Red Circle Tea

Tea pots have three kinds of screens to filter the tea before it is poured out of the spout. There is the flat “Net”, a piece of clay that was laid flush with the inside wall of the tea pot that has 5 or 7 holes to filter the tea. There there is the concave “Ball” that also filters the tea, this is an older and more traditional style, but the oldest style of hole is the “One Hole” – or, it has no net at all.  Only older pots and replicas have this.  Also interestingly, older pots are lighter in weight because artists had better sand to work with and much more time to work it. It was cured and processed for a longer period of time.

Today there are two major factories that produce tea pots: Factory 1 and Factory 2. They were both begun in the 1960’s.  Factory 1 was founded to specifically make tea pots. Factory 2 was a general clay factory, making pots and later, when Factory 1 was overwhelmed, Factory 2 picked up the slack and started making tea pots too. Now both factories produce good pots, but often the design details of Factory 1 pots are preferred by collectors.

A good way to understand the concept of breathability in clay tea pots is to fill them with hot water and smell the side of the pot. The stronger the smell, the larger the pores in the clay.  This is a very interesting experiment especially with pots of the same clay. You will notice a slight difference in fragrance. Tea pots from Factory 1 smell like a hot sidewalk or a hot stone. To me, it is the smell of a hot iron on dry cotton. Factory 2 is a more unique fragrance, it smells like hot sand and a bit horse-barn-y (seriously).

To sum up, when looking for a good tea pot you want to use, consider the following: Craftsmanship – does the pot look like it’s well made and balanced; is there enough detail: does the bamboo have segments and leaves? Do flowers have distinct petals, leaves, branches and look lifelike? When you look inside the pot, at the bottom, do you see “sparkles” or pieces of sand? How many? The more, the better.

Start there, look at pots, consider them before you buy, and play with the tea pots you have. When you’re ready to invest, choose a pot that fits your personality, budget and is a good investment piece, a great tea pot can last you your whole life.

Here are several reference points for choosing a clay pot:

Good tea requires all three of these things: good tea, good water and a good tea pot.

In considering tea pots, Yi Xing clay is excellent because of it’s breath-ability and because it holds the fragrance of a fine tea.  Under a microscope Yi xing clay resembles human skin; it has pores, and a specific texture.  Pots made with clay other than Yi xing will be smooth and not have this texture or they’ll be smooth and their “pores” will be too big.

There are five colors or types of clay:  Red, Purple, Yellow (or “Earth”), Green, Black.

Adding quantities of sand to these types of clay slightly change their color to a lighter or darker hue. For example green clay can be any color from split-pea sort of a yellow-green to dark, like a pine-green.

There are different decorative styles of clay pots: Plain, Carved Motifs, and Relief (clay added on top of the basic shape, shaped, possibly carved, or painted.)

There are different shapes of tea pots too.

Firstly: a square shape, with distinct sides and distinct edges to those sides. “Square” style can be a 6, or 8 sided tea pot too. Secondly: Imitating-Nature pots imitate wood, nature, animals or leaves. Thirdly, Replica pots reproduce old styles of altar tea pots, historical styles, or wine vessels, water vessels etc.  Fourthly: serving size shape / size matters when choosing how many people to serve. You don’t want to wind up with too much tea or not enough.  Fifthly, overall dimension: flat, round, tall.

Short, flat pots have larger openings, taller ones have smaller openings, both are specific to the type of tea.  Shorter pots are for Green tea or TKY and the more fragrant teas.  They should be made with thinner clay walls, so they do not hold the heat.  Round pots are for oolongs, to accommodate how the leaves open when steeping.  Tall pots are for puerh and red teas.  They are of thicker clay because the tea does not need to move as much when it’s steeping, and it needs to hold it’s heat between brews.

The parts of the pot are the Body, which includes the mouth (opening) spout, handle, and “feet” (bottom of the pot). The parts of the Lid are the button, and the lip of the lid.

What are “Chops”, or signatures on a pot? The stylized square signature or name you see. Before the 1800s or so pots were not signed at all. Then, in the Qing dynasty, the factory might stamp it’s name or add it’s logo to a pot. During early Communist China all pots were stamped “China” and it’s only recently that an artist would add their own chop to a pot.

Chops are found on the very bottom of the pot, in the center, this is the company name, like “China Yi Xing” or “Gi Yuan Yong”. They are also be found under the spout, under the lid – this is the first and middle name of the artist, and under the handle – this is the artist’s last name. Occasionally, chops are found inside the pot at the bottom of the pot.

Then there is the balance seen in a good tea pot.  Look “down” at the tea pot, examine the alignment of the spout, button and handle, they should be line up. Then look at placement uniformity of these parts, is the width of the clay that makes the spout uniform, and make a nice “o”? Check the button on the top of the lid. Is it centered? Check to see if the handle is centered to the back of the teapot.

Place the lid on the teapot and spin it lightly. it should spin smoothly. Press on the 4 sides of the lid.  Each side should fit evenly on the pot and not ‘wobble’.  Examine the “lips” of the lid and pot, do they fit together smoothly?

As for Sound and Movements, when the lid is tapped against the top and middle of the handle, a high sound is a sign of high firing, but not always of good quality.  More about sounds below.

Pouring spouts. Spouts should correlate  with the design concept and type of pot you have chosen. There are several kinds of spouts: Straight • Straight Duck • 1 Turn  • 1 1/2 Turn • 2 Turns • 2 1/2 Turns and if the spout leaks this is called, of course, drooling.

If possible, it is interesting to find out who made the pot. Comparing artist’s designs is a good way to get to know a style, their strengths, etc. However, it is very hard to authenticate teapots as signatures are easily forged and styles are easy to copy.

Other materials: Teapots can be made of stone, Jade, lacquer or porcelain. In terms of brewing a good cup of tea to drink, none compare to Yi Xing, in particular Jade is a very decorative, but an extremely unhelpful material to brew tea in.

Older tea pots were made with better clay partly because there was so much material to choose from. Also, tea pots were better because the clay had been left out before processing and after firing it was lighter because it had less moisture to begin with.  Older pots will also have a signature that is not uniform. Chops were not used as frequently, and signatures were hand carved.