Many people who play Zisha pot have heard of "raising pot" and are concerned about raising pot in daily life. Before raising pot, there is a "raising pot" step, which is also worth the attention of pot lovers. Some tea friends may not pay attention to season the pot, or their way to clean the pot for the first time is not right, then they will feel the tea taste is not good in a period of time.
First of all, is it necessary to make an “opening ceremony” for the new pot?
As the raw material of Zisha pot is mineral clay, the new pot inevitably has the smell of earth. When the hot water is poured on the pot, we will obviously feel its "earthiness" and "muddy smell". In addition, in the process of high temperature firing, the pores of Zisha are opened, and some dust particles will inevitably be absorbed inside and outside the pot, and some ashes will fall on the pot when they are coming out of the kiln.
Therefore, it is very necessary to season the new pot. By the opening ceremony, the earthy smell and kiln smell of the Zisha pot can be removed, and the pores of the Zisha pot can be completely opened, so as to achieve better results in raising the pot and making tea.
From the point of view of opening ceremony purpose, the "tofu kettling method" and "sugar cane kettling method" are not practical. So, what is the correct way to make the “ opening ceremony” for the brand new pot? Combined with my own experience and a lot of consultation from Zisha professionals and experienced pot player, I come up with these two feasible methods.
Simple version: brew tea and cover it
The first step is a brief cleaning: wash it with warm water, and clean the inside and outside of the pot with a soft brush or toothbrush.
Then we season the pot with tea. In theory, Zisha pot can match any kind of tea, but due to different clay materials, the best suitable tea is also different, such as red & purple clay is suitable for brewing Oolong tea, purple clay is suitable for brewing black tea, green & purple clay is suitable for brewing raw pu’er. In addition, the Zisha pot is absorbent, so it is best to serve one pot with one kind of tea.
Prepare tea leaves to be brewed in this pot. Put the tea into the pot, pour boiling water, and let it stand for three to five hours. After total and natural cooling, pour out the tea together with the tea leaves.
Finally, use hot water to clean the pot and let it dry by itself.
This method is relatively simple, but the disadvantage is it cannot remove the muddy & fire smell thoroughly, only part of it. On this point, I also have personal experience, one new pot of mine was just washed with hot water for several times as the completion of seasoning, and then last for two or three months, I still can feel the earthy flavor occasionally ; but another pot was seasoned with the simpler version above, after seven or eight brewing, nearly no more muddy smell.
If with the simple version, it is recommended to repeat twice to improve the seasoned effect.
If want to season the pot more efficiently with one step, we need to use a sophisticated version of boiling pot.
Season the pot with onlyone step: boiling pot
First, Still clean the surface with a soft brush or toothbrush.
Simmer the pot: put the pot into a clean pan, add warm water, at the same time put a small amount of tea, about 10g, wait the water comes to boil, simmer it slowly for about 30min.
Wait it to be natural cooling, take out the pot, rinse it with warm water first and then boiling water, and let it dry naturally.
It should be noted that pure water is the best to boiling pot, because the hardness of tap water is high, calcium carbonate content is high, long time boiling will leave alkaline substances inside and outside the pot, and the surface of the Zisha pot will be covered a layer of whiteness like frost, which is difficult to clean off in future.
