Hi Bill,

I personally am very interested in reading more about clay--as are, I
am sure, many readers of this blog. I have struggled with identifying
which of my teapots are better than others, and choosing the right clay
for different teas. And in Los Angeles there aren't many yixing teapot
vendors (Wing Hop the chinese dept store has pots, but so many of them
are over-designed I can't make heads nor tails of what might be useful
for me) so I am left with buying over the internet. Being able to ask
a vendor intelligent and informed questions about their product would
be incredibly helpful.

Here is what I know: zhuni clay/ red clay for light teas with aroma or
wild puer, purple clay for oolong an sheng puer, and duanni for
high-fired or cooked puer tea. Regarding purple clay, there are so many
classifications, it is impossible to determine what is what. There is
zini, heizini, mingshuoluni, etc. I don't know if I got the spelling
right but I am making choices based on color and style these days and
would rather be doing so based on clay quality. In particular there is
little information out there about luni and duanni clays, and what
kinds of teas they service the best. Anything you could say to
enlighten us on the subject would be wonderful.

Thanks for your willingness to share, and hope you had a happy
Thanksgiving!

Danica

wrote:

> I haven't fully explained how to look for quality, but I hope that I
> have so far provided some interesting and helpful information. I can
> share more about clay if anyone is interested in reading such long
> explanations. This is really a very advanced topic and there's just
> so much to the art of tea.
>
> Bill Lee
> www.chinaflairtea.com