Zisha Dragon

So you wanna start and get into some high grade intact loose leaf tea? that's wonderful! Here are some things you should orient yourself with. First I recommend getting a cheap Gaiwan and a cup and sampling your way around! you gotta know what you like in order to let your tastes develop and your preferences form after all.

A Gaiwan is simply a cup with a lid and sometimes a saucer, it's a brewing vessel and the most simple there is! You simply put in the tealeaves, then add water, put the lid on in the correct position and, depending on size and grip, pour into the cup to make an infusion step. Making tea this way has various benefits, one of the biggest is that it is simply tastier than teabags and also yields more tea! Teabags have tea in them which is "dust" or "fannings" grade or simply broken up, this means that the extraction efficiency and time is strong, but with that you extract the entirety of the tea all at once, it's as if you were to listen to an entire album all at once on a low volume compared to brewing gong fu style where you listen to each song of the album step by step at decent volume, noticing the changes and the way it plays out. For the cup I recommend either getting 1 cup that has the same volume of your Gaiwan or getting 3 cups that have about 40% volume of your gaiwan so you can do what's called Chaozhou Style Gongfu brewing and essentially pouring the tea in a circular motion between the three tea cups. As for sampling, for the start I recommend getting a cheap yunnan black tea, a green tea, a white tea and with oolongs, get a green oolong like a Tie Guan Yin, a Dancong, a Yancha and potentially a darker roasted oolong. If you are daring also get a sample of Sheng and Shuo puerh to see if it's to your taste.

How to brew once you've got the equipment:

I recommend taking a good amount of tea like 5 to 10 grams per 100ml, using 80 to 95° c Water depending on how dark the tea is, i.e. green tea 80, green oolong 80-85°, darker oolong 90°, black tea 95°, puerh(sheng and shuo) 100° to clean and sterilize. Puerh has to be washed with a short rinse before u should drink it so just throw the first very short steep away.

For the length of the steep, usually you don't need to wait longer than 10-25 seconds to already pour into your cup, with puerh I would even do flashsteeps and almost immediately pour it into the cup! The steep time each step will usually look like this 10s - 5s- 10s- 15s - 30s - 60s The first needs a bit to soak and awaken the leaves, the 2nd and 3rd are usually always the strongest, then the following gradually go longer to stay at a certain level of extraction.

For beginners I usually recommend looking at Yunnansourcing, I don't recommend getting anything other than glass or porcelain regarding their wares!

This post is to demonstrate the differences in how yixing teapots are made, from slipcast to full handmade. Slipcast and Locomotive is most likely not authentic real yixing clay anyhow but is being sold as it. Slipcast:

Jigger/Machine-made/Locomotive:

Half-handmade:

Full Handmade:

Chawangshop Has some older wares but moreso from the 80s-2000s.

Teaswelike While also selling their own Modern teapots, they often have authentic vintages or antiques in their restockings, most of the time its either in the shape of a Julunzhu or a Shui Ping.

Zishaartgallery Most well-known vendor for antique teapots in the western community. They are an Antique seller in the Bras Brasah Shopping Mall in Singapore. They sell from Mid-Qing to 90s era and even artist pots, puerh, Silver kettles, antique cups, etc.

F1pot / Moodyguy Well known sourcer of vintage teapots from the Factory 1 Era, bit pricey though $$$

2088Taiwan Shin Cheng Fang Vendor that sells Vintage teapots from the Factory 1 era, mostly cheaper ones, however availability and restocking is not as frequent/good as with other vendors.

Emmett Private sourcer and vendor of Tea and Teaware, frequently restocks and is quite affordable.

Bok Another Private sourcer and seller of teawares, but exclusively antique and vintage yixing teapots. Less frequent restocking due to niche and side hustle.

Knijtea Usually known for his teaware repairing service with Staples and Kintsugi, he also sells some repaired and revived teawares!

"So what the hell are the differences between all these types, machine, mold, half-handmade, handmade???" Well the differences are as follows Slipcast teapots are made by mixing and diluting clay into a pourable form, then pouring it into a mold, since Yixing clay is less formable to be wheel-thrown let alone be slipcast, the manufacturer has to add something to the clay in order to make it so, well, slippy! These are usually the lowest quality of teapots that are advertised as "Yixing", avoid. Jigger-Machine-made/Locomotive: These are typically made with a machine that forms the teapot from the inside as the clay sits in a gypsum mold, its pricier to do than Slipcast but is also low quality. Half-Handmade: These are also made with the assistance of a gypsum mold to make the body and the lid more uniform, however it still requires a lot of handwork and time to make it this way, generally they are of real and good yixing clay quality but don't have the subtle differences and nuances that a fully handmade teapot has, however that doesn't affect their performance much compared to a fully handmade one. Full Handmade: obviously fully handmade! you can find videos of these on youtube. For seeing the difference, see here for videos:

"I've heard older antique teapots are much better than modern ones" This is a It Depends situation as there is a rule of thumb for the effect in the cup and the quality of the clay (and if its adulterated or not) which just so happens to go that the quality and availability, but also price, correlate the older the yixing teapot is²: 2000 Era>90s era>Modern>80s era(white label)> 70s era(green label)>60s and 50s era>Republic of China (1916-1950)>Late Qing(1800s-1915) The difference in effect comes from older pots being fired in lower heat and usually less controllable than we can do nowadays. I think that both vintage, antique but also modern pots have their reason for and to be used, even if older pots have that aura of, well, being old!

²: Yes in my opinion 90s and 2000s pots are the worst authentic pots u can get, too much added stuff, bad quality, get a modern one if u can.

"How can I clean my Yixing teapot?" Simple, pour in or bathe in a fairly diluted sodium percarbonate bath, for scale, replace the percarbonate with citric acid. The Sodium Percarbonate will remove tea scum and stains as well as roast patina inside, the Citric Acid will remove scale. Warm or hot water also helps extract and remove stuff too.

"Using a Yixing Teapot seasons it and makes it look nicer?" Yes, although the speed and the effect depends on the clay (quality). However the difference between patina'd and non-patina'd can be quite noticeable. In general the Patina on the outside (that comes from only brewing on the inside), makes the clay softer, shinier and darker! refer to this for a picture of patina vs less patina

"So I know where to buy good modern yixing teapots, how about vintage or even antique ones?" I've also compiled a list of vendors as I did for the modern ones:

"Damn there are a lot of different shapes! do they all have names?" Yes! there is a ton of variety in shapes but they usually have some common traits even if the subtleties are different, for a broad overview of shapes and names look here

However there is a lot of variety even within the same Teapot Shape. As you can see from this gif, this is an example of various Bian Dengs and their different subtleties.

"What is real zisha clay and what isn't?"

Simply said? The only defining factor is that yixing zisha clay has to be from yixing, in that the ore the clay is made out of comes from Yixing. As far as we are concerned it has to come from one of the Mines which are either Huanglongshan, Hongwei or Zhaozhuang. Refer to this post for more information https://www.teapotandtea.com/the-historic-zisha-mines-of-yixing/ The worst case that you should be worried about regarding clay quality is that a bad teapot, like slipcast, will simply make your tea taste bad or bland. For all intents and purposes the vendor's ive recommended have teapot's that work with tea and will most likely not make it taste utterly horrible, however there are always exceptions and everyone's brewing style as well as water is different!

"What is a "Yixing Teapot"?" It's a teapot made out of Yixing [Ih-sing] ore, which is an ore mined in the same named City in the prefecture of Southern Jiangsu. It has a unique composition which makes it unable to be wheel-thrown as other clays and requires Slab Building technique to make pottery out of. The clay itself also has to be stored and fermented for a couple years in order to gain plasticity. Since 2004 but also before, Yixing Ore/Clay has become more limited as most of the mines have been overmined and have been as of 2004 been closed by the Government, which skyrocketed the price of Yixing wares/clay/ore.

"I've heard you can only use one type of tea in an Yixing Teapot, so do I have to buy multiple?" No, that is a myth that might've been born out of mistranslation, misunderstanding or simply a story that some sellers might push to sell more teapots. you can essentially brew all tea types in your yixing teapot, it will only very faintly transfer notes from a previous session to the next (i.e. from fermented puerh tea to a very light green tea). However if you brew heavily roasted tea in your teapot, the roast can build a patina inside which can mute certain things in a tea in the future, but that can be cleaned and prevented. As long as you clean your teapot after each session with some clean water (and preferrably hot water to sterilize it further), hardly anything should transfer from one session to another.

"Where do i buy a good Yixing Teapot?" For someone new to teawares and especially Yixing, I recommend sticking to vendors that are suggested and purchased from, from users in the tea community. I would avoid buying from other sources because odds are it is not real yixing and/or it is quite dodgy and you have no idea what's in the clay or how it will affect your tea. Do not buy an Yixing teapot from Aliexpress for example. Refer to a previously made suggestion list of mine

If Yixing teapots are too much for your budget, I recommend looking into Jianshui (for bigger pots, 90-350ml), Nixing (70-400ml) or Chaozhou (40-160ml) Teapots.

I suggest to determine what size of vessel you need for how you usually brew (most likely 80-140ml), then determine the clay for the tea you brew, most likely it will be Zini or Zhuni/Hongni. Look around and see what catches your eye as the teapot u buy should appeal to you as you will use it for the years to come after all.

"How do I take care of my Yixing teapot so it will last me a long time?" First of, DO NOT BOIL IT, boiling it is not necessary at all (unless you've got a fake one from aliexpress that has god knows what inside). After receiving your Yixing Teapot you should rinse it under luke warm tap water and scrub the inside with your fingers in case there is some quartz powder (used in firing so the lid doesn't stick to the body) or other dirt. Then I suggest to gradually pre-heat it with a temperature controlled Kettle, pour in water in 10°c steps one after another until you've gotten to 100°, then it's ready to go! other people may suggest leaving it in a water bath for a day or overnight. Note that my method is very careful and at most, just fill with hot tap water, then boiling. For general usage afterwards for each new session, Preheat your pots! immediately pouring in boiling water puts thermal stress upon the dry clay and you risk getting hairlines that can develop into cracks and splits and you do not want that. there are various methods of preheating you can find out and develop your own, however as i'm writing this I will once again give my method: Pour in 50% vol. with 50°c Water, then add 70°c water up to 100% vol., pour back into the kettle back to 50% vol. and add 90°c water, then pour out! With modern pieces, zini, duanni and lvni teapot, it's good to go! for a vintage or antique or zhuni teapot i'd recommend giving it another step of pouring out back to 50% vol. then adding 100° water to 100%. After a session, obviously throw away the spent leaves and rinse with water, you can also rinse with hot tapwater, then with boiling to sterilize the inside (and make it dry faster).

"Zini, Zhuni, Hongi, Lvni, Duanni? what are these funny words magic woman?" These refer to the subcategory of Yixing clay the teapot is made out of, because depending on what layer the ore was mined, it has different properties and compounds, but what this means for you as a consumer is that generally speaking they refer to the color and porosity/affecting capabilities of the clay. They are named after the color of the clay or ore itself: Zini= Purple Clay, Zhuni=Vermillion Clay, Hongni=Red Clay, Lvni=Green Clay, Duanni=combined clay of a mix of zini and lvni or hongni and lvni. The affecting capabilities generally go parallel with the porosity of the clay and that is dictated per clay and how it is fired/quality of the clay, but a rule of thumb of porosity is this: Least affecting/porous: Zhuni > Hongni > Zini > Duanni > Lvni :Most affecting/porous. Here's a video of two 80s Mo Lvni teapot, one being higher fired (less porous) and the other being lower fired, you notice it in the sound and look.

"Muting? Enhancing? is that what they mean when they say Yixing Teapots make tea taste better?" Yes! but that's only half of what Yixing Teapots do. Since the clay is unglazed and porous it can do various things to tea, with enhancing/muting it is meant that it can reduce the taste of certain notes and increase other things in the tea, ultimately making it taste better. most notably undesirable notes such as bitterness or astringency are often reduced. However, Yixing Teapots act, to make a good analogy, like an equalizer acts to music, it can reduce but also give certain things, while it may not (or should not) give additional notes to a tea, it can make it so certain notes stick out, but it can also give or take things such as the body, thickness, aroma and aftertaste to the tea! This is not as easily understood or understandable and each teapot is unique in its "equalizer setting" but we can make some rule of thumbs that, for example, usually Zhuni is less neutral than Porcelain and gives more body to the tea than porcelain, or that Zini has a bigger effect and takes away more bitterness than zhuni does.

"So can a Yixing Teapot make tea taste phenomenal?" Yes, but the bottle cap is the tea itself, it is the base material you, as the composer of the brew, use to make the tea liquor. While Yixing teapots certainly can refine and make tea taste better you should also keep in mind that there are other factors that are just as important if not more important! Variables are the water you use (softer vs harder), the Temperature at which you brew, the ratio of tea leaves to water (10g to 100ml is stronger and more complex than 2g to 100ml) and the length at which you steep (longer=stronger and more extraction). In general I recommend tweaking the water you use with a Water Filter(softer water, better for most teas) and/or a Tetsubin (harsher water, better for Puerh) to control the extraction, as well as the ratio of leaf to water, the Temperature and the length of the steep first, if one mainly wants to get an Yixing teapot for the effect in the cup.

"So I've heard about other clay teapots like Nixing, Jianshui and Chaozhou, how do they differ from Yixing?" Well, simply said, it's clay from a different place in China altogether! While Nixing (similarly sounding to Yixing but far different from it!) and Jianshui Teapots are a fairly recent cultivation in their respective pottery culture, Chaozhou is known, besides Yixing, as another place that is known for its teapot culture with Chaozhou pots mainly being used for the Chaozhou Gong Fu brewing practice.

"Why are Yixing teapots so small? are they toys made for kids?" Good question! They are small since they are meant to be used with whole leaf high quality loose leaf, no tea bags or broken tealeaves (like assam blends and such). This allows the tea to swell up and the extraction of the tea compounds into the liquor has more longevity, i.e. you can make multiple steeps, so-called infusions. Due to the small size, it allows you to make bite-sized volumes of strong, complex tea liquor akin to espresso (which is used as a comparison often for Chaozhou Gongfu brewing). In China though, popular teapot sizes are a lot bigger than those we solo practitioners acquire and seek, as they usually brew not only for them but their whole family. There are many ways to make tea however and you can brew as you see fit, no need to limit yourself : ) (just don't put your teapot into the microwave, that would be pretty dangerous I reckon).

"A Laminar pour means its amazing quality and a bad pour means it's a bad quality teapot" Actually, quite the contrary. The Flow of the teapot is dictated by it's shape, size and how the spout is formed, but it is not much an indicator of the overall quality of the teapot itself. Old teapots usually have bad pours, but that doesn't mean they are of bad quality as they often have a lot better and more unadulterated clay quality compared to modern teapots (modern teapots often have barium¹ added to combat efforescence of the clay in firing, but that doesn't mean much to the performance). Similarly the Lidfit also does not mean a teapot is of better quality, Older pots, being lower fired than what we currently have access to (electric kiln, far better control, higher temps, etc.), usually had not that well fitting lids, especially Yixing Teapots from the 70's+ era of Factory 1. Arguably it is easier to machine/mold make/engineer a perfect pouring spout and a perfect lidfit with lower quality teapots than it is with half handmade or handmade yixing teapots.

¹: Barium in clay doesn't translate to any change in the cup and even if it were, it is so miniscule that it's negligible. It will probably also not leach to the amount that its concerning, the tea you drink will probably affect your health more than the Barium in a teapot. In fact Lvni naturally comes with about 1500 ppm Barium where as the highest dosage I've heard of was in a white label F1 (1988-1992) Hongni, over 1% Barium, 12,000 ppm. Barium is added to skip the step of manually having to massage the clay, this is to save time and energy and, according to an yixing artist, there is seemingly no difference in result between the handmassaged and barium added pots.

Disclaimer: this is my own try at a list with comments from my (and others) experience.

Mud & Leaves Mud and Leaves pots, they are quite simple and the clay is good but personally i find most of them lack a quirk hence why i prefer yinchen.

Yinchen Studio Very friendly vendor who have their own studio and sell pots that have some quirk about them, i can recommend them, the clay quality is imo quite good with some people actually stating that they think their clay is one of the best for the price.

Essence of Tea Sells unique handmade pots aswell as having a range of standard shaped teapots with good clay, same as mud and leaves i'd say. clay over quirks or aesthetics, staying minimalistic.

Yann Art Gallery The artistic approach which can range from entry level (like 100$) pots with good clay and ones that you have to ask the price for. clay quality, craftsmanship and aesthetics are in the foreground here, but for a price $$$.

Chawangshop They occasionally have pretty great teapots in their repertoire, one of my fave zini pots is from there, though their restocking is quite rare.

Teaswelike Teaswelike who are already well-liked in the community for their puerh offerings are also offering vintage/antique teapots aswell as newly made ones of high quality that come with an EDXRF certificate showing the chemical composition. they don't have that many teapots but they ones they have are quite great and beloved.

Bitterleaftea Bitterleaftea, who have very well curated teapots ranging from glass, porcelain, stoneware but also jianshui and yixing. they have pretty good marketing.

51pot A Vendor selling Student works for cheap, includes Vases, Teapots, Teacups and Teapets, quality is okay and you can get a good deal here sometimes!

Realzisha They sell authentic yixing teapots, also claiming to be in contact with the artist and providing certificates and such. Whether that is true I can not say, however their Marketing is quite aggressively towards implying they are the only ones selling the real deal, which I can say is not a concern you should have as all the other Vendors in this list also sell good stuff. They sell mostly very large yixing teapots which are not that suited for solo brewing sessions.