Scour it. Put the pot and lid in a pan of water, bring it slowly to the boil, add a spoonful of pure white ash or oxygen bleach, turn off the heat and leave it overnight. Then rinse, reheat in clean water and repeat until the pot smells of nothing and plain water from it tastes like water. Never use soap, chlorine bleach or a dishwasher. Expect it to take two to four days.
Should you clean a second-hand Yixing teapot at all?
Yes, if you do not know its history. Yixing clay is porous and holds on to whatever has been in it: tea oils, storage smells, dust and sometimes mould. A pot that looks clean can still put an old flavour into your tea.
The test is quick. Rinse the pot, fill it with just-boiled water, wait ten seconds and pour it into a white cup. If the water comes out yellow or brown, or smells of old tea, damp cardboard or anything musty, the pot needs a full scour.
The exception is a pot you know. If a friend gives you a pot they have used for years with one kind of tea, and you plan to brew that tea, a few hot rinses may be all it needs. Scouring it would throw away the seasoning you were given.
What do you need to scour an old pot?
You need a stainless steel pan with a lid, clean water, a cleaning agent and a soft scrubber. Keep soap and detergent away from all of it.
- A pan kept for teaware. Stainless steel, big enough to cover the pot and lid with water. If it has been used for cooking, wash it well with hot water first.
- Water. Tap water is fine for the first soak. Use filtered or spring water for the later rinses, since the pot will absorb some of it.
- A cleaning agent. Pure white wood or charcoal ash, sifted fine, or sodium percarbonate, which is sold as oxygen bleach or non-chlorine laundry whitener. Oxygen bleach is the stronger choice for a very dirty pot and rinses out completely. Never use chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite). The clay will hold the smell.
- A scrubber. A dried loofah, a plain cotton cloth or your fingers. Many kitchen scourers are loaded with detergent, so check before you use one.
How do you scour an old Yixing teapot, step by step?
Heat the pot slowly in water with a cleaning agent, soak it overnight, then rinse and reheat it in clean water two to four more times. Do not leave the pot sitting in water for days between steps.
- Check it first. Look for cracks, glued handles, riveted lids and metal fittings. Glue can let go in hot water. A repaired or fragile pot should skip the stove and get the hot soak described below.
- Start cold. Put the pot and lid side by side in the pan, fully covered with cold water. Keep them apart so they cannot knock together.
- Heat slowly. Bring the water up gently. As it reaches the boil, sprinkle one teaspoon of ash or half a teaspoon of oxygen bleach over the surface and turn off the heat at once. Oxygen bleach foams hard if the heat stays on.
- Soak overnight. Cover the pan and leave it for 8 to 12 hours somewhere nobody will bump it.
- Rinse and rub. Tip out the water. Clean the pot and lid under cool running water with the loofah, cloth or your thumbs. Include the lid rim and spout holes. No soap.
- Reheat in clean water. Return the pot and lid to the rinsed pan with fresh water and no cleaning agent. Bring it slowly to the boil, turn it off, cover and let it cool for about four hours.
- Repeat. Rinse, rub and reheat until the pot passes the checks in the next section. Two to four rounds is usual.
Sources disagree on the boiling. Some teachers boil every pot. Others have chipped spout tips and lid rims when pots rattled in a simmering pan, and now avoid the stove altogether. Our recommendation is the method above: start cold, heat slowly, and turn the heat off the moment the water boils. Never hold a pot at a rolling boil.
For antiques, repaired pots and anything thin-walled, use a hot soak instead. Put the pot in a heatproof bowl, add the cleaning agent, cover with just-boiled water and a lid, and leave it overnight. Refresh it with kettle water in later rounds. It is slower, but nothing moves.
How do you know when the pot is clean?
A clean pot leaves no film on the water, smells of nothing and gives you water that tastes like water. Check all three after each round.
- Look at the water. Once the pan has cooled, check the surface. Any oily sheen or scum means another round.
- Smell the pot. Smell the inside while it is still damp. Ash and oxygen bleach both have their own smell, so this also tells you when the cleaning agent is gone.
- Taste the water. Fill the pot with just-boiled water, wait a minute, pour it into a clean white cup and sip it. Stale, bitter or chemical flavours mean you are not finished.
What about mould, sticky residue or a white crust?
These take more rounds and more scrubbing, but most come out. Use oxygen bleach rather than ash for all three.
Mould grows when a pot is put away wet with the lid on. It shows as dark or fuzzy spots inside and a sour, damp smell. Scour with oxygen bleach and scrub the inside hard at each rinse. If the smell is still there after four or five full rounds, retire the pot from tea and keep it for display.
Some old pots have a sticky brown layer on the inside walls, often with a white, chalky crust on top. It is stubborn. Soak, scrub and repeat, and allow several days.
Watch the outside too. Age is sometimes faked with soy sauce, ink or shoe polish rubbed into the surface. If dark patches lift away in the first soak, the pot was dressed to look older than it is. Our guide to telling a real Yixing teapot from a fake covers the other signs.
Leave real patina on the outside alone. If the outside needs a wipe, use a cloth wrung out in warm water while the pot is warm. Do not buff it after every session. Constant polishing gives an over-bright shine that many collectors dislike.
Will scouring remove the seasoning?
Yes. Scouring opens the pores and takes the pot back close to new. For a pot with an unknown past, that is the point.
There is a trade-off. Seasoning slowly fills the pores with the oils of the tea you brew, which suits that tea but makes the pot breathe less. A freshly scoured pot gives a cleaner, smoother liquor but carries no trace of any tea. Scour a pot of unknown history without a second thought. Think twice before scouring a pot you have seasoned yourself over years.
What should you do once it is clean?
Decide what you will brew in it, then look after it the same way as a new pot. The daily routine is short.
- If the pot is for one family of tea, you can soak it for a few hours in a strong brew or the spent leaves of that tea. This takes away the clean clay smell.
- After every session, empty the leaves straight away and rinse with hot water. No soap. Ever.
- Clear the holes at the base of the spout, every time.
- Leave the lid off until the pot is completely dry, overnight or longer.
- If you use the pot for several kinds of tea, scour it every six to twelve months.
For the full care routine, read how to season a new Yixing teapot. For whether one pot can serve every tea, read do you need one Yixing teapot for each tea? If you are shopping for an older pot, buying antique teaware online explains what can and cannot be checked before it arrives.
Questions about a specific pot? Write to us.