Winter is truly the perfect time to use a purple clay pot for tea, as the warm, smooth, and hefty pot conveys the gentle warmth of winter right into your hands.
However, when using a purple clay pot for tea in winter, there are some points to keep in mind, so enthusiasts should take care!
Select the Right Tea
The dryness of winter can easily lead to heatiness, drinking Green Tea can help with this, quenching thirst and stimulating saliva. The gloomy weather of winter can also make one's mood depressed or irritable, in which case floral teas can be consumed to alleviate these feelings.
Black Tea, being warm and sweet, can have the effect of preventing flu during winter; Oolong tea can effectively alleviate dry lips and mouth that often occur in winter… Selecting the appropriate tea can make your winter more comfortable.
Prevent Cracking
The situations that usually lead to cracking are generally as follows:
1. Special Clays and Shapes: In purple clay pots, special attention should be paid to clays with high crystallinity and unevenly walled shapes (such as Gong Chun pots).
Crystallinity is an inherent property of the clay, and different clays have different degrees of crystallinity after firing.
Among purple clays, Zhu Ni has a higher degree of crystallinity, followed by Zini, then Luni, and Duan Ni. After firing, clays like Zhu Ni and Dahongpao in red clays have a very high degree of crystallinity and a glassy surface, making them more prone to cracking when subjected to sudden temperature changes compared to other clays.
2. Hidden Damage in the Purple Clay Pot: This damage may have occurred during firing, resulting in tiny cracks in the body of the pot. However, such pots are usually detected and removed during the post-firing inspection, rarely reaching the hands of enthusiasts.
3. Temperature Influences: Long-term exposure to direct sunlight can cause cracks in a purple clay pot. There are also instances where a pot cracks due to sudden temperature changes or uneven heating or cooling while brewing tea.
Especially in winter, when the pot body is already relatively cold, pouring boiling Water directly into it to brew tea can cause cracking, which is a form of thermal shock.
4. Unused Purple Clay Pots: If a pot hasn't been used for a long time and has been exposed to the air, the moisture within its walls becomes uneven.
Or if the pot dries out excessively, the pores will become thoroughly dried, and the structure of the pot body can become loose, especially for Duan Ni pots with larger particles. Suddenly pouring boiling water into such a pot can easily cause it to crack.
Winter is the season when purple clay pots are most likely to crack, particularly Zhu Ni pots and thin-walled pots. Cold weather and sudden exposure to boiling water can cause sudden cracks.
Pouring warm water slowly over both the inside and outside of the pot allows the walls to warm up gradually. Discard the water and then brew tea, effectively preventing cracking.
For thin-walled pots, the walls are naturally thinner, and the cold weather makes them even more brittle. Even slight bumps can cause cracks. Therefore, extra care must be taken when using them.
Prevent Oil and Unpleasant Odors
In winter, many people enjoy holding a purple clay pot in their hands while caressing it, warming their hands at the same time. However, it's important to maintain hand hygiene.
It's cold in winter, so remember not to handle the pot immediately after eating; wash your hands before picking up the pot to brew tea and play with it (it's not recommended to drink tea immediately after eating).
Moreover, the dry winter weather tightens the skin, and hand creams and other skincare products are commonly used. Do not handle the pot after applying skincare products.
Careful Maintenance
The lower temperatures in winter require more meticulous care for purple clay pots, with protection as the main focus and nurturing as a supplement, to ensure a warm winter. Although it's tempting to stay cozy and inactive in the cold, after using a purple clay pot for tea, it's still necessary to clean both the inside and outside of the pot promptly, invert it to dry, and maintain cleanliness to nurture a high-quality pot.
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