The Yixing teapot Exhibition at the Tea Institute at PSU - Clay making

Let me open the door to the second part of the Yixing teapot exhibition! Today, we'll discuss the making of the clay. We are hereby following a rational structure to analyze Yixing teapots:
1. The clay: where it comes from and the layer from which it is extracted.
2. The clay making: how the rough clay is refined into clay ready to be used.
3. The shaping of the teapot by the maker.
4. The firing of the teapot.

Red clay from David Louveau

The above picture shows the close relationship between the raw clay and a broken piece of pottery made from the same clay. What comes in determines what comes out. That's why the Yixing clay is the most important factor in an Yixing teapot.

Taixi Lutian Kuang from Yixing

After the origin and nature of the clay (zisha, hungni, luni), let's examine how the mined Yixing ore is transformed into clay.

The traditional way requires a lot of work, time and effort. The Chinese speak of yǎng
tǔ (養土), raising clay like we speak of raising a teapot or a kid and taking care of it for several years.

First, the extracted stones are l put on a heap, under the sun. Often against a wall, the stones will slowly disintegrate under the influence of the seasons' changing weather (rain, wind, sun...) This step can take 2 years and is now often skipped nowadays, since powerful machines can do the crushing of the stones very quickly.

Old wall where clay used to be kept for aging.

Second, the raw stones are further crushed, milled with mechanical means and then filtered.

Third, water is added to the the dry powder. This clay requires time to rest. Heavier particles will slowly move down. Organic particles will sour...

Fourth, this clay needs to be further refined before its use. It needs to be hammered, kneaded, thrown in a block so that it reaches the right plasticity and moisture level.

This process is can be further complicated by mixing different clays together. Ancient Yixing potters were famous especially for their clays. They managed to create different colors (grey shark skin, for instance) this way. This is the kind of know-how that remained secret and was only transmitted to the next generation. That's why there are modern makers who are using chemical analysis to recreate the same Yixing clay as during the Qing dynasty. 

But mixing can also be used to turn regular clay into an Yixing like clay! It's widely used nowadays to fake zisha clay for mass production.

Conclusion: the Yixing clay we obtain through this process is composed of a multitude of minerals and this clay retains two essential properties. It is both very plastic and lightly porous at the same time. The zisha clays (red, green and purple) have a good balance of these 2 characteristics.

Note: Thanks for all your interest and support. The 'Fall specials' continue with price reductions on 20 teas from my selection!

Lishan Oolong

A plus de 2000 mètres d'altitude, les plantations d'Oolong de Lishan bénéficient de conditions exceptionnelles pour la culture du thé. Ensoleillement limité, mais intense en journée. Nuits très fraiches. Des terrains bien pentus qui ne retiennent pas l'eau. Eloignement des zones habitées et industrielles de Taiwan.

C'est à Chiang Kai Shek qu'on doit le développement précoce de cette montagne difficile d'accès. Après sa défaite face aux communistes de Mao, le général s'était replié avec son armée à Taiwan en 1949. Mais quelques 20,000 nationalistes continuèrent de se battre à la frontière de la Birmanie et du Laos pour reprendre le contrôle du Yunnan. En 1953, 7000 d'entre allaient à leur tour rejoindre Taiwan. Et pour occuper tous ces jeunes hommes, Chiang Kai Shek les lança à la conquête des montagnes de Taiwan et construire une route centrale reliant l'est et l'ouest de l'ile (1956-1961). Il y eut de nombreux morts lors de la réalisation de cette route à travers ces si hautes montagnes. Elle permit alors le développement agricole de Lishan (et notamment de Fushou Shan) pour ses poires, puis pour le thé.

Mon Qingxin Oolong fut récolté à la main le 15 mai 2015. Les fragrances sont très fines et me font penser à de la lavande.

Je profite des derniers rayons de soleil de l'été pour déguster cet Oolong frais avec un Chaxi ciel azur simple et efficace.

Comment faire ressortir le caractère d'un tel Oolong de haute montagne?

On attend de la fraicheur et de la légerté. Aussi, je choisis plutôt peu de feuilles pour ne pas obtenir une infusion trop lourde, trop concentrée.

Mais on veut aussi de la douceur et un long aftertaste. Et comme les feuilles sont un mix de bourgeons et de jeunes, longues feuilles roulées, il est nécessaire de les infuser assez longtemps pour les ouvrir et en extraire leurs saveurs moelleuses, mais pas trop longtemps non plus pour ne pas que cela deviennent trop concentré. Je verse une eau très proche de l'ébullition avec force pour ouvrir les feuilles lors de la première infusion.

Le choix d'une théière zhuni d'Yixing permet de maintenir une température élevée et une faible absorption des fines saveurs de ce superbe Oolong de Lishan.

Adapt your brewing to the tea

High Mountain Oolong

One of the great challenges of tea brewing is to obtain a cup that reflects the character of the leaves. Each tea necessitates this fine tuning of amount of leaves, which vessel, how to pour the boiling water, how long it should brew... Brewing parameters that work well with raw old arbor puerh won't work with Tie Guan Yin. This explains why it's hard to switch from a type of tea we brew often to one we brew seldom.

We encounter a similar problem when it's not the type of tea, but the age or the quality of the leaves that changes. This also requires some fine tuning. A better grade of tea often can be brewed longer without turning bitter. This means we can use fewer leaves and a longer brewing time. But the essential question to ponder is what is the character of the tea? What types of flavors do we expect in this tea? Fragrance or aftertaste, lightness or depth, freshness or aged scents? Are the leaves buds or mature or a mix? How strong is the roast?

I remember that when I first started to brew tea, before taking classes, all my fresh Oolongs tasted similar. It didn't matter if they came from lower altitude or high mountain, I always had a strong, but very rough taste of Oolong. I have now learned that with great tea, less is often more.

Shan Lin Xi Hung Shui Oolong

By the way, I would like to announce my Fall Specials: 20 high quality teas with nice discounts! Enjoy these good deals while inventories last.

Alisace, du mont Ali à l'Alsace

Les parcelles de Changshuhu dans la région d'Alishan sont parmi mes préférées. Ce petit village est à l'écart de celles qui voient défiler des centaines de milliers de touristes Chinois au Parc National. On y trouve du Jinxuan et du Qingxin Oolong, 2 grands classiques. Mais certains petits cultivateurs expérimentent aussi avec des cultivars venus d'ailleurs comme ce Tie Guan Yin. C'est ce thé que je prépare ci-dessous dans un jardin alsacien cet été:

C'est une récolte d'hiver. Elle a beaucoup de finesse et de douceur, mais est un peu moins aromatique que celle de printemps. Ce qui surprend, c'est de retrouver les fragrances du Tie Guan Yin frais, mais bien plus épurés et fins qu'une récolte d'Anxi.

Ce thé prend le caractère de haute montagne, mais se distingue aussi par un goût plus épais qu'un Qingxin Oolong. Et comme c'est un Oolong de très bonne qualité, ses arômes continuent d'évoluer avec le temps. C'est dans ce jardin alsacien que je distingue pour la première fois ce qui devient maintenant une évdence: des fragrances de cannelle!

Une planche en bois sur le sol permet à mon chaxi d'être stable.

Les coupes chantantes en céladon clair font ressortir l'aspect fraicheur de cet Oolong de haute montagne. C'est l'un des nombreux détails qui contribuent à faire ressortir le caractère de ce thé.

Et tandis que le temps de la rentrée est souvent maussade et pluvieux, même à Taipei, ces photos où règnent les tons de vert et le soleil me remplissent de bonheur. Le souvenir des plantations de Changshuhu et de cette dégustation créent des échos de verdure. L'Alsace et Alishan deviennent l'Alisace et, dorénavant, cet Oolong m'évoque autant l'herbe verte de ma région natale que les théiers de ma région adoptive!

J'en profite aussi pour vous signaler une vingtaine de promotions de thé pour cette rentrée. Ce Tie Guan Yin d'Alishan en fait d'ailleurs parti.

 Bonne rentrée!

Prag. Day 2. Tea house owners workshop

This is the third and last workshop I performed in Europe this summer. It was also the most difficult one, because the participants were all tea professionals: tea house owners with a staff or partner! For them, tea is more than just pleasure, it's also a business. And it's very tough, because they are facing a broad range of consumers: people who know next to nothing or only cheap, scented tea bags, people who come for the special atmosphere of the tea house, the health benefits obsessed, those who want to learn more about tea... They need to have a tea for each guest and it must be cheap enough to let them earn a living. It's really a challenging job, because their tea drinking population extends much beyond the audience of a specialized tea blog like mine. Everybody might take a break in a tea house one day.

The market for premium teas is so small that it would be easy to overlook it. Most tea houses (and stores) in Europe and America actually prefer not to take the risk of purchasing leaves that cost more than 10 cents per gram according to my experience. But even if there's only a small demand for a high mountain Oolong or a high grade concubine, I feel that it's important for a tea house to have them on its menu. It shows a certain level of understanding and tea passion that can set it apart from other houses. It's like for a restaurant to have fine grands crus classés Bordeaux on their wine list. It shows they are serious and committed to excellence.

With tea, though, it's not enough to have good teas on your list, you also must know know how to prepare them properly. That's why I gave these tea house owners/managers a very similar training than to the tea aficionado in the other 2 workshops. There are lots of principles and techniques that also apply to lower grade teas. Using good (filtered) water, for example.

I taught them to pour with a gaiwan without spilling water around the cups (without a pitcher). I also showed that with great tea, you don't need to use so many leaves. A layer on the bottom of the gaiwan is sufficient. This is how a tea house can make premium tea more affordable for its customers. And the skilled pour also demonstrates the fact that tea brewing takes skill and calm.

We had some burned fingers, but also lots of happy faces and many questions. One of the recurring question is why I don't rinse my Oolong leaves. The fast answer is that I love my teas so much that I don't want to waste a drop, especially not the very first flavors that come out, since these are also the lightest!

Rinsing Oolong is done for of different reasons. Let's examine these reasons one by one and see why none stands.

1. "To clean the dry leaves like you would clean a vegetable or fruit before consumption."

The difference is that dry Oolong tea isn't a raw product, because it has been subject to a very high temperature (around 180 degrees Celcius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit) during the kill green process for 8-10 minutes. A lower heat is also later applied to dry (or even roast) the leaves thorougly. This is why most teas, even the most humble tea bag is free of germs and bacterias (and nobody rinses a tea bag, because you'd loose the best flavors after 2 seconds in hot water!)

And for the same reason, nobody is rinsing Japanese green tea. Because the first flavors are the nicest. And why should Taiwan Oolong be less clean than Japanese (or Chinese) green tea?

And how about those Oolongs that have been treated with lots of pesticides and fertilizers? Isn't it better to rinse them? For such leaves, the problems are not limited to the surface of the leaves. The best solution is probably not to drink them at all!

2. "Rinsing is done to prepare the leaves to open up. The quickly rinsed leaves are easier to brew."

The answer is to do a thorough preheating of the tea vessel. A gaiwan or teapot that is preheated with boiling water will enable the proper opening of the Oolong leaves during the first brew. (It's because many people use the rinse to preheat the vessel that they feel it's necessary).

The other problem with the quick rinse is that it pushes all the leaves to the side from which you make the pour. This puts the leaves in a skewed position. Since our goal is to let the leaves open up and fill the gaiwan evenly, it's easier to do so if we start with leaves that lie evenly at the bottom the gaiwan or the teapot. You may shake your teapot or gaiwan to move the leaves back in the middle, after a rinse. But this movement feels unnatural and not harmonious compared with the alternative of starting to brew with the leaves the way you let them glide into the vessel.

I demonstrated that it's possible to open even rolled Oolong leaves with just one brew. (This seems a good place to remind you of my Oolong Brewing guide, which summarizes all aspects of my technique. By the way, you get this guide for free with a free 25 gr sample of SiJiChun Oolong if you place a tea order of 60 USD or more on the Tea-Masters.com boutique! )

I feel a distance, a suspicion between us and the tea if we discard the first brew. There need not be any distance with something so extraordinary as good Oolong!

Thanks to all of you to help your customers gain a first access to the world of real teas! I was happy to share my point of view, my technique and my passion for tea with you!

And we enjoyed very nice teas during this workshop:

1. Spring 2015 Alishan Jinxuan, the most affordable high mountain Oolong
2. Spring 2013 Da Yu Ling Oolong, the highest plantation shows it still feels fresh and powerful.
3. Winter 2013 Yong Lung Hung Shui Oolong, the standard Dong Ding Oolong. Balance of roast and freshness.
4. Spring 2013 Concubine Oolong from Feng Huang, high oxidation with an organic method. Sweetness.
5. Spring 1999 Hung Shui Oolong from Yong Lung, the beauty and refinement of aged Oolong.

Flow arts and the skill of pouring tea

1995 raw puerh - Yiwu

There are 3 elements that have an impact on tea: the weather, the soil and the person who turns the leaves into tea. Likewise, there are 3 benefits to my tea blog: tasting great tea, visiting beautiful plantations and meeting interesting people. On Tuesday, I had this 1995 raw old arbor brick from Yiwu with 2 puerh lovers. 

Nicky Evers practices "flow art", a circus-inspired art form combining dance, awareness and the manipulation of an object. This includes mostly juggling, but also spinning, some dances and martial arts. Through such physical activity and the concentration it requires, a person enters a mental state of 'flow' that is both source of energy and happiness.

Achieving flow isn't just limited to flow arts. You can achieve it while driving, working... when performing any activity that you do well and that requires all your attention. When done properly, brewing tea should also be conducive to flow. There's a particular step that involves focus, skill and grace: the pouring of the tea from the gaiwan (or teapot) to the cups without spilling. Managing to do so while paying attention to an even tea concentration and volume in the cups feels great!

See how Nicky manages to keep a very straight position and focuses his attention on his pour:

He obtained a very good result for a first try! Bravo! His 6 years of flow art practice have undoubtedly helped him. The rest comes from practice, practice and focus. And as for all types of learning, it's important not to be afraid of making mistakes.

In this regard, even after 13 years of practice, I still feel that tea is very humbling (and not pretentious at all!) because it's so difficult to have a really flawless execution and a perfect cup. Here is Gian getting his hands-on tea training:

Finding the right time to pour and stop the brewing is easier done when brewing fewer good leaves, because there's less risk of overbrewing. Using fewer leaves is also a strategy to afford better tea quality. Besides, the law of diminishing marginal returns applies to everything we consume: the first 200 ml always tastes better than the last, even if the tea were to remain exactly the same. That's why it often makes more sense to have 4 or 5 excellent brews than 20 (for the same amount of money). Unless you have a whole afternoon or evening to dedicate to one tea, I also find it heightens the attention to know that a brewing will be limited to 4 or 5 brews during a 30-40 minutes break from my other activities. It's easier to grant oneself short breaks often than a big pause...

Nicky found it interesting to see different people brew tea differently in Taiwan. There are no dogma, just experiences. We learn what makes most sense to us and what gives us the greatest satisfaction. It's not necessarily going with the flow of what 'everybody' does, but finding your own flow!

Tea note: despite using a simple porcelain gaiwan and very few leaves, my 1995 raw old arbor Yiwu puerh tasted very smooth, powerful and had a sweet lingering aftertaste. Amazingly pure puerh that I recommend wholeheartedly!

Is tea pairing pretentious?

I ask the question because I was surprised to see this remark pop up again and again in the comments to this article: 'Tea Sommeliers are the hot new thing in food pairing'. Wine and food pairing doesn't seem to raise eyebrows anymore, so why should tea? So, here are a few thoughts on the subject.

It's exactly 10 years that I wrote a first article (in French) on the subject of tea sommeliers. So, this concept is not new for me, but I still find it interesting and not sufficiently explored. In Europe and America, there are very few tea friendly restaurants. This is despite the fact that wine consumption is going down. Sometimes it's due to the need of staying sober to drive, or because of religious beliefs, or because it's less socially accepted to drink during lunch break when you're working. So, tea is a potential alternative for all those who don't want wine with their food, but would like a drink that underlines the taste of the meal.

Wine for a cheese pairing

I find it odd to criticize tea and food pairing, because we all do food pairing! When you choose not to mix mustard with strawberry jam on your bread, you are doing food pairing! You know that there are some combinations that go well and others that don't. The same principle applies to tea and food pairing. Don't consider tea just as a beverage to quench your thirst or to clear your mouth. Now, you consider the tea like a sauce for the food, or like the sip of wine you take while you're still chewing on your food. Your goal is not simply to add two wonderful aromas but to combine them and obtain a perfect mix where 1 + 1 = 3 or more!

This summer, I had the opportunity to eat at one of Strasbourg's best restaurant, the Buerehiesel. So, I brought my Yong Lung Hung Shui Oolong along, because I had to drive 20 miles after the dinner and couldn't drink wine. The discovery menu was exquisite and I particularly liked these frog legs with chervil. The reduced gravy had hints of caviar! And the roasted notes of the Hung Shui gave depth and length to the taste in my mouth. This felt glorious.

"Pretentious: attempting to impress by affecting greater importance than it actually possesses."

Most people in Europe or America, when they think of tea, it's tea bags that come to mind first. And I have to agree that it IS very pretentious to attempt to pair CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) tea bags with haute cuisine! Tea bags are worthy of fast food and have nothing to do with fine dining.

Top quality tea leaves, on the other hand, are made with the same care, skill and devotion as butter poached Nova Scotia lobster or braised asparagus with black truffle!


It's a rightful choice to pair top food with great quality tea. And there's nothing pretentious in aiming to well prepare, serve and pair aged Menghai puerh or a finely roasted Dong Ding Oolong in a top restaurant. And the fact that so few restaurants do it should be viewed as a wonderful opportunity to innovate!

Dong Ding de compétition 2015, 2 vidéos

J'ai eu envie de préparer le même Oolong de compétition de Dong Ding que dans l'article précédent, mais avec une autre théière et un nouveau Chaxi. Chaque lieu de préparation a ses particularités. Dans un jardin, sur une montagne ou à la plage, on est en contact direct avec la nature. En voyage, on a l'occasion de faire des rencontres. L'avantage d'être chez soi, c'est de contrôler son environnement sonore, le grand choix de ses accessoires et de se sentir complètement à l'aise. J'adore faire mon thé ainsi! Je passe sur le préchauffage de la théière et des coupes et vous montre comment je réalise la première infusion:
A force de dire peu de feuilles et une longue première infusion pour ouvrir les feuilles roulées, il est peut-être plus simple de voir une vidéo!

J'utilise ma main (propre) pour délicatement faire glisser les feuilles dans la théière. C'est une des premières particularités de cette méthode.

Voici maintenant la seconde infusion, prise d'un autre point de vue, plus proche.
 L'infusion est plus courte. Comme c'est l'été et qu'il fait chaud, je ne préchauffe pas les coupes une nouvelle fois. L'autre raison est que sachant l'infusion courte, je n'aurais pas le temps pour vider chaque coupe tranquillement. Or, il est important de verser l'eau très lentement et harmonieusement dans la théière pour cette seconde infusion.

Ce thé est savoureux pour tous les sens! Douce harmonie soulignée par la musique de Doulce Mémoire. Il s'agit d'un requiem de la Renaissance, deux termes dont l'antinomie apparente est similaire au Hung Shui Oolong. Sa torréfaction lui donne un aspect terne et des notes sèches de torréfaction, plus mort que vif, mais l'infusion le révèle comme êtant particulièrement vigoureux, puissant et savoureux. Cette force, la Renaissance la puise dans un retour au classicisme latin et grec, et la foi en Dieu ; la saveur du Dong Ding Oolong provient de la tradition de la torréfaction sur charbon de bois, inventée dans les monts de WuYi durant la dynastie Qing (1644-1911).

Et à la fin de ma cinquième infusion, je constate aussi la renaissance de mes feuilles!

2015 Spring Competition Oolong from Dong Ding

Cultivar: Qingxin Oolong
Origin: Dong Ding area, central Taiwan
Harvested by hand on April 16th, 2015
Process: Low to medium oxidation, rolled leaves, rather strong roasting. Few stems.

This tea comes from a surplus of Dong Ding competition Oolong from this spring. That's why it has few stems and a high roasting level, which typical for this competition. I've used it during my workshops this July to show the taste of a recent, powerful and well done roast. It was interesting to compare it with the 2014 competition Oolong and taste fewer roasting flavors.

 It's so concentrated and powerful that I use very few leaves. The bottom of the teapot isn't fully covered with leaves. And I pour my boiling water very slowly in the preheated teapot. But I wait several more than a minute for the leaves to open up.

 The brew's color in the cup is deep and concentrated with sweet flavors.

"This feels so good!" It's thick, rich and sweet, but still completely smooth and pure. The malty and smoky scents combine beautifully with the tea and the aftertaste in the mouth is stunning. And while the ancient zisha teapot adds to the smoothness, I was surprised by how good it also came out in a simple, white porcelain competition set, provided I pour my water very slowly.

During my 3 workshops, some people liked high mountain, other concubine Oolong or Oriental Beauty better, but there was also a big portion of people who preferred Hung Shui Oolong. Everybody's taste is different and it's not my subject to say which one is best. (Disclosure: I love all Oolong types, as long as the quality is high!). But there's something that makes Hung Shui stand out from other teas: the added complexity due to the roasting.

And Dong Ding Oolong is one of the most suitable Oolong for roasting! It's one of the gold standards of tea. Fruity, malty, sweet, rich, smooth, long aftertaste...

I enjoyed this home Chaxi immensely. It's so nice to be back and be able to choose from all my Chabu and teaware what would be the most suitable for this Hung Shui Oolong. This Chatuo looks really refined with the flower cup!

Harmony.