Yixing seasoning...

Any thoughts on how I should season my new Yixing? Found one today and couldn’t NOT buy it. Gonna use it for puerh. Another question would be can I use it for both Shou and Sheng or should I get a separate one for each?

29 Replies
Dexter said

Lots of people have different opinions – some include not seasoning at all. I like this video that David from Verdant tea make. I like how he explains why he recommends doing it this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wzsBNHO6C4

I would use it for sheng OR shou not both.

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MzPriss said

You need to pick either sheng or shou for your pot. I don’t bother to boil it and season it. I pour boiling water in it to clean it out and wipe out the grit and I just start using it. Works great.

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AllanK said

I season a pot in what is I think the traditional way. By submerging it in water and adding about 25g of the type of tea the pot will be dedicated to. I bring the water to a boil and boil the pot for about thirty minutes. I then let the water cool. When it has cooled, take out the pot and it is seasoned. Use water of a quality to make tea with. You have to dedicate the pot to one type of tea because a Yixing pot will absorb flavors of the tea. It is unglazed. It should eventually begin giving back flavors but this takes a long time.

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I have two Yixing pots and I soaked them in near boiling water a couple of times, then soaked them for about an hour in near boiling water + 25g tea. I was too afraid of breaking them to actually let them boil on the stove.

AllanK said

I have always been nervous one will break but I have boiled about a dozen yixing now with no cracks. I think they would only crack if there was a defect in them and if there was a defect in them they probably would have broken when being fired on the kiln.

Dr Jim said

I think the concern about boiling is that a full rolling boil with toss around the pot (or at least the lid). I did more of a simmer than a full boil, first with plain water then repeated using just a few grams of tea.

The first pot I did has a very narrow ‘stem’ connecting the handle to pot and I was very concerned with that getting broken during a rolling boil. Both my hot, but not boiling water seasoned pots seem to have turned out ok for their use (sheng and shou).

Uniquity said

The videos I’ve seen that do a full boil tended to have tea towels and the like ‘lining’ the pot to prevent pot on pot action.

That hardly made sense.

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t-ching said
I just boil to clean it and start using it. Although the first few uses do suck some flavor from the tea, I find throwing in 25g+ of tea in the boiling water a bit of a waste.
MzPriss said

I find that the “flavor-sucking” if it happens at all with a new pot isn’t really that much and I would much rather let my pots season as they are used and “grow up” naturally and I like going through that with them to see how they change. I just don’t find all the soaking necessary and it seems like more of an artificial process to me where I don’t get to experience all the stages of the pot. But then I kind of bond with my pots like they are my babies and it’s how I get to know my pots.

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nycoma said

to season mine i brought water up to a boil with the yixing and lid inside the pot, sitting on a cloth to avoid cracking. then took out yixing let it cool, then bring up to a boil again with new water and 25g of the 2011 moonlight white pu’er. i should add that before boiling i gave the yixing pot a cleaning with a toothbrush because there may be loose clay inside. anything that helps

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I simmered each of mine for 30 minutes in water and 25 grams of an inexpensive tea of the type the pot would be used for (sheng, shou, jade oolong, roasted oolong, Yunnan black). I still found them to suck flavor from the teas I brewed in them for a while after this, so the seasoning is by no means complete from just boiling them in tea. A year down the road now, however, they are all giving back nicely.

If I were to get a new pot now, I’m not sure I’d waste the tea used to simmer & season it. Instead I’d try using just stronger teas at first until it started to taste seasoned, and brew the more delicate ones in a gaiwan until the pot was ready.

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I’ve done the boiling method similar to Verdant Tea’s already mentioned.

I too heard the argument against boiling your tea pot on the stove is the boiling could damage your pot with rattling or contact with a hot element on the bottom. I was also worried as the cloth I used in the pot as buffer has a scent/taste of laundry soap or linen and I didn’t want that in my pot either.

A more recent attempt I just rinsed my pot in boiling water, then gave it a soak in more boiling water for a bit. I then did a tea soak similar to what Verdant Tea does and let the pot sit overnight. Now I also do an additional round of tea soaking after experiencing issues and hating flavor sucking new pot first session.

I recently switched a sheng pot to shou and I did a stove boil and one tea soak. The next steep I drank and it was an awful tea session where I could taste the old flavors of the pot and I lost out on good tea, so I wish I sunk more tea soaking. The next session went much better tho.

That said, I’m in reverse of Tching and I rather toss 25g of okay tea I use for seasoning and have my pot seasoned faster than having subpar tea sessions of flavor sucked/gross good tea.

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I’m not a fan of the boiling method. While I know lots of people do I don’t want to risk it, especially if a pot is really pricey. This is how I’ve seasoned all of my pots and it’s worked great so far.

http://www.teaformeplease.com/2013/04/seasoning-your-yixing.html

Nicole — Thanks for posting this. I’d not heard of this variation before. I like that it wastes a minimal amount of leaves.

AllanK said

This reminds me of the method espoused by the EBay seller CHinese Teapot Gallery. They basically said fill the pot with boiling water once and empty, make and discard three rounds of tea, and the teapot is now ready for use.

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AllanK said

Did you season your pot yet?

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