I received a 4 oz. yellow Zisha guywan from Generation tea for my birthday.
I was planning on using it for green puerh. I put it in some distilled
water, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour, added some green
puerh to the water and let it sit in the tea water. Then after reading
another recommendation, I brought the tea water to a boil and let it cool
three times. It sat in the tea for a couple of hours after that.

Tea still tastes bad when brewed in the guywan. There is a sandy clay taste
that overpowers the tea. Luckily there is still a hint of the sweet
aftertaste, but not enough to be worth it. At first I thought maybe I was
brewing it wrong, since this is my first try with a small container and a
pseudo gong fu style brewing. The wet leaves fill a third to half of the
cup, the water is 160 and I tried steeps from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. The
off flavor doesn't lessen with lower steep times and it not a flavor I've
gotten before from over steeping green puerh.

Is there more I need to do to cure this guywan?

Thanks,

Blues

Blues --

This is strange. I've never before seen a zisha gaiwan whose interior wasn't
glazed. But there it is on the website. It's strange because gaiwans are
usually lower-heat vessels, glazed porcelain type. Since zisha clay retains
heat, your fingers may get uncomfortably hot trying to hold and pour out of
this thing.

You didn't say if your drained the hot water between boilings. If not, maybe
that could leave sandy particles redeposited in the pot? Other than that, try
using a medium stiff brush or new Scotchbrite to remove loose particles.
(Actually saw that recommended on some yixing site.)

If you keep getting a clay taste in your tea, sorry -- you may have bought
yourself a fancy flowerpot. Maybe complain to the seller and see how they
offer to resolve it.

Joe

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:16:23 -0800, "Blues Lyne"
> wrote:

>I received a 4 oz. yellow Zisha guywan from Generation tea for my birthday.
>I was planning on using it for green puerh. I put it in some distilled
>water, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour, added some green
>puerh to the water and let it sit in the tea water. Then after reading
>another recommendation, I brought the tea water to a boil and let it cool
>three times. It sat in the tea for a couple of hours after that.

well, firstly, i would question your choice of water. Distilled means
that it has had basically all of the minerals removed from it, and it
can cause the tea to lose nearly all taste or taste acidic (Se) or
bad. you need a good spring water so the minerals in the water can
bring out the full flavor of the tea. And, you let the pu'er sit in
the water for an hour or you just let the water boil for an hour? For
you pu'er teas, it's usually good to brew for a short period of time
for each steeping. another variable is the quality of the pu'er
tea...how old is it, what's the leaf quality, etc? the older the
better.


>
>Tea still tastes bad when brewed in the guywan. There is a sandy clay taste
>that overpowers the tea. Luckily there is still a hint of the sweet
>aftertaste, but not enough to be worth it. At first I thought maybe I was
>brewing it wrong, since this is my first try with a small container and a
>pseudo gong fu style brewing. The wet leaves fill a third to half of the
>cup, the water is 160 and I tried steeps from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. The
>off flavor doesn't lessen with lower steep times and it not a flavor I've
>gotten before from over steeping green puerh.
>
>Is there more I need to do to cure this guywan?

if the gaiwan is made of the yixing/zisha material, you must begin to
raise it properly as if it were a pot. many chinese that raise their
pots play with them each day for at least 30 minutes; rubbing them and
brewing tea with them. you can just steep tea in it a few times and
that's good enough..i've also heard of people boiling their
pots/gaiwan for a few minutes.

good luck.

>
>Thanks,
>
>Blues
>



Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

"Mydnight" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:16:23 -0800, "Blues Lyne"
> > wrote:
>
>>I received a 4 oz. yellow Zisha guywan from Generation tea for my
>>birthday.
>>I was planning on using it for green puerh. I put it in some distilled
>>water, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour, added some
>>green
>>puerh to the water and let it sit in the tea water. Then after reading
>>another recommendation, I brought the tea water to a boil and let it cool
>>three times. It sat in the tea for a couple of hours after that.
>
> well, firstly, i would question your choice of water. Distilled means
> that it has had basically all of the minerals removed from it, and it
> can cause the tea to lose nearly all taste or taste acidic (Se) or
> bad. you need a good spring water so the minerals in the water can
> bring out the full flavor of the tea. And, you let the pu'er sit in
> the water for an hour or you just let the water boil for an hour? For
> you pu'er teas, it's usually good to brew for a short period of time
> for each steeping. another variable is the quality of the pu'er
> tea...how old is it, what's the leaf quality, etc? the older the
> better.

I just used the distilled water and the long soak with tea in the water to
cure the gaiwan. I use spring water to brew the tea, and as I said
previously, was only steeping for 10-30 seconds. The tea I was using was
the "nearly 10 year old" Aged Green Puerh Tuo Cha from ITC. I don't have a
lot of experience with Puerh, but this is the second tuo cha of this tea
I've had and I like it. Seems fairly smooth and has that wonderful sweet
aftertaste. My only other puerh experiences were with some young and aged
greens from Teaspring.com. I enjoyed them also. The aged green puerh from
Teaspring was probably on par with this one, but this one is a little
cheaper and gets here fast since ITC are just up the coast. I have never
had a cooked/black/whatever puerh that I enjoyed. They seem to give me a
headache and the flavor has been so so. But then again I've only had a
couple of samples from Upton and Teaspring.

I gave the gaiwan/guywan another boil with some spent leaves and let it soak
overnight. Today it seems fine, no off flavor, so I'm happy. As I said it
was a gift, so this saves me from having to tell my wife her thoughtful gift
makes bad tea. I mostly drink the green puerh during the day while I'm
working at the computer. At four ounces I have to brew tea for every couple
of sips, but it gives my eyes a break from the computer screen.

Thanks for your response,

Blues