kOmpir said

How to remove aroma of YiXing pot ?

I’ve recently bought used YiXing teapot and I don’t like its odour (it reminds of perfume rather than any tea). It’s exactly as Teavana’s “TIny Mouse YiXing Teapot”.
(http://www.teavana.com/tea-products/teapots-teapot-sets/artisan-teapots/yixing-teapots/p/tiny-mouse-yixing-teapot)

Is there a way to remove odour? I was thinking of using baking soda and vinegar.
8 Replies
Angrboda said

The thing about yixing is that it’s unglazed, so when you brew in it, the tea will seep into the porous clay, and consequently so will the aroma. I’m afraid that’s not something you can undo. I, at least, no of no way to do so. This is why many people dedicate their yixing pots to one particular type of tea.

If you try to remove it with baking soda or vinegar, this too will seep into the clay and then the pot will most likely become completely unusable. Had it been glazed inside, baking soda or vinegar would be fine, but as it’s not… I would very much advice against it.

Do you know what the previous owner used it for? If you want to use it for something stronger in flavour, you might be able to overwhelm it. Brew up a strong batch of that and soak the pot in it. It might help, but no promises. On the other hand, though, what do you stand to lose? :) I think this would be your best bet at salvaging it.

kOmpir said

I bought it on eBay from Chinese seller that didn’t know much about it, but he did mention to boil it before use (not smart purchase, I know). Actually, it’s the very teapot in my avatar .

I think I removed great deal of odour by boiling it in baking soda and vinegar for an hour. I don’t feel any soda or vinegar whatsoever, and now I can sense earthy aroma that kinda bites throat a bit.

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ssajami said

I’m not sure about the vinegar and the baking soda. Yixing is so porous that you might end up with vinegar flavored tea for a while. How about boiling it in a big pot of water? Maybe with some pu erh or black tea inside?

kOmpir said

I just steeped plain boiling water for 3 mins. It tastes as is, no additional tastes or aromas. But it does bite throat a bit, my guess it’s from vinegar. I’ll try boiling it as you recommend if I’m not satisfied with brewed tea.

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I’m curious if you seasoned the teapot first. Actually boiling the pot and seasoning it are quite common practices which removes the clay taste from the pot.

There are several methods for how to do that. I would not recommend putting vinegar in it anymore because the clay will absorb the vinegar flavor.

http://www.wikihow.com/Season-a-Yixing-Teapot
http://www.gongfugirl.com/seasoning-a-new-yixing-teapot/

kOmpir said

I bought used teapot and it had a strong perfume-like scent when it came. Today I boiled it with vinegar and baking soda for an hour and it seems that great deal of initial scent disappeared. I even drank Bailin Gongfu black tea with my roommate and there wasn’t anything off while drinking.
I might season it (long – 24 hour one) though. Thanks for the links.

okay, well maybe someone drank perfume tea in it before you got it? Anyway I hope you can find something that helps. good luck!

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Will said

I would keep vinegar away from your Yixing.

I would guess that this pot may have some additives or may not be good clay. A brand new Yixing pot should smell kind of like “hot rocks” if you fill it with hot water and then empty it. While just using the pot, or (carefully) boiling it will probably make the smell go away, you may want to consider whether or not this is something that is ideal to use for tea making.

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