Using a seasoned teapot to add additional flavors...
I just had a thought inspired by the Steepster Tea Meetup the other week. During the tasting we had some Lapsang Souchong which had it’s own yixing clay teapot specifically for making the LS (because of the intense smoky flavors that season the pot).
This got me thinking…do people/have people used this flavor seasoning of the teapot to flavor their teas? I was wondering if you could brew some sort of marshmallow/chocolate blend in the pot to get something similar to S’mores (not sure how to include the graham crackers, maybe just on the side :). But I imagine a smoky hint might be interesting to add to a number of other teas, or even a teapot seasoned with a different flavor.
So, anyone have any experience with something like that. I don’t have a yixing teapot. Just something interesting I was wondering…
Interesting thread Jason! I would be afraid that if you experimented too much, the original seasoning flavor might get messed up.
That’s probably a possibility. But my guess is that with something like the Lapsang Souchong we used, most teas aren’t strong enough to overpower that heavy smoky flavor. But that’s just a guess. It probably would weaken the smoky flavor with repeated use, but then you could just boost the flavor by brewing some Lapsang Souchong again.
^^ohh, that’s a good idea Cofftea! If anyone can do it, Frank can! I wonder if he’d put those tiny dehydrated mini marshmallows in it, like the ones that come in Swiss Miss hot chocolate…
Mind you it might be good for people who like blends. I’m thinking of seasoning my Mayan Chocolate Chai yixing at least 3 times… decaf chai agni from UTI (I don’t want to waste precious MC Chai), chocolate from Adagio (it’s chocolate and cheap lol) and caramel from Adagio (again, cheap)… then I think, while I’ll mostly use it for my chai, I may also use it for chocolate and caramel flavored teas.
I totally agree with Cofftea. I have one yixing that I’m using exclusively with oolongs with an emphasis on my Magnolia Oolong. I’m discovering how long it takes to season it — it gets used about once-a-week right now. So for me I’d be worried that I’d taint the more delicate seasoning by adding something else. Perhaps I’d be willing to try a floral tea that I love in it on very rare occassions.
Huh, I wonder what would happen if you just add freshly boiled water to the seasoned yixing, let it sit a minute or two, and then added that water to some loose leaf? It might be too slight of a difference, I dunno.
Now I’m really curious to see if anyone else has had actual experience with this sort of thing!
I think it would depend on how you do it. If you have a really cheap yixing, it would probably take only a couple of reuses to get rid of any lingering flavor. Tastewise you might be better off just blending a lapsang into a marshmallow chocolate tea. Anyone know if such a monster exists? I want to try making some now :)
Yea, I think you could potentially diffuse the yixing pot’s seasoning. But if you mainly used one for Lapsang Souchong, which is has such a powerful taste, and then only occasionally tried it with other teas in between, I figure you might get interest flavor infusions without messing with he seasoning of your pot. But that’s just my guess…
I really like to brew a cup of earl grey in the same brewing basket that was just used to for a smokey black tea. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to actually buying an earl grey caravan blend!
Ok. I’m new in the tea world but old in the pottery world. I make teapots (as well as other pottery and sculpture) At some point the pots unglazed surface will stop accepting new flavors, If it were me and I had a nice and or expensive yixing, I would use one kind of tea and get another cheaper one to experiment in. I have a few teapots that I use that I actually made and did not glaze the inside. There is one I use for about anything and it is nicely seasoned and I don’t usually taste the old flavors. So I guess it really comes down to Do you cherish the pot and the flavor or are you willing to give up a great seasoned pot.
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