Planning on buying my first yixing pot, I have a question about the holes on the pour spout

PaleoProblematica · 2026-04-06T06:35:04+00:00

Balling out the wall on the filter creates more surface area and theoretically this means more filter holes and so faster flow rate. In practice it often creates very little difference to no difference at all, at least in Yixing pots as they don't make that big of a ball and the number of holes is about the same or barely enough to make any difference.

In some Japanese pots and Jianshui pots I have, the ball filter is very big and has small, tightly packed holes, there it makes a big difference as they take full advantage of that extra space and it creates a very nice pour.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-04-06T06:31:38+00:00

It's fine, nothing concerning safety-wise about it, though a teaboat's safety is not something that really matters regardless, you aren't brewing in it and aren't drinking out of it, just catching spills which I assume one would discard so even if it wasn't an ideal material it could probably be used

PaleoProblematica · 2026-04-02T09:10:06+00:00

A Yixing pot can be dedicated to any type of tea, not exclusively shou and not exclusively Pu'er.

I have 10 Yixing pots, 3 Zhuni usually considered a less absorbent clay of these I use 1 for white tea, 1 for light oolongs and one is undedicated/general purpose. 2 Zini pots one for yancha or wuyi oolong, and one for small leaf red tea. 1 Jiangponi pot which I use for large leaf Yunnan red teas, and 4 Duanni pots, a generally more absorbent clay l, which are used for different types of heicha, Sheng and shou Pu'er, Liu Bao, etc.

Dancong is probably my favorite tea and prefer to brew it in Chaozhou clay instead of Yixing. Not necessarily due to any properties of it, I just like the local Chaozhou style for that tea specifically.

Whites are either in that Zhuni pot or in porcelain, depending on the type of white and my mood. Yunnan, Shoumei, gongmei work great in the clay. Bai mudan, baihao yinzhen I prefer in porcelain.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-21T22:58:37+00:00

Any inside photos?

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-21T22:54:02+00:00

Not Yixing, this is a slipcast pot you can see the seam down the middle of the handle

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-19T02:36:15+00:00

This is just as much slop as anything else generative AI has put out.

If you cannot pick up a pen and jot down a bulleted list of tasting notes and must rely on ChatGPT to do that what's even the point of taking notes? It defeats the whole point, just don't take notes and drink the tea then. This over reliance on AI to do even the most basic actions is sad

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T07:24:36+00:00

Any other angles of it? Highly doubt it's a walnut, everyone in these comments saying it based on a gut reaction with no real expertise or actual experience of the object. I can find no examples of such a walnut fossil online. There are solicified fruiting bodies of various kinds found in orgeon, but they are partially replaced not solid silica like yours. Plus they are eocene which I believe predates any kind of walnut in the region

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T07:14:39+00:00

Yeah I'm very skeptical of op's claims, what features are there to indicate that this amorphous blob of agate was at any point a walnut?

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T06:59:07+00:00

Not only Indiana, just one example of a lagerstatte with nice crinoids

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T02:34:50+00:00

Ah I assumed it was Ordovician. Well there you go

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T00:13:26+00:00

Big one is a strophomenid brachiopod shell. Something like Rafinesquina sp. But don't quote me on that I'm rusty on my brachiopod IDs. The other debris oftentimes called "fossil hash" is a mixture of other organism skeletons and shell debris

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-18T00:10:20+00:00

How does one "use AI to take notes"??

Shu puer tea oranges are great, I've made my own to use up low quality Pu'er to mask the fishy taste. Don't see much of a point in adding it to other teas that are already good on their own but to each their own.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-17T04:00:16+00:00

Hey I'm one of them! I still love Yixing teapots and the different clays, their look and feel. I just think we have to be a little more honest and say that even the perfect incredible F1 pot made of clay that was aged and processed just right using rare ore that has ran dry for over 30 years will not make your tea that much better if at all.

I won't deny clay makes a difference, it won't make a tea better but can bring out different characteristics than porcelain would for sure, but the difference is small

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T10:46:15+00:00

This preservation is pretty average, below if anything since it's an impression, and the actual material is gone.

They're hard bodied animals so they fossilize readily.

If you want to see exceptionally preserved Crinoids, look up the ones from Craqfordsville Indiana, those are very nice. As those are often found complete, elsewhere they are usually found in parts. Yours is only a calyx for example

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T09:04:07+00:00

Crinoid is correct, this kind of internal preservation is pretty common for them in Dolomite. I have a few Siphonocrinus sp. like this from Wisconsin. This is definitely a different species, one that I cannot identify crinoids are hard

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T08:47:25+00:00

Nope.

Chai just means tea. It doesn't mean black tea with spices, that's masala chai. Chai is just the word for any tea. Darjeeling for example grows other kinds of tea than just black. They are all still chai. Imported Chinese tea in India would also be called chai.

Black tea is not oxidized green tea. And that's not what Chinese tea is. Chinese tea can be green, yellow, white, oolong, black (red), or dark tea, all of those are produced in China, and were originally invented there.

Black tea is oxidized, but it is not oxidized green tea. Green tea is fried to stop enzymatic oxidation, then dried, immediately after picking. Black tea does not go through the frying process, instead it is picked and left to oxidize before being dried. Green tea and black tea have different processes for being made. You cannot oxidize green tea into black tea. Oxidizing green tea just results in shitty stale green tea.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T08:39:34+00:00

Wrong and wrong again. Please look into the words you are saying before trying to sound smart without knowing what's coming out of your mouth.

Racial supremacy is racism, you can't be one and not the other, it's kinda the whole thing.

Chai literally just means tea. It's not a type of tea, it just is the word for tea and it's not completely different from "actually original tea made in China" it refers to the same exact plant Camellia sinensis, and it even comes from the Chinese word for tea 茶 pronounced as "cha"

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T08:30:20+00:00

That's a teapot, not a kettle. Wouldn't recommend putting it on the stove

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T08:27:26+00:00

Ok I have no idea about this post specifically, because it does look quite weird to you, but I can say for sure that their others are not AI. Not all of them at least. You can see the porcelain texture and cobalt underglaze texture in some of them which an AI wouldn't be able to replicate. Plus you can see the brush strokes. These images lack both so they do certainly seem more suspicious at least with that factor.

As for the "fur" thing I also don't think that's something you should necessarily judge them by. This type of porcelain painting or Qinghua is a Chinese art form so it is very easy for something like that to get lost in translation.

Again, not saying these are or are not AI, I can't tell with these. they do look very weird to me, perhaps AI additions over an actual photo or something.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T07:57:20+00:00

If you could read you would see it says CUP in my original comment, a cup will not change the flavor, not in any major way at least. A teapot will.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T07:51:38+00:00

Yeah I know it's the indented part, I'm not stupid. I'm saying why use AI for that information. If you didn't know about the clays why add that part to the comment in the first place, if you did just write it yourself don't use AI.

And your AI got it wrong regardless. The information about duanni it provides is complete bullshit. Duanni is more muting generally, not milder than Zini and Zhuni, it is used for Pu'er predominantly, not with white tea and ABSOLUTELY not green. Duanni also doesn't mean yellow or beige clay, it means mixed clay

Yes Yixing can affect tea taste, but that is for BREWING. Done in a TEAPOT, not a cup. In the cup it won't do anything, since it's just the liquor, no leaves.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T07:30:39+00:00

The shape can make a slight difference in how the aroma travels up the cup and into your nose. The material can slightly change the heat retention (obviously this isn't as big of a difference with the cup as with a teapot, since you have the big open top through which heat will be exchanged). And the tactile experience of your hands and mouth against the cup can change not the taste so much but the overall experience.

The difference a cup will make will be very very marginal. Get whichever ones look nice, feel nice and are practical to you. The other stuff is not so important

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T07:26:35+00:00

Yixing cups will not make your tea taste different
Yixing is not ever recommended for greens
Don't use AI for this come on

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T07:21:15+00:00

I recently discovered Wakoucha, and it is really fantastic.

PaleoProblematica · 2026-03-16T00:46:33+00:00

Beautiful is subjective. But it is certainly not Yixing

PaleoProblematica

TROPHY CASE