朱泥莲子壶 Kangiiten Zhuni Lotus Teapot (Curvy Spout)

Made by award winning Chaozhou teapot craftsman, Chen Zhijian. In his early years, Chen had came in champion in national wheel throwing competitions, with many of his works superceding his teachers in dexterity and refinement, especially in traditional and historical teapot styles from the early to late Qing dynasties.

In other private commissions for KZ over the past years, Chen had been able to make impeccably refined and elegant pots, all the way from classical Qianlong Pear shapes to ultra thin walled “Nanban” styled teapots that wheel thrown and pulled to shape entirely from the inside of the pot, without any external surface touch ups, yet maintaining very thin walls. These teapots are treasures in the modern day, and will become heirloom treasures in time to come.

The lotus shape is one of the most well loved shapes in late qing to republican period. Its performance for brewing many teas is unrivalled, as its round shape allows for efficient unfurling of tea leaves allowing the body to develop quickly and achieve an optimal flavour balance. If used in the chaozhou gongfu style, you can pack more tea leaves into the pot to control the swelling and extraction. The dispense speed is fast and smooth.

The zhaozhuang zhuni clay was chosen as it is one of the best yixing clays available. The clay was further processed eroded by our artisan for over a year before it could be used, if not, due to the high shrinkage rate and low sand content, the failure rate to a successful pot is more than 50%.

Carefully selected at 120ml, this is a versatile size. There are two versions of the spouts, one, the short spout which is generally more for personal use, giving a gentler and humble pour into a single cup or pitcher, whilst the long curved spout, is more ideal for chaozhou gongfu tea brewing, where you have to direct the pour into different cups with speed and accuracy.

Directions for Usage and Care :

As the teapot is entirely new and freshly off the kiln, please rinse the teapot with clean water and ensure that any grits or loose clay is washed away before usage. There is possibly some sandy clay residue which is used to prevent the lid from sticking to the pot during firing, this can be easily washed away.

Also, this teapot is optimally fired, the teapot is ready for immediate usage after washing, you may want to fill the teapot with one or two rounds of hot water or with some light dilute good tea for five minutes, and then wash out, and it will be ready for brewing tea.

Do not boil the teapot, and not with tea leaves and towels either!

After use, please empty out the tea leaves from the pot and rinse it with clean water, and optimally with one douse of hot water before leaving to dry.

Recommended Teas and Steep Durations with Water just off the Boil.

All long loose leaf, spiral oolongs or raw puerh tea leaves - Steep from 5 to 15 seconds Ball shaped oolong teas - first steep 30 seconds, second steep onwards can be fast. This teapot is good with all teas, but it can be good to dedicate one to solely oolongs.

For long leafed teas, use between 5g to 10g tea leaves. For a Lazy Chaozhou Gongfutea Method, you can fill the entire tea pot fully with tea leaves (only for long spiral oolong, not ball shaped), and do rapid steeps from 2-9 seconds based on your taste buds.