[Bill]
Since we can't completely rely on the sound, we must also use our eyes.


[Jing]
Allow me to add some comment about choosing teapots if I may. Eyes are
important but so is the nose. I will develop the idea of nose a bit
later although I am sure that a lot of readers know about it already.

[Bill]
What we see begins with color. Zisha is directly translated as purple
sand. The "purple" part comes from the fact it is the most
common raw material color that is harvested. The raw purple color will
typically turn to shades of brown after firing. In addition to purple,
the other common colors are red (zhuni), green (luni), yellow (duanni),
and turquoise (qingni).

[Jing]
Zi Sha is the general name of the high quality clay from Yixing, which
contains a big part of quartz inside. That is part of the reason why
the Yixing Zi sha is more porous than other type of clay/earth. Zi sha
is also called €œWu Se Tu€� (five color clay) because it includes
purple (zi ni), red (hong ni), green (lu ni), yellow (duan ni), and
black (hei ni) five colors.

[Bill]
Red clay:
What has this got to do with the red color? Well, every province will
make a lot of teapots in red color, because red is popular with the
people. However, many red teapots will not be made of porous zisha
clay. These non-porous teapots will maximize the aroma and brightness
of tea, but will over emphasize the astringency and bitterness as well.


[Jing]
I have to say, not all type of non-porous teapot would over emphasize
the astringency and bitterness. The best example would be the local red
clay/earth from Chao Zhou, a very native and rough type of red clay. It
is used wildly to make teapots but also traditional oven or even tiles.
Amazingly, this red clay wont over emphasize the astringency and
bitterness of teas but make it purer. (We could provide picture of this
type of teapot for people who are interested in it.)

On the other hand, a well-porous Yixing red clay teapot that was over
fired at high temperature wont brew any good tea , the liquor will
be harsh.

[Bill]
Therefore, the idea about red colored teapots being suitable only for
particular tea styles developed and became a generalization.
This concept about red clay was compounded by the fact that from the
early 1980's iron was frequently blended in zisha clays to create a
rich and attractive red color. The extra iron made the zisha very
dense, and was mostly suitable for light aromatic teas.

The truth about red clay:
Red clays of pure zisha are suitable for many tea styles. The natural
red color of zisha ranges between burnt sienna or red ocher, and
displays tones of orange and brown.

[Jing]
Originally, why red clay appears in red color is because it contains
bigger amount of iron, and that is why generally red clay is naturally
denser (and carry a higher ring tone) than other type of Zi Sha. Also,
due to the bigger amount of iron, red clay naturally has thinner pores
than other types. That is why it is considered as best type of clay to
brew high fragrance tea as it can keep the aroma inside better.

[Bill]
Red clays can be either dense or porous, without significant
correlation to its color. Naturally vivid red teapots of cinnabar and
scarlet--though highly demanded--are very rare. These clays were
mainly harvested during the Qing dynasty and are very scarce today. If
you see a bright scarlet red teapot, it is either a rare find, or it
has been created artificially. (I have only ever seen one example, and
it was a broken--but treasured--antique).

[Jing]
Color is one thing important to real treasure €“ aged - antique red
clay teapot, Other more important things that can be faked easily are
the weight and the texture. Although the color of real red clay teapot
wont appear vivid red anymore but deeper with a more profound
brownish-red or reddish-orangish-brown color due to its long term using
or even naturally aging.

[Bill]
Yellow Clay:
Zisha translates to purple sand-meaning it is sandy and granular.
Yellow clays typically have the most large and coarse granules amongst
the different clay colors. This has led many to believe that all
yellow clays are hard and not very porous-good mainly for gentle
aromatic teas, or mellow teas like cooked pu'er. This is not entirely
false. The majority of yellow clays on the market
is very dense, and will lead people to believe that this logic is true.
However, fine quality yellow clays will enhance the aroma, while
pleasantly lighten a teas weight, smooth its body, and concentrate its
flavor. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Even though
yellow clays are often composed of very coarse granules, the granules
themselves can be very porous. So, yellow clays can in fact be used
for many different tea styles.

[Jing]
Yellow clay contains the softest texture among the five color clays.
And, it is the most porous one that is also required the lowest firing
temperature among the five types. Because of its natural
characteristic, yellow clay is considered as the best type of clay for
high (temperature vs. time) roasted teas and puerh teas, which we say
it is a clay that can €œCun Qi Liu Xiang€� (accumulating the Qi and
retaining the fragrance).
The most common way of using yellow clay nowadays is to mix it with
other type of Zi Sha to increase their sandy texture due to the reason
that Bill has mentioned above €œYellow clays typically have the most
large and coarse granules€�.

[Bill]
Watch out for yellow clays that are not fired at adequate temperatures.
Yellow clays are most prone to developing black spots and stains from
use when they are produced from low temperatures.

[Jing]
Yes, and it appears super quickly, only a couple of times of using, the
black stains would totally show out and there is no way to retrieval!

[Bill]
Purple, Green, Turquoise and other colors: There are fewer
generalizations about the effects of other clay colors.
Interestingly, because purple is common, and because other colors are
rare. Purple is the original and most common color of zisha, so people
do not need to replicate its color, and automatically consider it to
possess the standard qualities of zisha--even without testing.

[Jing]
However, the purple is the most common one, but there is still very few
teapots are made by using only one type of pure Zi Ni. Because the
finishing color of pure Zi Ni teapot is very hard to master, the color
range could be totally different even if the teapots come out from the
same firing. That is the reason why most of the purple (Zi Ni) teapots
are in fact made with Pin Zi Ni (mixed purple clay €“ several types of
different Zi Ni mixed together to get a more consistent finishing
color).

[Bill]
Green and turquoise are not as common, but there is little demand for
these colors to be replicated, and equally little attention paid to
them. When rare colors such as black clay (heini), are artificially
replicated, they are made in such small quantities that they cannot
create any generalizations in the market.

[Jing]
Pure or even purer green and black clay are really rare to get. They
are either way a Tiao Sha one (mixed with yellow clay in most of the
case) or artificially replicated. Personally, I tend to prefer the
first choice. Anyway, if one would like to choose a green or black
teapot might want to go with some that carry more natural color tone
ones. The more vivid the color is the more added color/ chemistry
element is could be. One more experience on the black clay, to choose
a better quality black clay teapot, one can go with the teapot that
appears the black color is more on the reddish-brownish tone. In most
of the case, they are mixed by more natural element and usually fired
at adequate temperature and time.

At this point, to choose a good quality teapot, it is important to use
our eyes and our nose. They are both as sensitive as each other. By
using our nose, we can always smell the clay by pouring boiling water
into the teapots. After cleaning the teapot, fill the teapot with
boiling water and also pouring the boiling water all over the surface.
And now smell. A high quality Yixing Zi Sha teapot should carry hot
sandy like smell, which we called it €œSha Xiang€� (Sand fragrance).
If one smell earthy/muddy then the clay is probably mixed with none
Yixing clay or not fired at adequate temperature. If one teapot smells
paint or chemical would most been mixed with any of those to increase
their color or texture. Another case, one teapot doesnt carry any
smell, well, it wont be worse than any that is mixed with paint or
chemistry element. It is safe to use �

If I may go further, there are some exceptional cases of smelling. The
most obvious case would be the aged clay from the Yixing Teapot Factory
2. Because of their special way of clay fermenting/aging, the clays
always carry an unpleasant smell when they are fresh out from the
firing - but it is a really typical smell. Once you have smelled it you
wont forget it. However, after 1 week of using/raising this typical
smell will be totally gone and the teapot starts to release a light
sandy smell. When it would have reached this point, believe or not, the
teapot starts to do its job and brew you a really good cup of tea.

Hope this helps,

Jing