An eye-catching Black Yixing Zini pot with excellent thickening and softening effects. Half-handmade in the Xishi style and a lovely 90-100ml size perfect for solo and small group brewing.
This is Wuhui (焐灰) Zini clay. Wuhui basically means 'burning with smothered ash' and refers to a reduction firing process which turns the clay black.
The original clay is Yixing Zini from No 4 mine of Huanglong mountain in Yixing. It has been stored for at least 5 years before production.
The pot is half-handmade which essentially means that it is made by hand but using molding tools to shape the body. The style is Xishi shape - timeless and beautiful. The capacity is 100ml - a perfect size for solo up to 4 people sessions. It is more unusual to find Yixing pots of this size as they are usually bigger. It has a ball filter with many holes for faster pouring.
The pot is fired at a high temperature and then allowed to cool - this is a finished Zini pot. But to convert to Black clay the pots are stuffed with rice straw and placed in a ceramic box which is further stuffed with straw. The pots are then fired again at lower temperatures of between 800-1000 degrees celsius. During this firing the straw ignites and consumes all of the oxygen in the kiln.
This reduction firing converts the iron oxide on the surface of the clay to a black magnetite. The result has a lovely dark chocolate/purple black with some speckled grains of the original Zini clay purple/orange colour.
This 'Wuhui' technique has been around for centuries and was first used to 'even out' the uneven tones of wood-fired pots. Please note that this is not the same as clay dyed with Manganese Oxide. It is also different from Black Zhuni clay (Hei Zhu Ni) which is naturally occurring black clay and is rarely found and extremely expensive.
The clay effects of this pot are very similar to Zini - it is softening, and thickening and will suit PuErh (Sheng and Shu) and darker Oolongs (although you are welcome to experiment with other tea types).
PREPARING YOUR POT
We advise rinsing your pot a few times and then either filling with boiling water and emptying a few times or boiling (carefully) in a pan of water for 10-15 minutes.
