Newbie questions about yixing /zisha teapots AND source of good tea in Boston, MA area

Dear Sirs and Madams;

I am sorry if this is an oft repeated question. I would like to buy a nice Yixing tea pot or two for oolong and puerh teas. I have heard that zisha clay is best, and that zisha is purple.

So I search the web and find a pot that I like, here is it's description and url: Sand Teapot: This large teapot features a classic shape and is made of sand-colored zisha. Its reasonable price and generous capacity account for its popularity.

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Since I am so new at this I expected this pot to be purplish. It is not. Is this an okay teapot of reasonable Yixing zisha quality? My inquiring mind wants to know!

If anybody cares to share their wisdom and opinions on this subject I would be grateful. I enjoyed tea in my youth, switched to coffee in my college days and now find that I can no longer tolerate coffee. I have just starting buying some nice green teas and enjoy them immensely. If anybody knows of a good source of fine teas in the Boston area, I would like to know about that, too!

Sincerely,

Heather

Reply to
HeatherInBoston
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22 oz. capacity. That is going to produce a *lot* of tea, given the multiple infusions possible with oolongs and Pu-Erh teas. How many people will you be serving? The Yixing teapots I use when I make tea just for myself have a capacity of no more than 6 oz.

N.

Reply to
WNW

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (HeatherInBoston) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Heather,

Welcome to the land of tea-lovers!

As a neighbor in the Boston area, I regret to report that I have not had any luck finding a good tea shop. I find I must resort to ordering over the Internet. Strange in the city of the famous revolutionary tea party!

The only shop that sells a selection of loose teas is TeaLuxe, in Harvard Square. Better than nothing, I suppose. As for tea rooms, the closest I've found was Tea Tray In the Sky on Mass Ave in Arlington Center. They recently changed their name. Rumor has it that they've kept the teas even though other parts of the menu have changed. I haven't been there since the change and can't say one way or the other.

For a very small selection of good loose-leaf tea, you can try George Howell's new coffee place (Copacafe) in Lexington Center. I've browsed their list and noted that the suppliers (Rishi and two others) are very good, but so far have stuck to buying coffee beans (heavenly) when I go there. Finally, Bread and Circus carries packets of loose tea from Rishi Tea and In Pursuit of Tea - two excellent vendors. The selection is variable, but usually there are a lot of good choices. On several occasions the proprietor of IPoT has shown up for samplings at the Fresh Pond B&C.

Debbie

Reply to
Debbie Deutsch

I wouldn't think it was so strange in the city that caused Americans to switch to coffee to distinguish themselves from the British with the aforementioned 'Tea Party', that there are no good tea shops.

Just my $0.02.

J
Reply to
John

Hi Debbie!

Thank you for your recommendations! I actually am in Lexington about once a week, so I will definitely be visiting Copacafe. I hadn't noticed it there, what with the Starbucks and Pete's (sp?) being the first thing I see coming in from rt 2. It really is strange, I thought that Boston MUST have a good tea store, somewhere... and thought I was blind for not knowing of one : -)

Regards,

Heather

Debbie Deutsch wrote:

Reply to
HeatherInBoston

Hi N,

I will be brewing a lot of tea, I am looking for a pot for tea for my Kombucha, and wish to make a nice oolong tea in that bigger pot. I am also looking for a smaller pot for personal consumption, and saw this one...

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It says purple, and is really sweet, but I am not sure if the price is reasonable for what it is. Would this be a good teapot? I am looking to try puerh tea and wish a dedicated pot for personal consumption. Here is the description:

A lid made of alternating horizontal bands of brown and beige zisha caps a lovely purple sand teapot. Tiny flecks of beige clay highlight the teapot's rich brown body. This tactile teapot begs to be held and fits comfortably in one's hands.

Thank you for your comments, I am always willing to learn! I will keep looking for articles on types of clay, etc. I am new to Yixing pots, what fun!

Heather

"WNW" wrote ...

Reply to
HeatherInBoston

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (HeatherInBoston) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Peet's, Starbucks (which used to be a Coffee Connection, BTW), and Copacafe are practically next door to each other. In fact, Copacafe literally is next door to Starbucks, if memory serves. Copacafe actually is a cafe-type restaurant, with coffee beans and paraphenalia and tea off to the side at a counter. (I am told that the sit-down meal service is terrible.) I don't know why George Howell decided he needed to do a restaurant, let alone putting it next to one of his old locations/direct competitors, but I can vouch for his coffee being better than ever.

The story of George Howell, the Coffee Connection, and Starbucks is still fresh in many Boston foodies' minds. I invite you to come over to ne.food and ask about it! It's a great group in any case.

Debbie

Reply to
Debbie Deutsch

Kombu is a seaweed or the more PC term "sea vegetable". Are you sure this is what you mean? Having said that, it is delicious as a hot drink but needs to be boiled for several minutes in water to soften and for any taste to come through. This is because it is a thick, wide, fibrous seaweed that doesn't break down easily. When used in stews it's often chopped into small pieces to speed the process. As such, I don't know what good a teapot would be.

Bert

Reply to
Bert Fuller

"HeatherInBoston" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Heather, I have no experience brewing this kombucha stuff. But Yixing teapots are very good vessels for brewing the more heavily oxidized oolong teas. For the very 'green' oolongs and green and white teas, I would recommend a porcelain pot or gaiwan of some kind. I don't think I would brew anything that comes from the ocean in a vessel that I would also be using to brew camellia sinensis. The unglazed clay of a Yixing does absorb a small amount of the tea being brewed in it, and over time a tea with a very strong flavor can add its essense to the pot, which can be "unleashed" in teas brewed in it subsequently. In my own experience, this 'essense' isn't particularly pronounced in the case of oolong teas with relatively slightly different flavors, but if you're brewing something that is actually a seaweed... you might want to take this into consideration. If you want a very nice Yixing pot, please also look at the following website:

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Brian Wright of Shan Shui Teas keeps a good selection of pots in stock, from large to small, in several price ranges. He also stocks very handy porcelain small teapots called cebei, which are what I normally use for brewing the greener oolongs. Incidentally, "zisha" is a Chinese word meaning "purple clay", which is the commonest form of the special clay found around Yixing, the city in China where these pots are produced. This word has come to be used to generally describe the clay used to make Yixing teapots. There are actually many colors of the clay found there, some of them quite unusual and rare. Plus, artists often blend the clays to produce different shades or textures, or they may use several colors of clay when making the pot.

N.

Reply to
WNW

Hi Bert,

Kombucha is a symbiotic culture of yeasts and bacteria much like a mother of vinegar. Kombucha is also the name of the fermented product it makes out of tea. See:

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It is yummy!

Heather

Reply to
HeatherInBoston

Debbie Deutsch wrote

I was younger and in Northampton, MA when The Coffee Connection was bought out or changed hands. I don't know the story except that I loved Coffee Connection and dislike Starbuck's coffee. Glad he has a local place, I will definitely visit!

Heather

Reply to
HeatherInBoston

Bert wasn't guessing, I don't think. The hot brewed seaweed drink does exist in Japan, available on supermarket shelves, and it is called kombucha. Good luck finding info on it, though, as the number of websites devoted to that other, freaky fermented kombucha multiplies like a mother.

--crymad

Reply to
crymad

Thank you, N,

I will look at the site you mentioned. I won't be brewing seaweed, but a nice oolong tea that will then either be sipped by me or cultured in a separate jar with the Kombucha culture : -) I think I read somewhere that the fermented tea was introduced to Japan by a Dr. Kombu from possibly Korea, and since tea in Japan is "cha" they called the cultured tea "Kombucha".

Thank you for your information!

Heather

"WNW" wrote :

Reply to
HeatherInBoston

Thanks for the link, Lew. Very interesting. I never knew about this.

Bert

Reply to
Bert Fuller

Yes, it sure is used in Japan as a natural remedy against cancer and other maladies. I remember that it is a very good source of certain minerals, but I can't find the reference on my shelf at the moment. I remember seeing it used in cooking as well to soften hard grains. Very tasty.

Bert

Reply to
Bert Fuller

Actually, kombu is a type of seaweed. In macrobiotic cooking, you add it to a pot of beans to soften them and add a bit of flavor. I still do it, though I'm not a macrobiotic cook.. by far!

N.

Reply to
WNW

"WNW" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Kombu is also used in making dashi, the Japanese cooking equivalent to chicken broth, and in cooking the rice for sushi. Like Japanese green tea, kombu is never exposed to boiling water when making dashi or sushi rice. At that temperature, the flavor and aroma become undesirable.

Debbie

Reply to
Debbie Deutsch

Now I'm getting hungry for Japanese food again. I'm out of bonito flakes, though.

N.

Reply to
WNW

Dashi requires gentle cooking to be sure. And I don't know about sushi rice where both sugar and vinegar are added to the rice after cooking. But traditional practice for standard Japanese rice cooking is to place a kombu stalk in the water, bring to a rapid boil, add the rice, bring to a boil again, then lower the temperature to a simmer until cooked. I still have notes from Japanese cooking classes I took on how to do this. Bear in mind that there are many varieties of rice, and cooking practices can vary according to type, so I would never say never nor always say always. Also, the rice cooker is ubiquitous in Japan right now, and kombu appears less and less. I think there may be cause and effect there, in that the regulated and evenly distributed temperatures soften the rice well without help. The most popular rice in Japan is the short grain rice that cooks up fairly sticky, whereas in N. America, dry, long grain rice is more or less the rule. In Macrobiotic cookery, where pressure cookers are often used, the boiling is even more intense, and kombu is widely used.

Bert

Reply to
Bert Fuller

You learn a lot on here! But doesn't anybody else add a piece of kombu to beans when cooking them? I find it adds a certain 'something' that's hard to describe but is definitely there.

N.

Reply to
WNW

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