The Basic Usage of Yixing Zisha Teapot:
1)place the teapot with the lid uncovered, carefully place the pieces onto a cook ware which should be large enough to hold the water and be able to cover the entire teapot.
2)Place some tea leaves(preferably the same kind of tea which you will use for your new teapot) in the water and bring to a slow boil, since rapid boiling may damage your teapot since the pieces may possibly be hitting each other or hitting the walls in your cook ware.
3)slow boil for about an hour, let your teapot cool down in the cook ware with tea water still covering the entire teapot, let it stand for a day or so,
4)the next day you can take the teapot out and rub off any purple sand residue inside of your teapot, rinse well with water only, place the teapot back into the cook ware and bring it to a slow boil again for around an hour or so. Let it cool down in your cook ware still covering with the tea water again,
5)the next day you may take out your teapot and rinse it well with hot water. After this process, the air holes in your teapot are opened up and is ready for use.
One simple way for the initial use:
Fill your teapot with newly boiled water and allow the water to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain the water.
Fill the teapot a second time with newly boiled water and add one teaspoon of your favorite loose tealeaves. Allow this tea to sit for a period of 5 to 10 minutes. Drain the tea.
You are now ready to prepare your first pot of tea. Fill your teapot with freshly boiled water to heat up the pot. Drain the water. Put one teaspoon of tealeaves into your pot. Again, fill the teapot with freshly boiled water. Drain the water quickly to rinse the tealeaves. Fill the teapot a third time with boiling water, allow it to steep for at least 1 minute and enjoy your tea.
How cleaning your tea pot:
Since the clay has the unique characteristic of absorbing the flavor of your tea, washing with soap will take away from that unique quality.so never wash your Yixing teapots with any detergents or cleaning agents, just rinse with hot water after each use would be sufficient, pat dry with soft towels if preferred, leave the lid uncovered till it is fully dried. Tea stains may build up on your teapot after many used, don’t worry about getting it off, collectors are always looking for tea stains as this is one of the characteristics required for a good old and antique teapot. Avoid having dust and grease get to the teapot. we have seen a good old teapot which have scaling tea stains, to a collector’s point of view, this kind of Yixing teapots worth much more value and is rare to find.
