Delightful half-handmade Benshan Duanni pot in a playful Junde style.
This is a Yixing Duanni Clay pot made using ore from Huang Long Shan. It has a softening effect on tea whilst maintaining transparency of flavour.
Duanni is one of three broad categories of Yixing Zisha clay. The first and most common is Zini (purple), another is Hongni (Red clay) which covers all red pots, including the famous Zhuni and then you have Duanni which is normally made from a blend of green-grey ores, which turn yellow when firing. This pot is made from Benshan Duanni.
This is a Half-handmade pot meaning that it is made by hand but utilises moulded shapes to assist the production. It is a great performing pot and a perfect way to add high-grade Zisha clay to your collection without spending the huge price tag for entirely handmade.
The shape of this pot would be broadly called 'Junde' but it has a more playful and curvaceous quality to it in my opinion. The description from the maker is perfect - "The pot handle flows naturally from top to bottom, like a woman holding up her hair in a bun, proud but not pretentious.".
ABOUT THIS CLAY
Duanni is one of the most porous clays with a pronounced effect (although a lot depends on the original ores and temperature of firing). Duanni is also well known for its excellent heat retention. This means that it is most often suited to teas which have a strong character and love hot brewing - think aged Sheng, Shu and Yancha.
I think that this makes a great 'all-star' pot for most types of tea because, while it softens, thickens and sweetens, it is very restrained in its reduction of bright notes.
It is also subtle in its addition of minerals, making it very versatile with all teas.
Brewing in this pot tastes like you are using soft and sweet water. Any astringency, strong punchiness and strong woody, stony or baked notes are radically dialled down. So you may want to refrain from using this pot if you fancy a really punchy session but otherwise, it is a great pot for most sessions.
