Tried preparing this differently after seasoning three yixing pots with it.
7g in 150ml using a shi piao style qing hui ni pot and 9g in 170ml using a fang gu style zhi ma duan ni pot and 11g in 170ml using a fang gu style “dragon kiln” burnt duan ni pot.
I’m used to raised concentration and short steeps increasing the complexity, but I got much smaller range in these. A lot more chocolate notes and roasty florals. Aroma, nose, and aftertaste/afteraroma is strikingly similar to Da Hong Pao!
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You mean “smaller range in these” compared to another pot? Could you detect any differences across the three pots?
Sorry, I just read your earlier review of this tea. Now I get it. Thanks!
I was going to post an in-depth comparative analysis of the different shapes’/materials’ effect on the one tea, but my browser shut down and I lost the mass of text I had typed. it was late at night and I only typed my evaluation rather than actually writing anything down, so I jut tossed this up instead.
The interesting thing is that the pot I liked the least (the zhi ma duan ni clay pot) wound up having the best overall performance and the pot I liked the most going in had the worst performance by far.
I had some extensive notes, but here’s the glaring bits I remember in summary:
Shi Piao pot made of Qing Hui Ni — higher heat retention due to both shape and material coupled with size and shape’s influence on leaf movement resulted in relatively flat tea with poor aromatics using this concentration and temperature. Use less leaf, cooler water, and not bathing the pot as extensively will probably help. The clay emits an aroma that will need to be tempered through further seasoning if I’m going to use it for young teas. This pot seems ideal for shu cha, rather than the sheng cha I’m using it for – fortunately I intend it for aged shengs, which it ought to handle better. Pour from this pot is elegant and smooth. Construction of this pot is amazing, and the water flow, lid fit, ergonomics, and simple composition coupled with the clay color make it really nice even as simply a piece on my drainage table.
Fang Gu pot (slightly domed lid) made of burnt Duan Ni — decent leaf movement and heat dispersal works well for sheng cha and slightly elevated lid and texture/porosity combination probably responsible for the excellent aromatic expression of this pot. The clay emits an aroma that is noticeable but pleasantly accentuates the wet leaf and bathed liquor aromatics through a warm sand toasty-crispness. This is the pot that really made this particular puerh scream Da Hong Pao. This ought to work great for shengs, though I feel the material would excel with oolongs in a different shape pot. Major downside is that the orientation of the outtake of the spout allows it to become blocked easily by large leaves, so the pot needs to be swirled halfway or so through a pour to avoid backup and leakage through the lid. The colors on this are spectacular and seem to reflect the multitude of aromas it grips and gently releases very well. I really want to love this pot and feel really let down about the blockage issue, even though it’s easily remedied.
Fang Gu pot (flat lid) made of Zhi Ma Duan Ni — really good heat dispersal makes this pot a great choice for lighter teas that want cooler water, so brewing young sheng cha is very easy. Sweetness and chocolate notes much better expressed in this compared to the others, though aroma was not nearly as good as the duan ni pot with a bit more headroom over the liquor while brewing. Pours okay – slower than I’m used to since I mostly brew in shi piao and rong tian style pots with spout designs made for fast output. Leaves distribute and churn very nicely. Biggest downside is that the lack of a knob on the lid coupled with high heat dispersal can make pouring this one somewhat uncomfortable and if you rush pouring there is a tendency for a little leakage from the lid when rapidly inverted. Not a huge fan of the design on this one, but it really worked well.
And, yes, concentration was variable in this lineup, but I adjusted the concentration between the two duan ni pots after going through several hours of side-by-side brewing. The 9g/11g was pretty well figured out while the qing hui ni pot was just being experimented for the first time when I tossed it in the running.
You mean “smaller range in these” compared to another pot? Could you detect any differences across the three pots?
Sorry, I just read your earlier review of this tea. Now I get it. Thanks!
I was going to post an in-depth comparative analysis of the different shapes’/materials’ effect on the one tea, but my browser shut down and I lost the mass of text I had typed. it was late at night and I only typed my evaluation rather than actually writing anything down, so I jut tossed this up instead.
The interesting thing is that the pot I liked the least (the zhi ma duan ni clay pot) wound up having the best overall performance and the pot I liked the most going in had the worst performance by far.
I had some extensive notes, but here’s the glaring bits I remember in summary:
Shi Piao pot made of Qing Hui Ni — higher heat retention due to both shape and material coupled with size and shape’s influence on leaf movement resulted in relatively flat tea with poor aromatics using this concentration and temperature. Use less leaf, cooler water, and not bathing the pot as extensively will probably help. The clay emits an aroma that will need to be tempered through further seasoning if I’m going to use it for young teas. This pot seems ideal for shu cha, rather than the sheng cha I’m using it for – fortunately I intend it for aged shengs, which it ought to handle better. Pour from this pot is elegant and smooth. Construction of this pot is amazing, and the water flow, lid fit, ergonomics, and simple composition coupled with the clay color make it really nice even as simply a piece on my drainage table.
Fang Gu pot (slightly domed lid) made of burnt Duan Ni — decent leaf movement and heat dispersal works well for sheng cha and slightly elevated lid and texture/porosity combination probably responsible for the excellent aromatic expression of this pot. The clay emits an aroma that is noticeable but pleasantly accentuates the wet leaf and bathed liquor aromatics through a warm sand toasty-crispness. This is the pot that really made this particular puerh scream Da Hong Pao. This ought to work great for shengs, though I feel the material would excel with oolongs in a different shape pot. Major downside is that the orientation of the outtake of the spout allows it to become blocked easily by large leaves, so the pot needs to be swirled halfway or so through a pour to avoid backup and leakage through the lid. The colors on this are spectacular and seem to reflect the multitude of aromas it grips and gently releases very well. I really want to love this pot and feel really let down about the blockage issue, even though it’s easily remedied.
Fang Gu pot (flat lid) made of Zhi Ma Duan Ni — really good heat dispersal makes this pot a great choice for lighter teas that want cooler water, so brewing young sheng cha is very easy. Sweetness and chocolate notes much better expressed in this compared to the others, though aroma was not nearly as good as the duan ni pot with a bit more headroom over the liquor while brewing. Pours okay – slower than I’m used to since I mostly brew in shi piao and rong tian style pots with spout designs made for fast output. Leaves distribute and churn very nicely. Biggest downside is that the lack of a knob on the lid coupled with high heat dispersal can make pouring this one somewhat uncomfortable and if you rush pouring there is a tendency for a little leakage from the lid when rapidly inverted. Not a huge fan of the design on this one, but it really worked well.
And, yes, concentration was variable in this lineup, but I adjusted the concentration between the two duan ni pots after going through several hours of side-by-side brewing. The 9g/11g was pretty well figured out while the qing hui ni pot was just being experimented for the first time when I tossed it in the running.