Description

These gaiwans are fully made using unglazed, Jianshui zitao purple clay. Although it’s called purple clay, zitao is actually considered a 5 colour clay, consisting of purple, red, white, yellow and green/cyan. Each gaiwan includes a matching tray (pictured).

Each gaiwan holds approximately 125ml of liquid. Please make a selection below confirm the appearance of the engraving on the lid.

As these are made from unglazed clay, we recommend treating this gaiwan similar to an unglazed teapot and designating it for a specific type of tea.

Once your receive your new zitao teapot, you may want to season it and prepare it for the many teas and years of use it will experience. Personally, we have shied away from seasoning teapots as time goes on, not because this process doesn’t help, but because it is extra work and invites the risk of breakage if you’re not careful.

We feel that a week or 2 of consistent use is typically sufficient to break in a new pot. More often than not, we just rinse a new pot twice with boiling water, then go to town. Simple and easy.

With that said, if you still wish to season your teapot and get a head start, the process is relatively simple:

1. Check for clay deposits and scrape gently with a wooden or bamboo stick.
2. Place the pot in boiled water and allow to sit for 30-60 minutes.
3. Remove the pot and allow it to dry
4. Using new water, add some new or used tea leaves of the type that you plan to use this pot for, boil, add the teapot and allow it to sit for another 30-60 mins.
5. Rinse with regular water and allow to dry
6. Repeat as desired
7. Your teapot is ready to be used!

After seasoning your pot, it’s advised to designate the pot for one type of tea (raw puer, ripe puer, oolong, black tea, etc) as the pot will slowly absorb the flavour and characteristics of the tea you use it for.

If for some reason you use it with another type of tea, don’t worry. Your pot is not ruined or tainted. The process of raising it is cumulative and happens over a long period of time – one simple session of brewing with another type of tea won’t make a noticeable difference. However, one thing you should definitely not do is use soap or anything other than water to wash or rinse your pot. If it absorbs the properties of tea over time, it will also absorb anything else you put in it, especially anything perfumed or scented.

Additional information