Seasoning the Yixing

I told you earlier about a Yixing pot that I had obtained, but hadn’t used yet. I was finally able to get around to seasoning and using the little guy... and here is how I choose to do it.

After doing a little research I found several ways of seasoning a Yixing pot. With some methods being more tedious – and maybe even unnecessary – than others, I was able to find a good practical way of seasoning.

On Seven Cups website, they list 5 simple and easy steps to seasoning:
1. Pour room temperature water inside your tea pot and let it sit for 4-5 hours.
2. Pour the water out and add boiling water to the inside of your pot. Let the water soak until the water temperature decreases to room temperature.
3. Choose the type of tea that you would like to enjoy in your new pot. Place some tea leaves inside the pot and pour boiling water inside. Let the water cool to room temperature and then pour out.
4. Add boiling water again to the same batch of leaves and let it cool for a second time, once cool discard both water and tea.
5. Your pot is ready to be used.

Like I said before, I choose to dedicate this pot to Ti Kuan Yin. After seasoning with these simple steps, I was able to put my once neglected Yixing pot to use and enjoy a real nice cuppa.





However, if you really have nothing else to do on a rainy day, another method is to boil the entire tea pot in a larger pot of water. For this process, give the tea pot and lid a good rinse. Then, submerge the tea pot and lid (with the lid off of the tea pot) into room temperature water. Bring the water to a boil. After a few minutes of boiling, turn off the heat and let the water cool to room temperature. Remove the tea pot, lid, and water. Fill the larger pot with fresh, room temperature water, submerge the tea pot and lid in the water and bring to a boil. After several minutes of boiling, add the desired tea leaves to the boiling water. Turn off the heat and let the water cool to room temperature (as per some instructions it was suggested to leave the tea pot in this state over night). Remove the tea pot and lid from the water, discard the water and tea leaves, and rinse the tea pot and lid. The tea pot is ready for use.

Be very carefully when using the method above, because the boiling water has a tendency to rock the tea pot and lid around a bit so chipping is possible (hence, one of the reasons I chose not to use this method).