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What is Yixing Zisha Teapots?
Yixing clay teapots (宜兴紫砂壶), also called Zisha teapot (紫砂壶), are made from Yixing clay. This traditional style commonly used to brew tea originated in China, dating back to the 15th century, and are made from clay produced near Yixing，in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.The Zisha teapot is originally Chinese hand-made clay handicrafts. It is a work of art that have both practicality and ornamental value.
Yixing clay Teapots has a variety of models
There are a variety of teapot models, and
there is always a saying "not one kind square, and all kinds of
round". The purple clay teapot can be traditionally embellished into
geometric shapes, natural shape and tendon profile sharp. Geometric shape
teapots, mainly are square, spherical, or cylindrical. Generally the circular
one is relatively soft, with beautiful lines, curves, while the square device
is very powerful.
The natural shape generally takes plants
and animals as the prototype. Some of these works are directly made with the
shape of a variety of items, such as pumpkin pot, persimmon flat pot and so on,
and some pots are carved on the body, such as ivy pot, pot of primrose.
Tendon profile shape take the flowers and
fruits in the nature as pattern, create vivid and smooth muscle pot. Such pots
are not only a beautiful pot style, but also with the rigorous producing
process, especially in the flap part, and the seam is very tight. The lid
should be turned, and the pot body pattern is both of density and decency.
There are three major characters of Yixing
zisha teapots
1. Unique adsorption
Teapot's good ventilation also created
another unique quality, which is the strong adsorption. It will continue to
absorb tea aroma when teapot is used, and after a long time, it will create a
aroma. Therefore, the top purple clay teapot can make the same type to avoid
flavor mixing, which affects its taste.
2. The more nourished, the more spiritual
For many appliances, the more you use, the
older they are, but the more you use, the better the purple clay teapot is. The
pot body will be more and more shiny, smooth, beautiful and mild after frequent
cleaning.
3. Resist hot and cold temperature
Teapot is sandy and it transfers heat
slow, so it has a good stability of hot and cold, even if burned directly on
the stove, it will not be split.
Value of art collection of Yixing Teapots
The purple clay teapot is used to make tea
and it is artware because of its sophisticated producing technology. Since
ancient time, scholars have attached great importance to teapot collection.
Some teapots, made by superb craft from the hands of masters, even lead to
equivalence of "earth equal to gold".
How to open and use the Chinese Yixing
teapot?
As a kind of tea set for appreciation and
practical uses, purple clay teapot is the favorite thing for literature lovers
in different historical stages in ancient China. Speaking of purple
clay teapots, it originates from the Song dynasty and developed in the Ming
dynasty, and peaked at the time ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long in the Qing
dynasty in terms of techniques and appreciation and collection. Also, the main
characteristics of purple clay teapots are the common wealth of the
descendants.
Due to the uniqueness of purple
clay teapots, it looks even more dashing when applied to the daily
uses. Yixing teapots are made by coarse sand which contains
less grit. Using this kind of teapot will not cover up the scent of the tea.
Truly, this kind of teapot can balance well between the color, aroma and the
taste of tea. Technicians on porcelain and food have jointly conducted
experiments in three months' time on the practical value of purple clay
teapots. They have used TC-PIIG automatic color identification technique and
chromatism detection technique. This experiment ranges from Yixing
purple-clay teapots, Yixing cinnabar teapots, and white porcelain teapots
and glass cups. They used these containers to brew green tea, brown tea and
oolong tea and analyze the color, aroma, taste, residue of the tea, tea
polyphenols, caffeine, reduced sugar, theanine, tea cream, etc. The result is,
the former two kinds of purple clay teapots in better than other porcelain
teapots and glass cup. Having identified the quantity of Vitamin C and microbes
by quantitative analysis, purple-clay teapots are the perfect
one of all, which is hard for tea to go bad.
First, the pot may be full of strange
odors, so you have to throw away the residue out of it and pour hot water to
wash the inner side of the pot. Then, pour out the hot water and dip the pot in
the cool water. As a result of it, this odor is gone.
Second, the texture of the pot in hard to
conduct heat and perfect for maintaining the temperature. When you are holding
it with hot water inside, you will not feel burning in hand, also, it can warm
you hand and that is good for your body.
Third, there are two blowholes in the
purple-clay teapot, so it can adjust its temperature when meeting with cold or
hot water. In cold weather, hot water will not split the whole purple-clay
teapot. You do not need to worry any more when stewing or boiling things within
it.
Fourth, it can be used for quite a long
time. Especially, when you touch it very often, the teapot will become even
more shining and brighter than ever before.
Fifth, the inner side of the teapot can
absorb the fluid of tea. Although you never clean the stain of tea on it, it
never smells odd and even release the aroma of tea. The stain of tea on the
inner side of the teapot has been proved to have the ability to kill bacteria
by biological experiments, because it contains flavomycin.
Sixth, there are tall and short
purple-clay teapots. According to the rules of brewing tea, tall pots are
suitable for making brown tea, because brown tea is fermented. So brown tea
cannot be contained in stuffy containers, also, it is more tasteful in tall
pots. While short teapots is for green tea, because green tea is not fermented
and not suitable for stuffy pot, so as to maintain the green color, wonderful
taste of green tea.
Seventh, when using, maintaining the pot,
the surface cannot be painted with oil. In addition, you cannot suck the spout
of the teapot so as to maintain the natural brightness of its surface and
maintain the original taste of the tea.
How to nourishing your Yixing clay teapot?
Teapot is spiritual. The more nourishing,
the more valuable and the more, flavored. If an original teapot is improperly
used or nourished, its value will be greatly reduced.
Nourishing
1. After a new pot is open, it is used to
make tea, every day, and the teapot can be washed with waste tea. About six
months later, the teapot will be well kept.
2. When people dump tea with teapot, they
should make the index finger touch the lid to avoid the lid falling or being
damaged.
3. When passing and seeing the teapot
between persons, ，try to avoid to deliver to the second
person with hand. The ideal way is, after one's own appreciation, put the pot
on the table, so that the second person could take pot on the table by himself.
The hand-delivering way may broke teapot easily.
4. After using, teapot must be cleaned.
Wash with water and keep it by pot kept pen.
5. One pot could brew a certain kind of
tea. If allowed, it can make one kind tea only in one pot for better
maintenance.
Cleaning and maintenance
1. Wash teapot with clean water. Do not
use detergent and other chemicals for cleaning the teapot.
2. Do not use sandpaper or washing cloth
to wipe the pot body. A very special tea towel should be used to wipe valuable
pot body.
3. Use tea soup to make the teapot smooth
and translucent.
4. Regardless of the new pot or old pot,
the temperature of teapot body is a little high after the tea is made by boiled
water, at this moment, use wet tea towel or a clean damp cloth to wipe the pot
body.
5. Brush the teapot properly and do not use excessive force.