A new Yixing teapot from a good studio needs very little. Rinse it, give it a long hot soak, and start brewing. Seasoning happens through use over months, not through a ritual on day one. Save scouring for second-hand pots and pots you know nothing about, and even then keep it gentle.
What does seasoning a Yixing teapot mean?
Seasoning is the slow change in an unglazed clay pot as it is used. Yixing clay is porous. Over hundreds of sessions the inside darkens, the pores take up oils and aroma from the tea, and the outside develops a soft sheen from handling. A well-used pot makes better tea than a new one, which is why people bother.
The Chinese term is yang hu, raising the pot. Nothing you do on the first day replaces use. The first-day steps below exist only to get dust and the smell of fresh clay out of the pot, so your first brews taste of tea.
What should you do with a new Yixing teapot?
Rinse it, soak it in hot water for about an hour, smell it, and brew. That is all a new pot from us needs. Our pots come from a studio that processes and ages its own clay, so there is no chemical finish to strip.
- Rinse the pot and lid, inside and out, under hot running water. Check the holes at the base of the spout are clear.
- Warm a heat-proof bowl with boiling water and tip it out. Set the pot and lid in it separately, with room around them so nothing knocks.
- Fill the pot, then the bowl, with just-boiled water until both pieces are covered. Cover the bowl with a plate or towel and leave it for an hour.
- Lift the pot out and smell it. A faint smell of wet clay is normal. If it is strong, repeat the soak.
- Optional: soak the pot for a few hours in tea, or in spent leaves of the kind of tea you plan to brew most. This drives off the fresh clay smell faster.
- Brew. Our guide to how to brew gong fu tea covers amounts and timing.
The first few brews may taste slightly flat or of clay. That fades with use.
Should you boil a new Yixing teapot?
Not a new pot from a studio you trust. Boiling is a scouring method for pots of unknown history, and experienced tea people disagree about it. Some boil every new pot, in several rounds with wood ash or oxygen bleach, to clear firing dust from the pores. Others have chipped spouts and lid rims doing exactly that, because the pot rattles against the pan once the water bubbles.
Our line sits between them. Scour second-hand pots, old pots, or any pot that smells musty or chemical, and do it gently:
- Put the pot and lid, on their own, in a clean saucepan with no trace of soap. Nothing else goes in the pan.
- Cover them with cold water. Heat slowly until the water is just below boiling. Do not let it reach a rolling boil, and never drop a pot into water that is already boiling.
- Turn off the heat. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of pure white wood ash, or half a teaspoon of sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach). Never use chlorine bleach.
- Cover and leave for 8 to 12 hours.
- Rinse and rub the pot under running water with your fingers or a loofah. No soap.
- Repeat the slow heat in clean water, without ash, two to four times, until the pot has no smell, leaves no residue and the rinse water tastes clean.
Scouring opens the pores and gives a cleaner cup. It also erases seasoning. Never scour a pot you have been using happily. Keep it for a reset when something has gone wrong, such as mould or an off smell that a hot soak will not shift.
How do you look after a Yixing teapot every day?
Empty it straight after the session, rinse it with boiling water, and leave it to dry with the lid off. Never use soap. Clear the spout holes each time. Those rules cover almost everything.
- Empty the leaves as soon as you finish. Wet leaves left in the pot go sour, and the clay picks up the smell.
- Rinse with clean, boiling water. Hot water is all the pot needs.
- Dry with the lid off, overnight or longer. Unglazed clay holds water in its pores. A pot closed while damp can grow mould, especially in a humid climate.
- Do not use soap. Ever. The porous clay absorbs it and gives it back in later brews. It also strips the seasoning.
- Check the spout, every time. Leaf fragments lodge in the holes at the base of the spout and slow the pour.
- Rest a pot you use hard. If you have used a pot many times in a week, put it aside for a while. Constant wetting and drying without a break can leave mineral deposits in the pores and, over years, fine cracks.
- Leave the stains alone. The darkening inside and the sheen outside are the seasoning.
A tea boat or tray under the pot catches rinse water, and a cha hai (pitcher) lets you empty the pot fully at each steep. Both are in Yixing accessories, though a bowl and a jug do the same job.
Can you use one Yixing teapot for several teas?
Yes, if you empty it and dry it straight after every session. One pot for each tea is the ideal the tradition hands down, but it is not a requirement. A single pot can brew liu bao one day and cliff tea the next without harm, as long as no leaves or liquor sit in it between sessions.
Opinion splits here too. Some teachers hold that a porous pot should only ever know one tea, because it carries that tea's character forward into every brew. Others work by broad families: one pot for aged and dark teas, one for roasted oolong, one for green or lightly oxidised teas. They see little point in dividing further.
Our advice: start with one pot and use it for everything. Once you know what you drink most, dedicate that pot to it and buy a second for the rest. Split by broad family rather than by individual tea. There is more on this in do you need one Yixing teapot for each tea?
What should you never do to a Yixing teapot?
Never use soap, a dishwasher or chlorine bleach. Never close the lid on a wet pot, and never leave spent leaves inside. Never boil a pot hard, or with other objects in the pan.
A few habits do less harm but are still worth dropping. Pouring tea over the outside of the pot during a session leaves mineral rings, and the evaporation cools the pot rather than warming it. Rubbing a pot with a wet cloth after every use builds a hard, artificial shine that many collectors dislike. Handling and use give a better surface over time. Folk methods such as boiling with tofu, sugar cane or rice water are common online. We have seen nothing to show they do anything a hot soak does not.
If you are still choosing a pot, start with our modern Yixing teapots. If a pot you already own still smells wrong after a scour, read how to tell if a Yixing teapot is real or fake. Questions about a specific pot? Write to us.