hey guys welcome back to tea with Phil and Zhen today we're gonna talk about how to choose your
very first yixing clay teapot so yixing clay teapots can be actually a very extensive topic
and everybody have their own aesthetics but in today's video we're gonna look at it from a more
realistic and like everyday use kind of angle so if you were interested just keep on watching
so the very first thing to choose a yixing clay teapot is actually to choose a real one though
the yixing clay teapots are not extremely rare in the market it is also not rare to see fake ones
actually a couple years ago there were news pieces talking about how people were faking
yixing clay teapots with non-food grade materials and actually dangerous to human body so though price
doesn't reflect all and I'm not suggesting you to get hundreds of thousands of dollars
yixing clay teapot those extremely cheap ones can be suspicious too so please get that from
the trusted sources when choosing a using clay teapot shape matters not in the aesthetic sense
but to consider practically about the opening of a teapot this is the time you want to think about
what is the tea you are going to brew in your new teapot so this has moderate sized opening
and if I'm planning on brewing some tie guan yin in it it's actually perfect very easy to put
the leaves through but if you are going to brew some yan cha in it sometimes it can be messy so if the
dry leaves of the tea you're planning on brewing is quite big these kinds of big opening will make
you everyday brewing much easier usually we don't suggest brewing green tea yellow tea or
young white tea in yixing clay teapot because those types of teas featuring really refreshing
light beautiful aromas that are greatly affected by the porous material and another thing I want
to mention about teapot is actually colors yixing clay teapot features quite a range of different
colors but for beginner I think it's safer to stay away from the really light color so this duan ni
teapot is actually my one of my favorite teapot but if you take a closer look you will notice
the tea stain at the bottom of the teapot so this is because I just let it sit on my tea tea table and
sometimes my tea table doesn't drain perfectly and it sits in the tea for too long and I didn't take
care of that you're right away so if you are not an extremely diligent to teapot care it is better
to start with some darker shades rather than the lighter color teapot last but not least is actually
you want to make sure your teapots pour well so there are many tips and hacks in terms of how you
can tell if a teapot pours well or not I think the easiest way is actually put in some
clear water and test it all out do they do smooth pour and crisp stop is the flow smooth and that's
basically what you're looking for and you know once you have teas in it just sometimes the tea
leaves get clogged in the teapot and you will actually affect the pouring the flow
and this is your baseline if with clear water it doesn't pour well it would be hard for the teapot
to pour well with actual teas in it now we've chosen our teapot it's time to season it
so there are many ways to season teapot from the very simple of not doing it just jump straight
to brewing to the most complicated method that I heard including tofu yes the tofu
and sugarcane I know I feel that's a little bit bizarre too so there are many ways to do it and
I'm just gonna show you how I do this let's fill in the pot with some cold water and a cloth and
put the teapot on top of the cloth bring it to a boil and the cloth would actually protected
the teapot from clinking once the water boils and turned on the water once it boils and let
it sit on gentle boil for about 20 minutes turn it off and let it return to room temperature when
it's comfy for your fingers to get the teapot out so once the teapot is boiled you take it out to
put some tea that you planned for this teapot and put it in the hot water and let it sit overnight
it really doesn't matter how much leaves you put in the teapot because we're not gonna drink this
tea this is just like a process to get the teapot familiar was this kind of tea get familiar with
aroma the liquor so in the end we would just dump this tea and I also mentioned that
I suggest overnight but if you only do that for 4 hours 5 hours I think that it also works some
of you may wonder if I should dedicate one teapot to a specific tea or brew all kinds of tea in a
teapot so my approach is actually I have teapots that are for one tea and also teapots for
different teas there are three things I consider when making my decisions first is how expensive is
this teapot so the higher the grade of the teapot the clay grade the better the craftsmanship
I tend to dedicate the teapot to one specific tea and the second thing I usually consider is
actually how often do I use this teapot me for example I drink a lot of tie guan yin so I have
several teapots for tie guan yin tea and I drink a black tea less so I have one teapot that I use for all the black
teas so I have a nice rotation in terms of using my teapot I don't want any of my teapot sit on
the shelf and get dusty and last but not the least is how similar the aroma and the tasting profile
of the teas for example I have a teapot adjust for yan cha so we know there are many different
teas in the rock tea family but all of them features that a rock tea flavor that dark chocolate granite
like tobacco kind of flavor so I think they are a nice group so I actually have a teapot for all of
them but in the end it is actually your teapot so however you choose I think it's all fine I hope
today's video is helpful for you to choose your very first yixing teapot and be sure to give it a
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