Before using a new Yixing teapot you should prepare it so that the teapot is ready for absorbing all the fragrance of the tea leaves.
In order to season a perfect Yixing teapot, and get a good taste of your tea soup, remember only use one type of tea for that yi xing teapot. Because of the micropores of the material, which giving Yixing clay its “breathing” property and potential to render fine infusion, the taste matters of tea also very gradually build up into the pot too.This is good and bad for the user. The good part is that with repeated use, the infusion itself actually improves. The bad part is that you cannot use the same pot for a different variety of tea to avoid conflicting taste substances from different tea blending together. For example, a green style tieguanyin cannot be steeped in a pot that has been used to make golden tip puer, or even a bouquet style Phoenix oolong.
Initiating a new yixing teapot – 3 method
A most serioused way to initiate a new yixing teapot if you have time to do it
1)place the teapot with the lid uncovered, carefully place the pieces onto a cook ware which should be large enough to hold the water and be able to cover the entire yixing teapot.
2)Place some beancurd in the water and bring to a slow boil, since rapid boiling may damage your teapot since the pieces may possibly be hitting each other or hitting the walls in your cook ware.
3)slow boil for about an hour, let your teapot cool down in the cook ware with tea water still covering the entire teapot, let it stand for a day or so,
4)the next day you can take the teapot out and rub off any purple sand residue inside of your yixing teapot, rinse well with water only, place the teapot back into the cook ware with sugarcane and bring it to a slow boil again for around an hour or so. Let it cool down in your cook ware still covering with the tea water again,
5)the next day you may take out your yixing teapot and rinse it well with hot water. After this process, the air holes in your teapot are opened up and is ready for use. yixing teapot initial use prepare finished.
A brief serioused way that don’t use the beancurd and sugarcane
1. First cleaning
After you got your Yixing pot, give it a quick rinse in clean water and then completely submerge it in clean water to soak overnight. ABSOLUTELY no cleaning agents of any nature.
Rinse the pot again and submerge it in a fresh batch of clean water in a deep pan on the stove. Bring the water to a boil, reduce fire and let boil for 5 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot in fresh water once. The pot is now ready for priming.
2. Priming
Submerge the pot in fresh water in the pan and put over the stove again. Turn off the fire after it comes to a boil. Put the kind of tea that you want to use with this pot into the pan of hot water and cover, as if you are making a pan of tea, with the teapot in it. Let steep for over night.
Drain and rinse the pot in fresh water once and let air dry, lid open. Your pot is primed and ready for your first pot of tea.
A simple way for the yi xing teapot initial use
The above way that initiate a new yixing teapot for using cost long time. In fact it is not a must procedure to follow when you don’t have much time, so whatever…better than never, there is also simple way for the yi xing teapot initial use:
1. Fill your yi xing teapot with newly boiled water and allow the water to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain the water.
2. Fill the teapot a second time with newly boiled water and add one teaspoon of your favorite loose tealeaves. Allow this tea to sit for a period of 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Drain the tea, your new yi xing teapot is ready for use!
Tips: If you ever made such mistakes, re-prime the pot all over again, but boil it with water two times in the cleaning step instead of once. (read the paragraph below for cleaning)
With continued use, the purple clay from which Yixing teapots are made will absorb the flavors of your tea, becoming more seasoned with each use. Over time, the color, flavor, and aroma of your tea will develop a richness that is unique to each teapot. For this reason, Many people dedicate a specific flavor of tea or at least a specific type of tea to each Yixing teapot.