Speaking of Puer

If it's bowl-shaped, it's a tuocha. Tuo actually means "bowl", and mini-tuochas sized for one cup are just the smallest.

I can't answer these questions, but until and unless you do find answers, please don't keep yourself from using a glazed brewing vessel with Puerhs of all kinds. There's no reason you can't use a small glazed brewing vessel and cram it with lots of Puerh leaf the way you would with a Yixing pot.

/Lew

Are you sure it wasn't just a big tuocha? A cha beeng is a flat discus of tea although it usually has a little indentation on the back.

I currently have two yixing pots for puerh and will add a third and possibly fourth in the future. My breakdown right now is one for young green puerh and one for black. I'm going to add another for aged green puerh and possibly another for golden tip varieties of black puerh like gold bud beeng and topaz/imperial puerh.

As far as buying aged puerhs goes, you can either deal with reputable retailers or buy in person (vastly preferable). Since I'm in the middle of the Canadian prairies I'm stuck with online retailers for now. I'm slowly building up a collection of immature cakes, and I'll wait until my next trip to Asia to buy the bulk of my aged puerhs.

I find that puerh (green and black) brewed in yixing pots is very different than in glass and gongfu is another thing entirely. I generally use a lower ratio of leaf-to-water than I do with oolongs. For seasoning pots it makes sense to season it with the same grade of leaf that you'll be brewing on a regular basis. It makes no sense to break in a pot with the best leaf if you'll be drinking a lower grade. I've been working on a short guide to seasoning yixing pots and I'll send you a copy if you're interested.

Cheers,

Cameron

I personally use 3 pots for puer, but am considering more. I use 1 for young green puer, 1 for old green puer, and the 3rd for blacks.

Season it with the same type and grade of puer that you intend to use the pot for. If you look under "Yixing" on my site there are several guides to seasoning a new pot.

There is a significant difference when using a Zisha pot as compared to ANY other brewing method. Most believe that the tea is actually enhanced by the seasoned pot. On the other hand the engineer in me wants to reduce the variables to achieve repeatability, and the amount of seasoning just introduces another variable.

All of that being said I believe that centuries of Chinese Culture cannot possibly be too terribly wrong. My suggestion for the uninitiated would be, a single zisha pot dedicated to black puer is the right place to start. If you decide you really do like this method, and tea, you will naturally grow and experiment from that foundation.

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net