On Mar 17, 6:20 am, "Melinda" > wrote:
> I am wondering about the best shape of yixing to use for greener oolongs-a
> li shans etc. I love the lemon peel top notes of the scent of those and I
> was thinking about the Reidel wine glasses that are designed to enhance a
> particular type of wine's fragrance. Does anyone have an opinion as to which
> is teh best (in their experience)? For instance, is there anyone here that
> has a separate pot for darker oolongs and one for greener ones or one pot
> for da hong pao and one for a li shan? I am thinking that perhaps the
> greener ones need to be a lower temp, so some type of yixing that might cool
> off quicker? My main mental image is regular round bellied yixing versus a
> tall one versus a flat one (the coin type) with the big mouth.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with brewing green oolongs in a yixing and
> what type of pot did they pick and how do they like it for the top notes?
>

In general, I have found larger bodied pots to work out better with
these types of teas, and I never use a gaiwan to brew. The reasoning
behind this, and I have done extensive research (drinking them! heh),
is because you really do want the leaves to open up all the way so you
can get the best flavors out of them. If your pots are smaller and
you cram a bunch of leaves into it, the flavor will be lacking in the
later brews; usually after 3. Taller or more broad bodied pots should
work out better with wulongs.

It's the same thing with gaiwan brewing. One of my friends just could
not figure out why his TGY fell into the lackluster category after it
blew his socks off at the shop he bought it. I watched him brew it
once and I saw his problem. He was putting too much tea into the
brewing vessel...the leaves could not open up. After 3 brewings, the
tea had much less flavor than before; he suspected foul play. I took
the gaiwan, turned the leaves upside down in the lid and turned the
leaves over so that the ones on the bottom were on top. You could
easily see that the leaves on top had already started to open whilst
the leaves at the bottom were still tight, wet balls of tea.