pan (we couldn't find her tea kettle). Mel, my wife, and I all tried a mug and agreed that it was flat, boring, and grassy. When I suggested that this tea might taste much better if it was brewed in a gaiwan using spring water Mel gave me the tea.

Today I'm giving this Yixing Ming Cha my full attention. I used fresh spring water at 170° F, one rounded teaspoon of dry leaf, and a small gaiwan. My first infusion was ~1 minute.

Turns out this is a good tea although it is getting stale. It was probably picked in the early spring of 2012. The liquor is light with medium body. It is not at all nutty or roasty but it's a little bit sweet with a clean aftertaste. During four satisfying infusions I got some subtle notes of honeydew melon and a brightness in my throat that reminded me of decent white tea.

This session inspires me to keep a look out for Yixing tea in the future. Have you had any experiences with, or do you have any more information to share about, teas from this fascinating part of China? Also, what is the difference, if there is one, between Yixing (宜興) and Yang Xian (陽羡)?

Steeping Clay - Experiment # 1

I once read that if you poured boiling water into a well-seasoned yixing clay teapot, without tea leaves, you would still get a little tea flavor and color. I don't think I have any teapots that would qualify as "well seasoned" but three of my pots, El Greco (aged puer), Sandy (heavily roasted oolong), and Sam (high mountain Taiwanese oolong) have each been used dozens of times to brew great teas.

El Greco (top left), Sandy (middle), Sam (bottom right)

For today's experiment, I filled each of these three teapots with freshly boiled water, covered them with a thick towel, and then waited 1 hour before pouring the water into three separate tea bowls.

Each cup of warm water had the faintest hint of yellow color. Sandy's cup had one tiny speck of old leaf in it.

I started with Sam's water. It had a subtle sweetness and the water felt soft and creamy. There was also a hint of citrus in the water but it hid in the back of my throat and peeked out only when I exhaled.

Sandy's water was soft and thick in my mouth. It had a lick of nuttiness and a floral-mineral aftertaste that reminded me of Tie Guanyin oolong.

El Greco, like Sam and Sandy, also yielded delicate sweetness and substantial mouth-feel. It had a "brighter" taste than the other two pots. While Sam had citrus in the back of the throat, El Greco had an up front lemongrass note.

I was pleased with the results of this casual experiment and plan to repeat it in a few years using this blog post as a baseline. Next time I'll include a few other tea lovers in the tasting to "blind taste test" the water in hopes of limiting the possible effects of "power of suggestion."

Please let me know if you have ever tried anything like this or if you have any other ideas for ways to improve this experiment.

Using a Second Clay Teapot as a Chahai

Tea lovers have been decanting their brew from one teapot to another for ages so this post offers nothing original. However, when it comes to gongfu style tea preparation, it often seems like I, and everyone I drink tea with, always uses a decanting pitcher (aka chahai, fairness cup, etc.) or we'll just pour the tea directly into our cups.

Lately I've been experimenting with using two clay teapots, one to brew and one to serve, while drinking Chinese tea.

In the cases where I already have two well-seasoned teapots that hold similar volumes of tea, this method has yielded some wonderful results. High quality clay teapots are always such a pleasure to use... so it makes sense that having two on your tea tray at the same time may "double your pleasure."

Some other possible benefits include: quicker seasoning of your clay teapots and the second teapot's lid can, if desired, be used to keep your tea much hotter than a typical decanter.

Please comment if you have any more information or personal experiences regarding this technique.

League of Pots #28

Code Name: Panther (豹)

Material: Black Clay
Height: 10 cm
Length (handle to spout): 15 cm
Volume: 440 ml
Weight: 315 g

Brews: Hong Cha (紅茶)
Specialty: Big Leafed Taiwanese Hong Cha
Story: I found Panther last month at a south Seattle rummage sale for just $1. He appears to have never been used.
Super Powers: Panther is a ninja assassin who can transform into a "dark shadow cat" which allows him to sneak undetected into any place, and even go through the cracks underneath doors.

Tips for Buying Yixing Clay Teapots

A few of my readers recently asked me for some advice on where to buy Yixing (宜興) clay teapots here in North America. Each of these potential buyers did not want to spend a lot of money and they wanted pots that they could use often (rather than just sitting on a shelf looking pretty). They also appeared to have already done a fair amount of online research and had run across tons of (sometimes contradictory) information and a baffling array of options and prices.

So for those readers and any others who might be interested, here are my tips for buying Yixing clay teapots:

1. Buy teapots that appeal to you aesthetically, feel well made and balanced, and pour well. Easier said than done eh?

2. Buy local if possible. Small retail tea businesses are truly a wonderful thing and deserving of local support. If you live near a place that sells Yixing teapots you should feel really lucky. Ask the buyer where they get their stock. Some may import directly (which is wonderful) while others will wholesale from larger domestic distributors (such as a notable Bay area company called CCCI). There is really nothing too special about these mass produced teapots but they can still be a good choice if they look nice, pour well and are well priced.

3. Buy used. This might be a controversial tip when talking about a porous, flavor absorbing, highly personal item such as Yixing clay. (Sort of like buying used underwear.) But I'm a big fan of thrift stores, antique stores, garage sales and rummage sales and you really never know what is going to turn up. All I'm saying is keep your eyes open. Even if the teapot is well used it may still brew great tea or be otherwise salvageable... and for just a couple dollars it is probably worth the risk. You could even get lucky and score a well seasoned treasure. Also, sometimes clueless people will receive unwanted teapots as gifts, never use them, and then just give them away. In fact, just last weekend, I found such a pot for $1 at a rummage sale. I am drinking Alishan out of it as I type this. It looks like a panther. I'll add it to my League of Pots later this month.

4. Who said you have to "buy" anything. No, I'm not suggesting you go out and steal a teapot, but there may be other ways for you to score your dream pot. If you have a marketable skill, art or craft, perhaps you could make a trade with another tea loving friend (including an online tea friend). If that's not going to work, you could always start dropping hints with friends and family around Christmas or your birthday.

5. Don't buy teaware at a corporate chain store (especially if it's in a mall). This last tip is just my own personal opinion. You're invited to do your own research about individual stores and make up your own mind about where to spend your own money.

I hope some readers will find this post to be a useful tool. I'm certainly no expert on this hugely intricate subject and I'd really appreciate it if some of my truly Yixing savvy readers would add more helpful comments. I'm also inviting readers and trustworthy vendors to share links to themselves or their own favorite places to buy Yixing teapots.

League of Pots #026

Code Name: "Nutkin"

Material: Dark Brown Clay
Height: 5.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 9.5 cm
Volume: 70 ml
Weight: 79 g

Brews: Nutkin has yet to brew any real tea.
Specialty: He's very good at brewing imaginary tea!
Story: Nutkin was a gift to my daughter from my friend Shiuwen about a year ago.
Super Powers: Although Nutkin is very impertinent, he is extremely clever, great at riddles, and can transform himself into a stealthy squirrel.

League of Pots #023

Code Name: "Funny Guy"

Material: Unglazed Red Clay
Height: 12.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 12 cm
Volume: 275 ml

Brews: Puer Tea
Specialty: Loose leaf ripe puer tea.
Story: I purchased Funny Guy nine years ago at Teacup and he is my first official "puer pot." He was imported by CCCI so he is "nice but not too nice" plus he didn't cost too much. Interestingly, Funny Guy's head is also his lid and the tea flows right through his mouth... so you have to hold on to his head while pouring or else it will just fall off!
Super Powers: Funny Guy can fully twist his head around in circles preventing any bad guys from sneaking up on him. He can also use this power to pull off an amusing "Exorcist" style party trick!

League of Pots #020

Code Name: "Little Plum" (小梅 )

Material: Black Clay
Height: 6 cm
Length (handle to spout): 11 cm
Volume: 140 ml

Brews: Lightly oxidized oolong teas from Taiwan
Specialty: Alishan High Mountain Tea
Story: Little Plum is a very inexpensive clay pot from CCCI (a wholesaler based out of California). She was purchased by a friend last year at Teacup (the tea shop I work at here in Seattle) but the good chap didn't really like the way she poured so I gave him a store credit and adopted Little Plum. I have since overcome her "quirks" and now use her frequently to brew tea at work.
Super Powers: She may be small but she is loud! Little Plum has the ability to generate vocal sounds at any decibel level. Little Plum can also "throw her voice" making it appear to be coming from any source she chooses (which would explain her day job as a ventriloquist).

League of Pots #019

Code Name: "El Greco" (希臘人)

Material: Black Clay
Height: 8 cm
Length (handle to spout): 13 cm
Volume: 175 ml

Brews: Sheng Puer (生普洱)
Specialty: Wild leaf, old tree, aged sheng puer.
Story: El Greco is the teapot that I bought during my first trip to Fenqihu, Taiwan (奮起湖, 台灣) back in 2006. I wrote about the day I bought El Greco in this old blog post.
Super Powers: El Greco is a code and language master. He can speak, read and write any language fluently and has never come across a code he couldn't break!

Xiao Xiao's big day

You may already know that quality loose leaf tea is a great value. I usually tell my clients that a pound of tea brews 180 to 200 cups, which means that the price per cup can fall anywhere from one penny to a few dollars. While I'm sure this all varies greatly from person to person and tea to tea, I still feel this statistic is a pretty accurate rule of thumb.

One day Xiao Xiao and I decided to find out just how much brewed tea we could make using my last 8 grams of 1997 Nannuo shou cha. This tea cost $128 per pound, so 8 grams would be $2.26.

Xiao Xiao!
(What he lacks in size he makes up for in spirit.)

Xiao Xiao holds enough tea to fill three small teacups, but because I was drinking solo, I poured a third of each infusion into a large mason jar, a third into another small drinking cup, and the rest into my own cup to savor. We went for 13 delicious infusions.

After I was done the mason jar held 10 ounces of tea:
(This room temperature mix of all 13 infusions tasted great too!)

... and the cups looked like this:
(I didn't drink all of these, because I was already feeling a super puer buzz.)

(They are shown here in order from left to right, top to bottom.)

30oz of tea is 3.75 cups so this time a $128 per pound tea worked out to about $0.60 per cup!

After our little experiment, Xiao Xiao was very sleepy (brewing 30 ounces of tea can be very hard work when you're the size of a golf ball) so I made him a nice little "nest" out of some used tea leaves and let him rest.

League of Pots #017

Code Name: "Desmond"

Material: Blue-grey clay
Height (not including handle): 7.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 10.5 cm
Weight: 84 grams
Volume: 130 ml

Brews: High Mountain oolong teas with light to medium oxidation and roast.
Specialty: He Huan Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea - 合歡山高山烏龍茶
Story: Desmond was a gift from my friend Lin Xiuyue in Yingge, Taiwan. I believe Lin's little brother made him.
Super Powers: Desmond can see flashes of the future. We are currently looking for his "constant" (a little teapot named Penny).

League of Pots #014

Code Name: "Rusty" (生銹)

Material: Red Clay
Height: 8.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 15 cm
Weight: 247 grams
Volume: 225 ml

Brews: High Mountain Oolongs
Specialty: Shan Lin Xi (杉林溪)
Story: I bought Rusty in Fenqihu (奮起湖), Taiwan in May 2008. He has a cool little creature on his lid. I'd call it a "Gremlin," but it is most likely a dog or a lion.
Super Powers: Rusty can start fires using his mind.

League of Pots #008

Code Name: "Mr. Big" (大先生)

Material: Red Clay
Height: 9.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 20 cm
Weight: 371 grams
Volume: 450 ml

Brews: All types of Puer tea.
Specialty: Rich, smooth, "black" (aka "shou", aka "ripe", aka "cooked", aka "熟") puer.
Story: Sometimes I need to make puer tea for over 15 people. That's why I bought Mr. Big, because he will "get the job done." I bought him a few years ago from my friend Jason Chen, here in Washington State. He has the same stylish bamboo leaves on him and the same chop as his little sister "Goldy."
Super Powers: Mr. Big is indestructible!

League of Pots #007

Code Name: "Sam" (山姆)

Material: Red Clay
Height: 7.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 10 cm
Weight: 150 grams
Volume: 110 ml

Brews: Lightly oxidized Taiwanese high mountain oolongs.
Specialty: Winter Alishan high mountain oolong tea
(冬天的阿里山高山茶).
Story: I bought Sam from my tea friend Josh in Tainan (台南) in winter of 2005. She was the first teapot I ever bought for myself in Taiwan and she is my favorite yixing teapot!
Super Powers: Sam is a good witch.

League of Pots #006

Code Name: "Wuyi Warrior" (武夷士)

Material: Red Clay
Height: 6.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 14.5 cm
Weight: 217 grams
Volume: 205 ml

Brews: Wuyi Mountian Cliff Teas (武夷岩茶)
Specialty: Aged Rougui and Da Hong Pao (大紅袍)
Story: I bought the Wuyi Warrior for $25 Canadian from a little shop in Vancouver, BC. He was the first clay pot I ever bought for myself probably around 6 years ago!
Super Powers: Freeze Ray!

League of Pots #005

Code Name: "Brown Bear" (棕熊)



Material: Brown Clay
Height: 8.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 15 cm
Weight: 219 grams
Volume: 240 ml

Brews: Dong Fang Mei Ren (東方美人), Bai Hao Oolong (白毫烏龍),
Specialty: Dong Fang Mei Ren
Story: I bought Brown Bear from Arts de Chine (thank you Daniel Liu) in Vancouver, BC.
Super Powers: ESP and Telekinetic powers!

League of Pots #004

Code Name: "Goldy" (黃金)

Material: Yellow Clay
Height: 9.5 cm
Length (handle to spout): 13.25 cm
Weight: 218 grams
Volume: 290 ml

Brews: Lightly oxidized Taiwanese oolong teas
Specialty: Wenshan Baozhong
Story: I bought her for about $40 from my good friend Jason Chen about two years ago.
Super Powers: She has the ability to morph into a powerful tiger!

League of Pots #002

Code Name: "Xiao Xiao" (小小)



Material: Dark Brown Clay
Height: 5.5cm
Length (handle to spout): 9cm
Weight: 59 grams
Volume: 75 ml

Brews: Puer Tea
Specialty: Ripe (Black) Puer
Story: I bought Xiao Xiao from a local tea lover (thank you Andrew) last year.
I'm not sure who made him.
Super Powers: He can lift 1000x his own body weight!

League of Pots #001

Code Name: "Red Elf" (紅仙)

Material: Red Clay
Height: 6cm
Length (handle to spout): 13cm
Weight: 108 grams
Volume: 170 ml

Brews: Lightly oxidized high mountain Taiwan oolongs.
Specialty: Lishan Tea
Story: Red Elf was a gift from a local tea lover (thank you Michael) about five years ago. I'm not sure who made her.
Super Powers: Laser-blast and invisibility!