Very informative thread as always, Joel.
Can we have this thread stickied? There's so much activity about pu'erh tea in this section of late and not a whole lot of beginner info, and this one goes very well up next to the "How I Make My: Coffee" and "French Press 101" threads.
Curious about the $15 yixing. I was at a tea shop yesterday, and theirs were all $50. Links to decent sources for affordable yix's would be appreciated.
Beginners tend to think their first pot is the one and they need to shop carefully for it. In fact, it usually turns out to be the first one of a bunch, so start cheap and easy.
Generally the low-price leader in teapots is Chinese Teapot Gallery in Houston.
Dallas, Houston, it's all Texas!Their ebay store info indicates that they are actually in Plano, TX which is Dallasy instead of Houstony
Dallas, Houston, it's all Texas!
T4Texas on TeaChat spent some time in their bricks and mortar store before the proprietor closed it to go 100% virtual. He had a good look at the whole inventory at that time and some good conversations about how the pots were made and what they were made of. If I remember correctly, he came up with the guideline that if you avoided extremely ornate or highly colored or great big pots the quality was generally good. I also think he said that most of the pots were not slip cast but tended to be made using molds which speeds up production. So nothing is artisan quality, but most everything is perfectly serviceable.
Generally the low-price leader in teapots is Chinese Teapot Gallery in Houston. If you stick to pots of $15 to $20 or more and look for the simple, basic designs, you can get very inexpensive and serviceable pots. Actually, I think I have a couple that were cheaper than that and still work fine.
This strikes me as the best way to get quick and inexpensive access to yixing without making much commitment. There a tons of other pots out there to buy later if you decide you like them. Beginners tend to think their first pot is the one and they need to shop carefully for it. In fact, it usually turns out to be the first one of a bunch, so start cheap and easy.
They will make tea ... they may also have some problems like slow pour or loose fitting lid, but they will make tea. I would suggest looking at slightly more expensive pots, like $15 to $20 or more, but I did buy a couple of the ultra cheap ones and used them for a while before giving them away. They worked OK but just never had the feel and look of better pots. Actually, now that I think about it, my shu pot might have been from that very low price category and I am very happy with it still.I clicked the link and they have pots that are $5-7 dollars. Can these be any good?
Hah - this is so true for me. I think the only pot we've kept from that era was pot #4. Pots #1 - #3 were bad, despite the effort I put into researching and buying them!
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Are you referring to the teapots in this picture or somewhere else? Inquiring minds want to know !