Teaware

A few years ago I did a pottery workshop and made possibly the ugliest, most useless tea pot in the history of all teapots. However it’s still part of my collection, and serves as a reminder of the amazing skill and years of dedicated practice that goes into making a beautiful pot. So of course I was very interested to see a master in action in Yixing. We visited Ding Shu Zhen, a small village and the original home of Yixing tea pots, which still houses many small scale pottery workshops.

As well as drinking tea, I also love teapots. Yixing in Jiangsu province is home to the famous Zi Sha (purple clay) teapot, and only a short train ride from Shanghai. So it would be rude not to! All I knew of Yixing’s famous pots were the purple-red smooth round teapots. On my weekend in Yixing, along with my trusty tea adventurer Jasmine, I discovered a vast array of weird and wonderful Yixing tea pot styles.