A Tea Addict's Journal

I drank the remainder of Phyll’s dahongpao. It is quite mellow, a bit fruity, and on the whole less punchy than the Wuyi I got. Wuyi teas, I find, are quite relaxing to drink, unless you’re drinking top notch dahongpao, in which case the cha qi knocks you out…

I have found a problem with my puerh pot. Yesterday, I saw a ring of deposit from tea that formed near the bottom of the pot, so I thought I will rub it and sort of polish the pot that way. Who knew…. when I tried rubbing it, the whole patina of that part came off alongside the tea deposit, so now I have a ring of dull colour at the bottom of the pot, while the rest remains its shiny self with the patina. Hmmm…. I tried to see if I can start fixing it today with putting some tea on it and basically brushing tea onto the part, wait till it evaporates, repeat, but nothing seemed to work. I did something similar with my tieguanyin pot, because there was a ring of less-polished bit on the lid, and I successfully blended the two to the same colour again. The patina on my puerh pot, however, is much thicker…

Oh well, I might just have to live with a pot that has a small ring of duller clay at the bottom. It’s not a real loss, and doesn’t hinder brewing in any way. I think the problem is that while my other pots are all brought up naturally by me, this one was not, and the way the patina formed … I don’t know how it was done. I always thought it’s a bit too shiny. Who knows. Maybe it’s got some wax on it and that’s what makes it the way it looks. Whatever, the pot is nice enough. I’m even contemplating just scrubbing the layer of whtaever it is off the pot and start from scratch. In some ways, it’s more fun that way.