When choosing the right teaware for our tea ceremony, we may face a common dilemma. Porcelain or glazed stoneware? Or perhaps a non-glazed ceramic material like Yixing clay? Ultimately, there are many types of clay, and on top of that, glazes can influence the final look of the teaware and even the taste of tea.
This post will discuss all ceramic teaware and how its unique composition can alter the final tea drinking experience. You can use this guide to choose the right teaware for yourself or friends, or simply get acquainted with the different pottery styles.
It is important to note that keeping the brewing vessel consistent with your teacup can be an essential factor in the tea's final taste.
Ceramic Teaware
To fully understand what alters our delicate loose-leaf tea's taste, we must get to the core of the teaware material.
What makes the various clay bodies so different is their mineral content. At their core, stoneware, porcelain, and Yixing clay all share a common base clay. However, it is the addition of the different minerals that alters the final product. Also, of course, the glaze composition and firing temperature.
We can divide ceramic pottery into three main groups: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. With each category, the specific clay materials increase, and consequently, so does the firing temperature.
Clay bodies contain various minerals that influence how the fired ceramic behaves — for example, silica, alumina, and iron compounds. These affect factors like porosity, hardness, and heat retention, which, in turn, can influence how tea extracts and tastes.
The Different Clay Bodies Used for Drinking Tea
For convenience's sake, we organized this post in terms of the teaware style, which alters the tea the least, to those that alter the taste in our final sip.
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material with a high content of kaolin (a white clay mineral). It is fired at very high temperatures of 1,200 to 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F). The final result is a very strong, yet also sometimes translucent teaware.
Porcelain was invented in China and dates back to the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC). By the early Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), porcelain became increasingly popular, and strict standards for porcelain-making were established.
Manufacturing porcelain is more complicated than other types of pottery. It is highly revered for its durability and genuine beauty. The glossy, pure-white color is iconic of porcelain. Because this material pairs well with both glazes and paint, a wide variety of artistic porcelain teaware is usually available.
Porcelain teaware is ideal for use with light, gentle teas, such as green, white, yellow, and light oolongs.
Porcelain is much lesser porous than Yixing clay. Instead of absorbing, porcelain highlights the tea's subtle flavors.
Overall, porcelain is a great material to use for gaging the initial qualities of the tea. For getting acquainted with the tea.
Read more about porcelain teaware here.
Glazed Earthenware and Stoneware Pottery
Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at high temperatures. Historically, stoneware was developed after earthenware and before porcelain. Earthenware is usually fired in a kiln at temperatures in the range of about 1,000°C (1,830 °F) to 1,200 °C (2,190 °F), while stoneware is fired at temperatures between 1,100 °C (2,010 °F) and 1,300 °C (2,370 °F).
It is important to note that in East Asian pottery terminology, porcelain is classified as stoneware (since it is high-fired), whereas these two categories are distinguished in the West.
However, stoneware differs from porcelain because it is more opaque and cannot achieve the same level of translucency. It usually has a darker or "dirty white" color due to impurities in the clay. The clay itself is more rustic and easier to prepare than porcelain.
The raw materials for stoneware are naturally occurring clay and minerals, such as kaolin, mica, and quartz. Although these minerals are relatively minimal, stoneware also usually has iron and carbon, which add to its "dirty" look.
Simple glazed earthenware and stoneware are great to use with any tea type, as they do not alter the flavor.
Jain Zhan
Jian ware is a category of stoneware pottery. What makes it unique is the clay and glaze composition.
Jian Zhan (建盏) pottery originated in Jianyang, Fujian province, China, and uses local iron-rich clay. It is then fired at 1,300 °C (2,370 °F).
Jian ware is sometimes also referred to as Chinese black porcelain. It is very popular in Japan, where it has developed its own style, known as Tenmoku.
Proper clay is one of the most decisive elements of Jian ware. The clay found in Fujian province is remarkably high in iron content. Many potters have tried to replicate Jian ware with local clay from other regions, all without luck.
To make the Jian Zhan pottery glaze, an iron-rich glaze is mixed with plant ash. Furthermore, getting the glaze recipe right is very challenging. Many potters spend years experimenting until they finally get the right recipe.
The high-fired, iron-rich glaze and clay of Jian Zhan can change how tea feels in the mouth – the liquor feels smoother and the aroma more focused when drunk from these cups. The effect comes mainly from the surface texture and thermal behavior of the cup, rather than any dramatic change in the tea’s pH
Pair Jian Zhan teacups with a simple brewing vessel, like glass or porcelain. This way, you can clearly taste the Jian ware teacup's difference without imparting any other qualities during brewing. Chinese green teas really benefit from Jian ware.
Read more about Jian Zhan teaware here.
Yixing
Yixing pottery is a type of high-fired stoneware. Traditional ZiSha (紫砂) teapots are unglazed and have a semi-vitreous body with fine micro-porosity, which allows them to interact with tea differently. Yixing, Jiangsu Province, China, is where Yixing pottery originated. While Yixing pottery is a broad term, the teaware is actually made from various clays.
Zisha clay is a mixture of kaolin, quartz, and mica. Plus, high content of iron oxide and a sandy texture. The typical firing temperature is between 1100 – 1200 °C.
There are a few types of Yixing clay (ZiSha):
- Zi Ni (紫泥) – purple clay. A widely used subtype of Yixing zisha (宜兴紫砂). It has good plasticity and relatively low shrinkage, so its semi-vitreous, micro-porous structure with stable heat retention can gently soften bitterness and change how flavors present themselves.
- Zhu Ni (朱泥) – a dense, reddish-brown Yixing clay rich in iron, with relatively low porosity, good heat-holding properties, and a naturally glossy fired surface.
- Hong Ni (红泥) – another red Yixing clay type, generally denser and less porous than many Zi Ni bodies. It tends to give a slightly sharper, more focused expression of the tea compared with more porous clays.
- Duan Ni (段泥) – a broader category of Yixing clay bodies associated with certain ore ‘sections’ (duàn 段). DuanNi clay fires in a range of colors from beige and yellow to speckled or greenish tones. It is often a bit more porous than typical Zi Ni, so it tends to soften bitterness and astringency more noticeably, which can be great for some teas but can be too muting for more delicate ones.
- Lu Ni (绿泥) – ‘green clay’ – a relatively rare Yixing clay or blend. Despite the name, it often fires to a light beige or yellowish color. LuNi teapots often exhibit excellent heat retention.
Because Yixing clay is unglazed and micro-porous, it gradually develops a thin inner patina from repeated use. Over time, a well-used pot may show a gentle sheen and give off a faint tea aroma when rinsed with hot water.
This patina slightly changes how water and tea interact with the surface, but it doesn’t add back a strong ‘stored’ tea flavor into plain water. The main effect still comes from the clay’s structure and heat behavior.
Read more about Yixing teaware here.
