Yixing Teapot Stains

I think it would be a mineral deposit. If you are airing it out after using it with the lid off I doubt it would be an environment for mold. I think this would be considered a type of “seasoning” on the pot.

Yeah its just a mineraldeposit from the tea and water. And it will realease those minerals into the water strenghtening the flavour next time you brew tea. :) Dont forget to rinse the pot with boiling water after use though. It will heat up the clay so all moisture evaporates.

I’m just starting out with Yixing teapots. I bought a used purple clay pot on ebay as an experiment. It’s charming, dark clay, with three small legs. It had dark staining on the inside, which smells tarry. The legs are hollow inside and were coated with black. A soft toothbrush and hot water has removed a good deal of this. I’ve seasoned the pot, but it still has some staining and a slight smell which transfers to tea brewed in it. Any ideas to make it serviceable, or should I keep it to look at and buy something else to use? Thanks

http://verdanttea.com/tv/how-to-season-an-yixing-teapot/

If its really bad i would just fill it with hot water. wrap with a kitchentowel. put it in a cookingpot. fill up the pot with water and boil it gently for an hour or so. See to it that it doesnt bounce around. Then proceed to season it if you want to. I dont bother with seasoning as it will retain the minerals of the teas/water i use in it anyways.

Hi. Thanks. That’s what I did first, so I seem to be on the right track. But it’s probably a good idea to do it again – once or twice. It’s a nice little pot and I’d love to be able to use it.

Perhaps try diluting the boilingwater with an antioxidant? Like citrus maybe? Like a last resort! Bakingsoda and vinegar does clean a burnt pan. dont know how it would affect clay though…. Probably a last last resort. :)

Ok, cool. Seems like I am not the only person getting white stains inside the teapot! Phew! haha

Yixing is porous no vinegar! It would soak on the pores of the clay. White buildup is almost always mineral deposits. All water has mineral in it unless it is distilled. The clay of the yixing has minerals that will also come out when brewing.

Yeah, do not worry about white stains. My post was in answer to Apidi.
Vinegar would certainly remove the bad odour from his pot. however it might be hard to boil away the vinegar instead…

The best bet would be to add a heapful of green tea inside the pot when you boil it. Green tea contains natural antioxidants that will help cleaning/removing odour.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/138167-saving-teapots-from-mold-and-other-evils/

Check out the posts by Richard Kilgore. He solved it with bakingsoda.

I found that scrubbing with baking soda did remove a fair bit of the black stain. But I avoided using vinegar, precisely because I guessed it would get into the clay.
There’s dark probably old seasoning on the walls and inside the lid of the pot, but the thickest black staining is in a clear ‘puddle’ in the bottom. Looks like somebody left it wet or with tea in when they stopped using it (that’s of course assuming they weren’t using it for creosote, which is what it smells of).
Anyway, it had it’s second 1 hour boil this morning and is soaking in the cooled water. I’ll try another scrub and probably a further boil with baking soda in the water. Looks like persistence might pay off. And denture tablets as a last resort.
Thanks everyone for your interest.. Will report back when I succeed or abandon the attempt.