125 mL "elegant" ivory porcelain teapot from taiwan tea crafts

This pot works best for unrolled oolong and black tea. It is able to fit about 8 grams of ball rolled oolong but has trouble closing with 10+grams of oolong after they unfurl.

Unheated, the pour time of a full pot is around 11 seconds. Heated, the pour time is lower at 7 to 8 seconds, likely due to expansion. Pour time is also generally below 10 seconds when brewing non-ball rolled oolongs, but can be up to 20 seconds with ball rolled oolong. This makes precision pouring with ball rolled difficult.

The lid sits somewhat loosely on the body. When cold, the seal is good: when a finger is pressed on the hole on the lid, the flow stops. However, when heated, the seal is not as good, and tea can easily drip out from between the lid and the rim. The poor sealing can be mitigated by making sure the lid is also hot so that it has also expanded like the body. Also pushing the lid forward towards the spout helps. Overall, this isn't too bad of an issue, but the seal is definitely not perfect.

The glaze appears to come together in a line running down the spout and around the pot. This suggests this pot was at least partially if not entirely machine made. The glaze is a bit uneven in the part of the lid that slides into the pot. This area is a bit "rough" and easily stained, suggesting the porcelain paste used is not completely hard. The bottom unglazed ring is also a bit "sandy" and prone to staining.

From afar, the pot has a clean aesthetic appearance.

Overall, this is a very convenient pot to use for all whole leaf tea types. Although the price is a bit high for what it is and how it performs, the pot is very usable and there are no other pots like this in the market.

Comments

Glenburn king single estate first flush 2019 from vahdam

Leaves are small and bud like. There are many broken leaves as well and leaves with holes indicating insect bite. This could explain some of the Muscatel. 1.8 teaspoon 350 mL water 90 C water Steep 1: 4 min Steep 2: 8 min Steep 3: indefinite time Light, flowery, herbal Some muscatel in nose Muscatel, herb, flowery hops, light wood notes in taste Lingering herbal, fresh hop and cooling mint I am told mint is often a sign of Assamica tea but these are supposed to be chinary.

2020 Competition Grade Jin Jun Mei Black Tea from Yunnan Sourcing

From vendor: Late March Harvest Tong Mu Guan Village (Fujian) Review: Strong yeast and honey suckle aroma from dry leaf. Lots of orange yellow powder from the small, tight buds. A small holed filter is necessary. Brew parameter: 4 g / 100 mL 90 C in porcelain Rinse / 10s / 10s / 15s / 35s / 1 min / 2 min / 5 min Strong honey and milk chocolate notes. Smooth and thick with stone fruit (peach) aromas and sweet yam flavors. Some vegetal notes develop in later steepings. Early steepings are quick and strong but drops off after 3rd steeping. Strangely, a pu-erh like wet pile funk is faintly present. This is not particularly pleasant. Western brewing is also acceptable at 1 g /100 mL for 3:30. However, the chocolate notes are much more mild when brewed in this way.

Brewing Taiwanese oolong

Bao Zhong: After some experimentation, I found it works best in this way: ~7.3-7.5 g/125 mL. Basically a little less than yancha. Boiling hot water No rinse 30s /35s/45s/1 min etc Keeping it at 6.5 g but longer time makes the later steeps less balanced for me. Going higher to yancha ratios overwhelms me with qi. Oriental Beauty This tea can behave like hong cha and white tea hybrid with some oolong notes. for natural clean stuff - 4.5-5.5g / 100 ml - start at 15s and slowly go up increasing by 5-10s. Allow the cup to cool each time- treating it evenly And gently but also with strength (boiling water) like a fine lady results on full appreciation of aromatic journey For green gao shan Ive learned it depends a lot on the nature of the leaves and the brewing vessel. When using thin porcelain, 6 grams/100 mL, doing Rinse/45s/35s/45s is a good starting point When using a thicker vessel like kobiwako clay, a similar ratio can be appropriate, but maybe a slightly faster first infus...

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