Recently, friends have been asking me how to develop the character of their beloved purple clay Teapots. When it comes to purple clay teapots, one cannot avoid mentioning Tea. Tea is considered by the Chinese to be the most flavorful “beverage,” and it is also the world's oldest and an evergreen “beverage.” Drinking Tea is not just about quenching thirst but also a process of mental enjoyment. Drinking tea is akin to appreciating the Dao, where the focus is on mindfulness. Those who know how to drink tea understand how to appreciate the ambiance each type of tea brings and the harmony between tea and its vessel. Using a Yixing purple clay Teapot to brew tea not only enhances the tea's subtle fragrance but also reveals the true charm of the teapot.

I would say that nurturing a teapot is more about the process than the outcome. It's about developing a feeling and a sense of romance. There are scientific methods and techniques for choosing the right teapot for the specific type of tea, brewing the tea, and maintaining the teapot. A teapot used for brewing good tea will be warm all over, making it easy for the tea poured over the teapot to evaporate due to the heat and for the teapot's surface to absorb some of it. Furthermore, when a new teapot is first used, it may have a slight earthy taste. Due to the double-pore structure within the walls of the purple clay teapot, it allows air permeation without seepage and easily absorbs tea juice, gradually leaving a rich tea aroma inside the new teapot. The surface of the used teapot often accumulates tea stains, which require a “nourishing teapot brush” or a “soft toothbrush” to frequently clean the teapot's surface, keeping it clean. This is referred to as “nourishing the teapot with tea.” With daily wiping and cleaning, the teapot's surface develops a matte sheen that becomes increasingly glossy over time. Some people refer to this matte finish as “patina,” which high-pressure washing at high temperatures cannot remove, demonstrating a refined taste. Some people, in an effort to make the clay teapot shine faster, use oily hands or oily cloths to wipe the teapot, resulting in a gloss known as “monk's shine.” If you wash the teapot with a detergent, the shine disappears, revealing unsightly scars. As described in “Yang Xian Ming Tao Lu”: “Some people fondle the dirt and grime on their sleeves, fearing its removal, saying they treasure the aged appearance, not realizing that even Xi Shi would be tainted by filth.” Therefore, do not contaminate the teapot with oil or grime; instead, keep it clean to properly maintain it.

Another method of nourishing a teapot involves removing the tea residue from the teapot every morning while cleaning the teapot and teaware and then rubbing the teapot's body once. This not only removes tea scale and residue marks but also polishes the teapot's surface with wet tea leaves, making it shiny and lustrous. Another method of nourishing a teapot involves grinding tiles into a fine powder, wrapping the powder in six layers of sandpaper to form a loquat-sized ball, and gently stroking the teapot's body with the sandpaper ball dipped in tea while the tea is poured over the teapot, keeping the teapot clean and glossy. In today's era of advanced science, finely ground abrasive powders can replace tile powder to create a sandpaper ball, achieving the same effect.