The reason many friends like purple clay pots is that they “become increasingly mellow with prolonged use and tea drinking,” but few are truly well-nourished in daily use.
▲Nourished patina
When you see the pots that experts have nourished, they are warm and restrained, noble and elegant, making one envious. Yet, your own pot can easily become “dirty or patchy.”
Today, let's talk about the issues of nourishing a pot.
Unable to Achieve Results
The nourishment of a purple clay pot, also known as the patina, has a warm and subdued color, emitting a natural glow. This is the state of a purple clay pot after it has been nurtured. If you cannot achieve these results, there are several reasons:
1. The pot has been waxed or over-polished.
2. It is a slip-cast pot or a hand-pulled pot.
▲Not a natural shine
These types of pots either have been treated on their surface or have added water glass and different processes. They are “already relatively shiny.” Therefore, when using them, pot enthusiasts might feel that the effects of nourishment are not significant.
A purple clay pot itself has a sandy texture. Before being fully nourished, it appears plain and simple, even rugged. The “clay material” and “craftsmanship” are the fundamentals for whether a pot can be well-nourished. Good clay materials and excellent burnishing skills naturally make a pot easier to nurture through tea drinking.
Becoming Dirty or Patchy
For a good quality clay purple clay pot, how to care for it is also important. “Experts focus on the method.”
Method One: Eight-Character Slogan for Nourishing Pots
Diligently steep, diligently clean, ventilate, dry in the shade.
▲Becoming dirty
This “eight-character slogan for nurturing pots” is key to ensuring that the purple clay pot does not become dirty. Many pot enthusiasts enjoy Pouring tea over the pot body or wiping it with a pot-nourishing brush, which is not wrong. However, it is essential to remember to clean it thoroughly after using tea.
▲Timely Cleaning
A purple clay pot becomes dirty if it is not cleaned promptly during daily use. The so-called “dirty-cloth school” of pot-nourishing methods, in the author's opinion, is not advisable.
Method Two: Selecting the Right Tea
Taking “duan mud” (a type of clay) as an example, its breathability is relatively good, and it easily absorbs tea. However, duan mud pots are usually light in color. If you use dark teas like black tea to steep and nourish the pot without paying attention to cleaning, it can easily become patchy.
▲Duan mud steeping
Therefore, duan mud pots are suitable for steeping lighter-colored teas like white tea or green tea.
In the same vein, other different clay materials should also be paired with appropriate teas. This way, the effort of pot-nourishing will not be wasted.
Method Three: Peaceful Mind
Actually, this third method is more about cultivating the mind than about nurturing the pot. Drinking Tea and nurturing the pot is something that should help one calm down and center oneself.
▲Drinking tea to calm the mind and cultivate Qi
Do not rush or lose sight of the original intention of playing with the pot. The most important aspect of nurturing a pot is feeling the changes in the purple clay pot during daily tea drinking, much like the person drinking the tea, becoming increasingly mellow. This is the optimal state for nurturing a pot.
So, do you now understand why some experts can nourish their pots so beautifully? Why not Brew a pot right away and apply the methods mentioned in this article!
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