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Thursday, November 14, 2019

Why does everyone love Zisha pot? What mystery does Zisha pot have when using it to make tea?


In order to brew out the most charming flavor, people often say that different tea should be matched with different tea pot because of the different characteristics, which is also the reason why people who love tea all love Zisha pot.
Why does Zisha pot suit to make tea so much? What features does it have after all to make it sit on the throne of tea pots all of a sudden?

Zisha pot's four advantages we have to say!

1. Air permeability of Zisha teapot

Purple sand(Zisha) has a very special structure -- double stomatal structure. This double stomatal structure is in the fetal soil of purple sand, which is so fine to ensure that our purple sand is breathable but impermeable.

When making tea with Zisha pot, the tea soup can breathe smoothly with the air outside. Therefore, the tea soup is more active, the oxygen content in the tea is very high.

2. Zisha pot is made at high temperature

Nowadays purple sand is generally to be classified to be the big category of pottery , but in a strict sense, purple sand is between pottery and porcelain, a kind of - stone tools.

We know the firing temperature of purple clay, the main range is usually between 1100
and 1250, which is higher than that of most clay and pottery.

The temperature is high, the degree of sintering is high, the raw soil of purple sand is old, all of which make tea soup without soil taste and can ensure it is pure, fresh and cool.

3. High metal content

What is the biggest advantage that we say Zisha pot is suitable for making tea? It's the high metal content, especially iron oxide.

The lower content of iron oxide in different purple sand is from 2% to 5%. The higher ones, like red purple mud or some Dahongpao red purple mud, the iron content can exceed 10% and be 12%- 13%.

High iron content means that iron oxide has a softening effect on our water quality when brewing tea. Making tea in a purple clay pot with high iron content can help us replenish some iron in our daily life.

4. The joy of seasoning a pot

The longer the Zisha pot is seasoned , the brighter it is. This is why many people who love tea pots and literati are keen on Zisha. After a long time, the whole Zisha pot looks like a piece of jade.

A piece of purple jade, a piece of red jade, which is the fun of brewing tea pot, and it is a kind of fun nothing else can bring us.

One pot serves one tea

Often have tea friends asked: I usually drink different kinds of tea, what kind of Zisha pot should be chosen after all? Some other tea friends ask: one pot serves one tea, it really makes sense?

Teacher Dai Wentao once said: "one pot serves one tea, very reasonable, because different tea has different personality. Some tea, we drink for its aroma, some tea its sweetness, some tea its freshness, some tea its mellowness. Therefore, for different types of tea, we have to match them with different tea pot of different character."

Over the years of trial and error, let me share the years of experience accumulated in the process of matching tea pot with tea.

Light fermentation /completely unfermented tea & Duan mud

Green tea, yellow tea or the new Fuding white tea, the kind of tender teas, we mainly drink its freshness.


From the point of view of choosing Zisha pot, we should choose the pot with wide mouth and flat body; and the pot made of purple sand from Duanni is more suitable from the aspect of mud.
Run of mine, Gold Duanni, Hanwa pot

Duanni has the strongest feeling of grittiness in all the mud, more sand particles creates better permeability.


Oolong Tea & Zhuni(red & purple mud)

Many friends like to drink oolong tea, phoenix dancong, rock tea, Taiwan oolong and so on. Oolong tea we mainly drink its fragrance, from the choice of tea utensils, first of all, we can not let its aroma loss.


Dahongpao bamboo ladle
Among all our clay materials, the purple clay pot of Zhuni has the smallest air hole and the smallest air permeability. It is similar to porcelain but not same as porcelain. Compared with porcelain, it has certain air permeability.

So we make oolong tea with the Zisha pot made of Zhuni, and often find that the aroma almost has no loss, and because of the permeability of the purple sand pot itself, the tea soup is mellower than that brewed out with the porcelain pot.


Blacktea & Zhuni (Red & purple mud)

The friends who like to drink black tea basically drink its sweetness, black tea belongs to whole ferment tea, its ferment degree exceeds 90%.

Similarly, the aroma of black tea is also very high. Based on the consideration of retaining the characteristics of the aroma of black tea, it is also recommended that the red & purle mud is the first choice.


Mini (small but high) Zisha teapot with pear body

In the choice of the height of the pot, try to choose a few tall barrel purple sand pot. When making tea, the purple sand pot with high barrel is better than that with low barrel, especially for black tea, which is fully fermented.

After fermentation tea & purple mud

For tea lovers who like pu-erh tea, especially ripe pu-erh tea and black tea, including aged white tea, we would recommend the Zisha pot as your first choice.


In the whole circle of purple sand, purple mud' air permeability is moderate, very suitable for post-fermentation tea, its dark color and soup color can match each other.
Imitated ancient pear-type Zisha pot made with Zini (purple sand mud)

Some pot friends will ask: as for good air permeability, Duanni’s permeability and stuffy steeping effect is also very good, why not use Duanni pot to brew ripe Pu'er tea and black tea?

 It is important to know that when choosing the clay and pot shape, you should not only consider the characteristics of the clay, but also consider some special conditions in our use. For example, we use a light-colored clay pot to make dark tea, such as boiled tea, which tends to stain the light-colored pot.


Imitated ancient pear-type Zisha pot made with Zini( purple sand mud)

Here to teach you a general grasp of the trick: The lighter the color of the tea with a lighter pot to brew;The darker the tea, the darker the pot.

If master this general direction, the selection of pot is almost always correct!

As for what kind of Zisha teapot is suitable for tea, we hope you can use different clay materials and different types of pots to test and brew different kinds of tea.






Truly to achieve the unity of knowledge and action.

Monday, June 3, 2019

“Shang Tou Fa”, “Xia Tou Fa” and “Zhong Tou Fa”, Do you understand them? And Which teas are suitable for them?

In the daily introduction of green tea, you always can see such warm tips: "Shang Tou Fa is recommended, lower water temperature, 85 ℃ is advisable, you can better experience the fresh sweet taste." But often you just remember the tips at that moment, and get confused when brewing tea. “Shang Tou Fa” or “Xia Tou Fa”? Don’t worry, after reading this article and understand the reasons, you won’t hesitate when brewing green tea. 1.“Shang Tou Fa” , “Xia Tou Fa” and “Zhong Tou Fa”, how to make it ? First, let's pay attention to the order of casting tea and water. Shang Tou Fa: First fill water to be 70% full, then put tea into cup .
Xia Tou Fa: First put the tea into the cup, then pour the water until 70% full.
Zhong Tou Fa: Also known as "sandwich method", first fill water to be 30%,then put tea into cup , and then pour water to be 70% full.
Many tea lovers encounter green tea and brew it blindly with a spontaneous method, which is very easy to spoil the fresh and sweet buds. However, only understanding the various methods is not enough, to understand the temper of teas you are brewing is also a must. 2.It depends on how much hair the tea leaves have. Before studying this topic, I heard a kind of "barycenter theory". "Like the curving biluochun & jingshan tea, because of gravity subsidence after floating up, it will fall naturally, so it is more suitable for “Shang Tou Fa”.
It seems to make sense, but it's not very reasonable. Due to the gravity subsidence, the curving teas sink fast, but it does not mean that the method will be the better one to get good taste, they are not relevant definitely . Actually here is the secret, for the green teas with more hair, better to use “Shang Tou Fa”. Two reasons: A) Once the tea hair is impacted and burned by the boiled water, it is easy to make the tea muddy, commonly known as "hairmix". B) In particular, some of the early spring tender tea, using “Shang Tou Fa”, let the hair naturally flow down, the tea soup tastes sweeter and fresher. Not so tasteless as to just two brewings.
3.The factor of processing The consideration here is the degree of compactness and shape of the tea leaves. So when it comes to the tea hard to brew and get the taste, you might as well try Zhong Tou Fa but not Xia Tou Fa, by which you maybe get even more amazing result. “Zhong Tou Fa” demonstration in detail: 1)After warming the cup, fill water to be 1/3, and then prepare a fair cup to cool some boiling water for later use.
2) Wait for half a minute and pour in 2.5g tea, just enough to cover the surface for one millimeter.
3)Turn the glass slightly to let the tea soak in. It's also a good time to smell the tea. Don't miss it. 4)Then pour in water that is cool to be about 90℃ until it is about 70% full. Tea is dancing with the water flowing, you can enjoy it after a good appreciation. Simply put, “Zhong Tou Fa” can speed up the endogenous precipitation of tea by softening and soaking the tea leaves, making the aroma richer and tea soup mellower. 4.The relationship with pluck standard The famous excellent green tea picked in early spring has much more amino acid and tastes fresh, with tender treatment is appropriate. But for the older tea picked relatively late, Xia Tou Fa is a better choice, because high temperature & high impulse can stimulate the aroma of tea to a large extent.
So let’s summarize, Shang Tou Fa, suitable for the delicate green tea with much more hair , such as biluochun, it won't destroy the tea form, amino acid. Xia Tou Fa, suitable for green tea with large shape or large bud leaves, such as lu 'an guapian, so as to better brew tea flavor and aroma. In contrast, Zhong Tou Fa is more suitable for the tight knot and flat green tea. By softening and soaking the tea leaves, it can accelerate the precipitation of the tea's inner quality and get the tasteful soup. Like fresh taste or mellow taste? Now it is easy to get it.