M and J's

Just curious if anyone knows if M and J's cultural art store (they sell yixing and puer among other things) is still up and running...their website is up but I sent them an E-mail question weeks ago and still have not received an answer. I have looked a little on E-bay tonight but can't see them selling anything on there...anyone know? Thanks in advance!

Reply to
Melinda
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Both their ebay store and their website came up fine for me. I just received a new pot from them a few weeks ago.

Regards,

Cameron

Reply to
Cameron Lewis

I've written them before and gotten no answer.

Also, their eBay seller name is "pdalien"--try searching for that.

Yours,

Z
Reply to
Zephyrus

Cameron snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com7/19/04

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Talk to us, Cameron. Which pot did you get?

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

I got a pot off of their ebay store

here's the link:

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I had been wanting a pot for wulong for awhile and couldn't resist getting this pot as a sort of pun. It pours well, is at the upper-end of capacity for gongfu but is still acceptable. All fit and finish is quite nice. I'm going to have to ask Michael (mandjs) who the artist is.

Cameron

Reply to
Cameron Lewis

It's a grand little fat pot. I like the feet. Not so keen on the speckles, though. No accounting for taste.

Enjoy it.

Michael

Cameron snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com7/20/04

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Reply to
Michael Plant

The speckles are a sign of very coarse mixed clay, which has high porousity and acquires tea fragrance well. I'm not sure that I'll even bother with smooth clay from now on. It's more a matter of function than aesthetics for me. I wanted a black-dragon pot for my wulong.

Cameron

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Reply to
Cameron Lewis

The speckles are certainly a sign of coarser admixture, whether fired and crushed clay "grog" or sand or something else. Rather less certain is their effect, probably just another tea-myth propagated as advertising hype. I would bet that there aren't a thousand people in China - if any! - who could taste a difference due to such grains in otherwise similar pots. The porosity difference from a 1~2% addition of material that doesn't even bridge the wall thickness is not going to affect either retention of flavor materials in the pot or "breathing" to any great degree. So I'd go for aesthetics.

-DM YMMV ( Your Mouthfeel May Vary)

Reply to
Dog Ma 1

Well, actually the difference is very noticeable. My coarser mixed clay pots keep a lingering tea fragrance that is obvious even after rinsing with boiling water. With one pot which I wanted to re-dedicate to a different tea, the identifiable aroma of dancong remained after boiling several hours in distilled water. It took long and rigorous boiling to get it completely empty of smell again. With my smooth clay pots it has been very easy to remove the lingering traces of a given tea. The black dragon pot is not quite as good as my Zhang Quan Lin pot, but it's coming along.

Cheers,

Camer> > The speckles are a sign of very coarse mixed clay, which has high

Reply to
Cameron Lewis

Hmm, that's interesting. I have one smooth, thin-walled yixing pot that I had dedicated to light oolongs but crazily used once for a dancong. The scent of the dancong is noticeable in the (dry) pot months later, though that pot has gone back to use for light oolongs (it doesn't make any difference to the tea's flavor though).

Joe Kubera

Reply to
Joseph Kubera

I don't want to start a micturition melee here, and am also aware that many on this list have far more sensitive palates than I. So I would never challenge someone's direct experience.

Causality, though, can be a bit more subtle and objective. Having spent much of the past few decades working with functional liquid-solid interfaces, I find this effect a little implausible - but reality does not depend on my opinions! I questioned the difference a small volume of speckles would make in "otherwise similar pots." So I'll ask here: has anyone experienced such dramatic differences between two pots the same shape, size and thickness, and (critically) made from the same base clay fired the same way, differing only in the addition of 1~2% of coarse grog or sand?

I only have a few of the "speckled" pots, hence can't claim general knowledge. But all of mine have a rather different base mix from my other Yixings, and (probably much more important) were clearly fired under conditions that leave them more porous. So seasoning/carry-over are very different, but (I think) not from a little grit.

Not impossible, just not the simplest explanation. I anticipate further education from you experts.

-DM

Reply to
Dog Ma 1

Not being any sort of expert I think it unlikely that I will educate you much. All I've done is take a series of personal experiences and checked them against the Chinese politeia as it concerns tea vessels. The Chinese tea folks I've talked to consider the speckles (which make up a greater volume of the clay than they appear to) to cause aroma to inhere in the pot and supposedly, over time, to create richer infusions. All of my mixed clay pots have noticeably stronger residual fragrance than my smooth pots. Not being well educated about pottery, I can't comment on whether this is a product of the clay mixture itself or subsequent treatments, only that I have only observed the residual aroma effect to any great degree in rough pots.

I find tea brewed in seasoned pots to be more complex than that brewed in new, though purified, pots. My Zhang Quan Lin pot, a rough textured mix of brown and yellow clays, has a remarkably intense aroma of lightly oxidized tiguanyin that I'm certain affects the infusion.

I'm going to have to try talking to a yixing potter some day.

Cheers,

Camer> > >Well, actually the difference is very noticeable. My coarser mixed

Reply to
Cameron Lewis

If new unglazed tea pots are adding too much of an aftertaste rinse the pot and clean the inside with a damp course cloth. You'll notice some discoloration on the towel which is adding to the taste. I like the break in taste of new pots so long as it doesn't change the color of my tongue. My favorite coarse pot is the standard Chinese red. It will immediately stain from the first infusion and remind you of a day at the beach. I've got one that is seasoned for 20 years and if I accidently twist the infuser resting on the rim I get the added clay taste.

Jim

Reply to
Space Cowboy

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