How long does it take for yixing pots..

to absorb the flavor of the tea? I just bought a yixing pot yesterday and have only used one type of tea in it so far. The type of tea I bought was pretty expensive so I don’t count on buying it often. So would I be able to still use a different tea without it having too much of an affect by the time I finish the current bag of tea? Thanks!

15 Replies
mrmopar said

i would say as long as it is the same type of tea like chai or pu-erh you should be ok. i have one fro ripe pu-erh and another for a raw pu-erh. i do not interchange them i.e. the one for chai only gets used for chai.

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Wait, so does that mean that as long as it’s the same family of tea (oolong, green, etc) I should be ok?

I think the type of oolong matters because types of oolong vary widely in their flavors. A delicate green Alishan oolong vs. an aged roasted ti kuan yin for example. If you’ve already started with a dark roasty oolong, I’d say stick with that from now on.

I’ve read that there’s ways to “reset” your yixing tea ware if you want to change your mind. Others might be able to help more with this.

also, you might want to consider getting some glazed teaware and try all sorts of tea before committing to one tea for your yixing. Unless you’re going to get a bunch of yixing for each type of tea. I know some steepsterites are doing this. I’m less ambitious. All I want is a gaiwan set. :D

Yes, I’ve reset a couple yixing pots before. To reset a new pot like that it would take minimal work. You can just follow the same procedure used to season the pot. So basically a quick scrub over, boil in water, then season with new tea.

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tperez said

Yep! More or less.

And if you’ve only used it once or so it probably hasn’t absorbed much flavor unless you did a seasoning with extra strong tea. :)

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Ubacat said

I seasoned my pot yesterday with an oolong because I SOOO wanted a yixing pot for oolong. However, I found this tiny pot (4oz) is pretty small for an oolong. The leaves become huge and fill up the teapot pretty quick. Now I’m thinking it might make more sense using it for a raw pu-erh where I need to do multiple infusions ( but the leaves will still probably fill up this tiny pot) Multiple infusions are best with tiny amounts instead of large. Why didn’t I think of that yesterday? I’m just not sure what to do now. Re-season and do raw pu-erh or just keep it as oolong. What does everyone who has a yixing do? Do you give the oolong a larger pot and the pu-erh a tiny one?

Cwyn said

I use Yixing for puerh, and I do up green oolong in my gai wan. Not into roasted oolong but if I were, I would likely use a ceramic tea pot since a roasted is a one-off for me. But if you are a big drinker of roasted oolong, a Yixing pot for it makes sense. In that case, just use a sharing pitcher with it. Brew up one steep for your cup, then do a second steep for the sharing pitcher to serve as a refill. It depends how you drink. I normally drink up my tea quickly because I want the flavors, letting the teas I drink sit for long changes the flavors. I have a gai wan style Yixing which I use for samples, that pot is going to be a mix and I am okay with that.

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to fill up the pot. You just have to get used to it. Try it with a liiitle bit less leaves maybe?

Cwyn said

I do multiple infusions with oolongs, a good oolong will open up flavors in later steeps.

Ubacat said

I guess I will leave it as oolong then. I haven’t done that many steeps on oolongs like I do with pu-erh. The most I’ve gotten is 3 so I’ll give it a try and see what comes out on multiple steeps then (and put less leaves in the pot). Thanks for the info!

Cwyn said

My sister just came back from a trip and brought me a green oolong from Vietnam. I am getting 8-10 steeps per session, but it is a green oolong (low roast) so I use short steeps at low temps and increase temp and steep time slowly. When the tea stops yielding, I will hit it with boiling water and let it go a couple minutes to get that last steep out. I think darker roasted oolongs, which are more expensive, take just under boiling temp but the dark roast and aging involved will give more steeps with higher temp water than green low roasted will. Oolongs are some of the most prized teas, so a dedicated oolong drinker would probably want a small pot to exert as much control as possible with steeping.

Teavivre has gongfu steeping instructions for all of their oolong teas. Since my oolong didn’t come with any instructions I’ve been relying on them. Here’s an example: http://www.teavivre.com/oriental-beauty-oolong-tea/

Water : 3oz / 85ml 185℉ / 85℃
Use 7 Grams Tea
7 steeps : rinse,30s,45s,60s,70s,80s,90s,100s
Gaiwan may be your choice
Rinsing time is around 5 seconds

Cwyn said

That sounds about right. I find that a lot of retail sites post steep times that have me scratching my head, Camellia Sinensis is one of those sites, super long steep times for a lot of teas.

Ubacat said

Oh, I get it. I’ve been using my same old brewing times and need to change them up. As well, they use a huge amount of tea with very little water. Interesting. I’ll check out some of their gonfu brew times for the teas I have.

Yeah, because it’s so much leaf and so little water it brews a lot quicker.

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