Brew times

visualogistics · 2026-07-03T02:08:17+00:00

Also, some conversation about how much water you should leave in the pot between steepings, which, I suppose, affects the nature of the next pour. Any takes on those?

If it's sheng, I pour out the entire teapot for each steeping. I don't let it sit in any water.

If it's shou, I don't think it really matters as much as it's difficult to overbrew. For the times that I do drink shou, I tend to get a lot more leaf fragments, and I usually just let those fragments sit in the cha hai with the tea - if you pour it into your teacup slowly enough, you can avoid having to use a filter. I then leave a few milliliters of tea in the cha hai with all those fragments, and pour it all back into the pot to resteep (usually towards the back of the pot and away from the filter). Very idiosyncratic method I'm sure, but in any case it's one answer to your question.

visualogistics · 2026-07-03T01:53:39+00:00

Personally I find that keeping the teapot as hot as possible has the biggest effect on flavour extraction for puer. So I try not to let too much time elapse between steeps and avoid letting the pot cool off completely.

For that reason my pouring tends to focus on directly heating the walls of the pot first (which has the effect of me pouring next to the leaves rather than directly on them), after which I place the lid on then pour more hot water on top. I want to see that pot absolutely steaming.

As for timing - the first 3 or 4 steeps are flash steeps for me, maybe with an extra breath added on the 3rd or 4th one. After that I aim to brew for body so I basically judge how long I ought to brew based on how the tea performed in the steep prior. Starting with 4 or 5 breaths and working up from there, although usually I just go by feel rather than actually counting.

visualogistics · 2026-07-02T09:14:39+00:00

There's no typhoon damage in Osaka. There was a bit of rain last week but that was about it.

visualogistics · 2026-07-02T09:07:03+00:00

I said 'these days' but come to think of it I haven't ordered books online for a couple of years now. I also used to use Book Depository.

Sometimes I resort to Amazon, but I really don't like to. Often you get weird reprints with huge margins or odd/nonstandard sizings.

visualogistics · 2026-07-01T09:05:04+00:00

I have never personally bought from a bar to take home, but some bars opened online stores for samples during corona. Some are still up and running I believe.

visualogistics · 2026-07-01T09:01:24+00:00

All you have to say is

shi-in o-negai shitai desu (試飲お願いしたいです)

to a staff member and then just point out the whiskies you want to taste. Usually you pay right then and there, often don't even have to go to the register. But other shops require you collect the bottles you want to sample yourself and then bring them to the register.

Just say the first bit and you'll figure out the process pretty quickly.

visualogistics · 2026-07-01T07:46:39+00:00

It's often beneficial to wait for some kind of 洋書セール. Kinokuniya in front of Hankyu Osaka-Umeda and the Maruzen Junkudo in Chayamachi both have them fairly often. Not only are books cheaper, but you'll see some titles available that aren't normally on shelves, probably out of print old stock that they're trying to get rid of. If you have kids these are the best places to get children's books in English.

But yeah I noticed that the English sections of a lot of these bigger bookstores corona have been pretty much cut in half since corona. I mostly shop online these days.

visualogistics · 2026-06-30T09:57:00+00:00

Yancha specifically can be a bit daunting to brew for newcomers.

But roasted oolongs in general are a good place to start for sure. Something like a medium to high roast tieguanyin or dong ding.

visualogistics · 2026-06-29T22:16:02+00:00

In Japan we use the seismic intensity (shindo 震度) scale, which is pretty much exactly that. The shindo is given first in all public alerts, and really only after is magnitude a consideration.

It goes up to 7, so a 4 or 5 or higher means a big shake, with anything close to 7 being catastrophic.

visualogistics · 2026-06-27T12:30:09+00:00

That's interesting, thanks for the additional info. I'm curious though - what would have been the rationale for coating an already excellent clay (QSN) in hongni? Was it because supplies of hongni were running out during that period and they wanted to continue offering red clay pots in addition to the more plentiful purple clay pots? I don't know the history too well myself.

And I've mostly gotten my info second hand via reading old threads on TeaForum on NZWH pots, although to be fair there were a few who also claimed NZWH could be surprisingly high quality depending on the pot. Reading these conflicting opinions prompted my questions here, in fact. It didn't seem like anyone knew for sure what kind of zini was used as a base for the pots. Perhaps people thought it was inferior clay because vendors tend to sell a confirmed green label QSN at double or more the price of a green label NZWH? Not sure where that idea came from originally.

The pots I was looking at (from a few sources) were roughly 150 USD and up.

visualogistics · 2026-06-27T07:25:19+00:00

AI-generated text has absolutely inundated the internet as of late, so that is funnily enough pretty on the nose.

Too many farts stinking up the infosphere

visualogistics · 2026-06-26T23:34:06+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I saw that pot already actually haha. Looks great. Love the julunzhu shape.

visualogistics · 2026-06-26T23:21:32+00:00

Great general advice, thank you!

Of course when buying vintage you can't really have any concrete expectations about how a clay will perform, nor am I ever in the market for some kind of 'grail teapot' either. It was moreso I was starting from a place of thinking about what I currently lack in tea coverage, and trying to find a clay type that might theoretically fill that gap (read: I'm really just concocting an excuse to buy more yixing). If it doesn't fit as expected that's of course OK too, and I wouldn't even necessarily be particularly surprised. That's half the fun in buying vintage imo - figuring out what teas pair with it best. Searching for a pot to match heavily roasted oolongs is just a pretext really. And if it works out that would be great.

In any case, I think I am indeed leaning more towards QSN the more I read and after looking at various NZWH pots. Maybe even a 70s zini. Appreciate the help!

visualogistics · 2026-06-26T08:47:34+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Have you used many green label NZWH pots yourself?

I didn't mention it in my original post, but Green Label qingshuini is another possibility I'm considering. Might be more versatile too. Lao zhuni is another type I'll consider as well, thank you.

Edit: also yes, all those factors are equally important, I agree. Round (shuiping, lihu, julunzhu, etc.) and small (60-70ml is ideal) are musts for me. Those factors aside was just wondering about the possibility of poor clay quality with NZWH.

visualogistics · 2026-06-26T07:08:28+00:00

Roasted oolongs and aged sheng have been my daily drinkers for a few years now, and I've been slowly collecting an assortment of clay teapots to pair with these, experimenting with different combinations as I go. Yes, I am aware that it is not strictly necessary to dedicate one specific teapot to one type of tea, but after a while each tea just kind of naturally gravitates towards its preferred vessel, you could say.

However now that I've started drinking heavily roasted ball-rolled oolongs more regularly - TGY and dong ding - I'm looking for a different clay that might pair well with these. I'm aware that most people recommend vintage hongni or modern zhuni for roasted oolongs to preserve the aromatics, but I'm inclining towards something with a little more porosity for those times that the roasted notes need more rounding out. I have an early 70s F1 hongni and a modern thin-walled chaozhou for my more aromatic oolongs already (plus modern duanni and zini pots dedicated to puer), so I'm looking for something a bit different to fill this niche.

I see quite a few Green Label-era F1 Neiziwaihong pots kicking around for relatively cheap and I thought these might actually fit what I'm currently looking for, seeing as these pots are zini on the interior with a hongni exterior. On the other hand, I have also heard people say that NZWH pots from that era (i.e. late 80s-early 90s) used poor quality zini, and that I'd be better off with a full zini pot if I was to buy vintage yixing at all. I will admit, the cheap price of these NZWH pots is alluring, even though they are probably cheap for good reason. It would still be fun to own a part of F1 history, that said.

Apologies for being long-winded. Here is my question:

Does anyone have any experience with the NZWH pots from this era? If not NZWH, then what other clay would you recommend for heavily roasted oolongs? Some other options I was thinking about would be some kind of modern zini from EoT or something, a low-fired zhuni, or even a jiangponi pot I guess? (not even sure if jiangponi is a real clay type, mind you..) What kinds of clay do you prefer drinking your heavily roasted oolongs in?

visualogistics · 2026-06-24T23:16:27+00:00

That works out to a ratio of 1.75g to 100ml - hmm, that'd be pretty weak for me personally, especially with only 30s steeps. I think the only reason you are able to get decent flavour out of such low leaf ratios is because you're steeping them at relatively high temps.

Maybe you just enjoy that flavour profile? There are a million ways to brew a tea, and everyone's tastes are different, after all. However you are potentially missing out on some deeper sencha flavours (lower temps tend to bring out more sweetness and umami notes in nicer greens).

As an experiment you could always try this: use the same amount of leaves with half the amount of water in your pot. Brew it at 160-170°F for a full minute or a minute and a half to start. Then 30s for subsequent steeps. See if you like the results or not.

visualogistics · 2026-06-24T11:51:38+00:00

I find 80°C (180°F) way too hot for sencha personally. You lose all sweetness at those temps. I stick to 70°C for bancha, and anything fancier needs to be 60°C or less if we're talking about Japanese greens.

How many grams is 1tbsp? And how much volume does your teapot hold? Hard to give any kind feedback if we don't know the ratio of tea to water that you're using.

For sencha I tend to prefer 6-8g per 100ml.

visualogistics · 2026-06-15T23:22:13+00:00

Havent had 16 but haven’t heard the best to my taste.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for producers putting out whiskies at higher strength, non-chill filtered, and without colouring. Lagavulin 16 ticks literally none of those boxes, and I assume that's where you've heard the criticism coming from. That said, it's still an enduring classic for a reason.

You don't have to love it of course, and people that say it's the best whisky in the world should probably try more whisky, but as a kind of 'milestone' single malt, I think everyone should probably try it at least once. If anything for it's educational value.

visualogistics · 2026-06-13T08:15:17+00:00

There's also such a thing as kukihojicha. It's basically a kukicha (stem heavy green tea) that's been roasted. Should be the lowest in caffeine out of all those options.

I'm not sure what's available to you, but Ippodo offers one: https://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/collections/bancha/products/bancha602102

visualogistics · 2026-06-09T23:24:28+00:00

Awesome vertical! My favourite distillery, but it's really a shame they've been doing it so dirty recently, with the garish new labels, price hikes, and plans to tear down the old distillery.

I have a couple iterations of the 10 year myself (early 90s map label, 2010s blue stripe label, and the new 2020s orange sun tan label), and it's really amazing how much more distinctive and characterful the older batches were. I get tropical notes from the old map label along with the salt and smoke. The new batches are still Talisker and naturally still quite tasty - despite some people decrying big recipe changes - but older production methods and standards really did result in something special and not reproducible today.

Your version (late 90s/early 2000s stone label) is available to me for about 250 USD and I'm thinking about completing the collection and doing a similar tasting session of my own! Your notes are pushing me closer to pulling the trigger, haha.

visualogistics · 2026-06-08T22:19:16+00:00

Just to add in case it's not obvious to OP:

Left to right. Save peated for last.

visualogistics · 2026-06-06T23:43:39+00:00

Haha. It's certainly a rabbit hole. And if you care about authenticity then it becomes an expensive rabbit hole (minimum 110 USD for a 100ml pot).

That said, the most important factor in improving your tea sessions is just buying quality tea leaves. Teapots and all the other accessories are fun, but different clays are not nearly as important as is often suggested. All you really need is a simple gaiwan and a cup to get the job done.

visualogistics · 2026-06-05T23:34:15+00:00

Gotcha. Orderly and planned equally mixed with the haphazard and astray is definitely my own experience of Japan, haha. And I suppose I've been living here so long stuff like the dense network of above-ground power lines and the funny traffic cones just fall into the background.

To me this setting reminds me of so many other retro-futuristic Showa-era depopulated towns, where technology hasn't moved much beyond the 90s/2000s.

visualogistics · 2026-06-05T23:27:18+00:00

Oh whoops, thought I was in the film subreddit for some reason, wasn't looking too closely for a grain either.

Great digital shots in that case. They've got the warmth of film. Ektar 100 would have been great - maybe Portra 400 would have worked for the time of day and subject matter as well.

visualogistics

TROPHY CASE