How to make tea in a clay teapot. How to prepare a kettle

A teapot made of Yixing clay is the most correct dish for brewing tea.

Puer, dark oolong and red tea are especially tasty in a clay teapot. For light tea, gaiwan is often used.

Tea in a good clay teapot turns out tastier, more aromatic, and gives special tea states.

But, if you are reading this article, you probably already became the owner of your first clay teapot and you can't wait to test it in action. Take your time. The new kettle must be prepared for brewing.

Important! Do not rush to rinse the kettle with boiling water immediately after purchase! Especially if it's freezing outside. Let him get used to room temperature, do not shock him with temperature changes.

How to prepare Yixing teapot for brewing

First, you need to clean the teapot from clay chips or sand. Sand in a new kettle is quite normal; it is sprinkled with it on dishes after firing. Use a soft brush or sponge.
Rinse the kettle with warm water both outside and inside.
Now you can pour boiling water over the kettle.
Decide what kind of tea you plan to use this teapot for. Brew a similar tea with boiling water, you can use the lowest-grade or even dormant tea leaf. Leave the tea in the teapot until it cools.

Important! Do not use flavored tea to prepare the kettle. Even tea with natural aromatization, for example, Jasmine, will leave its aromatic trail in the porous structure of the clay, and all further teas will give off jasmine for a long time.

Now you can pour out the infusion, shake the leaf out of the kettle and rinse it again.

Usually this procedure is sufficient and the kettle is ready for brewing.

For the very first brew, use a tea you know the taste of. If you do not find unexpected shades in the taste and aroma of tea, then the teapot is prepared correctly.

If, nevertheless, the tea contains the aroma of raw clay or other extraneous odors, the above procedure should be repeated.

Do I need to boil the Yixing teapot in tea?

The purpose of such an action is quite understandable - in an effort to prepare the kettle for brewing as soon as possible, all means are good! ))) But this method is quite extreme. In the process of boiling, the water boils, the kettle will dance in boiling tea, banging on the walls of the dishes and its own lid, and can easily break.

If you really want to immediately start working on the outer surface of the teapot, it is better to soak it in a saucepan with hot brewed tea overnight, but not to boil it.

So, we made sure that our kettle is ready, and we proceed to the most important and interesting.

How to make tea in a Yixing teapot

Take 7-10 grams of dry tea per teapot. The amount of tea depends on the type, volume of the teapot and your taste preferences.
Preheat the kettle with hot water. Pour the water into the chaban.
Place the tea in the teapot. Thick tea can be taken with a spoon for tea, for loose tea it is better to use tongs.
Pour the tea with prepared water of the desired temperature. Recall that for low-fermented tea it is 60-80 ° C, for shu pu'er, red tea, fried oolong tea - 90-100 ° C.
Drain the first tea leaves into chahai and bowls. Thus, you will rinse and moisten the tea leaf, and at the same time prepare the rest of the dishes for brewing this particular type of tea.
Drain the tea from the bowls and chabane. No, it's not a pity :-) The room has already been filled with tea aroma, you have tuned in and now you will have many more delicious brews.

Some teas - tightly compressed or very old pu-erh tea, deep-roasted oolong teas - require a second or even third rinse.

The tea and kettle are now ready for brewing.
Pour water over the tea up to the top of the teapot.
Cover the kettle with a lid so that it displaces some of the infusion. The infusion will flow down the walls of the teapot, warming up and developing a tea patina - a beautiful matte sheen characteristic of the well-known teapots. Dripping drops can be delicately picked up with a special tea brush.
After 3-10 seconds (!), Pour the tea into gundaobey (chahai) or pour it straight into bowls. It is recommended to use the chahai as an intermediate vessel so that the tea evens out in taste and aroma and all the participants in the tea party get the same tasty one. In addition, in the process of additional transfusion, the tea “breathes”, is saturated with oxygen and acquires a comfortable temperature.
Tea is ready! Enjoy the taste of the first bowl, remembering to inhale the aroma.
Repeat brewing, gradually increasing the infusion time. For young shen and green tea, do not exceed the 15 second limit - the tea will become oversaturated and may start to taste bitter.

Important! At the end of the tea drinking, you need to shake the tea leaf out of the teapot, rinse it and dry it with the lid open. Necessarily dry. Even if the kettle seems to be dry, moisture remains in the porous clay. In a closed kettle, she can suffocate and acquire a sour or musty smell - it will be very difficult to get rid of it later.

How many times can Chinese tea be brewed?

There is no exact figure. The number of brews also depends on the qualityva tea, and from the time of infusion, and from the ratio of the amount of tea to the volume of water.

Typically, good tea will withstand 10-15 spills. But that doesn't mean 15 is the limit. Brew the tea while you are drinking deliciously and while the tea leaf is warm.

How to make a Yixing teapot

Over time, the new teapot is soaked inside and out with tea, acquiring a beautiful matte sheen. In addition to improving the appearance, the properties of the teapot are also improved - it dries faster, keeps heat even longer, tea in it turns out to be more and more delicious.

If you use the kettle constantly, the noble tea patina will appear by itself.

The most interesting thing is that these properties will manifest themselves the faster, the better the teapot is treated, looked after, and paid attention to. Pottery has a memory and changes over time, unlike porcelain and glass.

Summary

Brewing tea in a Yixing teapot is not so difficult. Follow the simple recommendations above, and tea drinking will bring pleasure and a state of harmony with the world around you.

Enjoy your tea with i-tea.club!