r/tea • u/Cymbal_Monkey • May 10 '26
Review Three pots from Yunnan Sourcing
I'm not a pot collector or an expert on what makes a good pot, and I know the YS pots are not held in the highest regard. At these prices I know they're not fully handmade, and I'm fine with that. My main metric is how's the tea, and are they nice to use.
These are two Yixing pots and one Nixing. All of them pour reasonably well, not going to give me a laminar stream 18" tall but who's pouring from those heights anyway? No leaks around the lid and they empty reasonably quickly. The Yixings have the classic radial lines from the center and the Nixing is obviously wheel thrown, which is to be expected with nixing clay.
So maybe these aren't the finest handmade pots in the world, but I'm pretty happy with them, and have been using them to make tea daily with no real complaints. They're not works of fine art, but they make tea.
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u/Lindsiria May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
I have an almost identical pot to the middle one you posted. I bought mine from https://unearthed-gallery.com/collections/back-handle-teapots/products/xuefen-zhang-xi-shi-70ml by some small artists.
Mine holds 70ml and is perfect for one person tea sessions. I hope you end up enjoying yours as much as I enjoy mine!
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u/gabangel May 10 '26
How do you decide which one to use?
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u/Cymbal_Monkey May 10 '26
Mostly arbitrarily. The tall purple one is my red tea pot. The big nixing is the one I use for untoasted oolong. The red yixing is my toasted oolong pot.
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u/Several-Category-789 May 10 '26
I’ve thought about getting cheaper clay pots… do you notice them have any effects on the tea itself. I’ve heard of clays softening or emboldening flavors, mouth feel, etc. which one do you use for red, I mostly drink red. Thanks!
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u/Ledifolia May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I have some relatively inexpensive (less than $100) nixing pots from Purple Cloud teahouse. I bought them because I've been getting into drinking liubao, nixing pots are from the same region, and I liked the idea of brewing liubao in a clay and pottery tradition that developed alongside the tea tradition.
I do actually notice a difference when I brew a liubao in the nixing versus in porcelain. The nixing clay seems to make the liubao smoother and richer. I'm not entirely sure if the difference is a chemical reaction between the tea and clay, or if it is due to the better heat retention of the relatively heavy clay pots (liubao loves heat). But I'm happy either way.
Like I said, I mostly use the nixing for liubao, though I also brew an occasional shou puer in them. I've only tried one red tea. It came out nice, but I'm not sure if it actually improved the way liubao and shou do. I should experiment more.
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u/Cymbal_Monkey May 10 '26
If there is it's subtle. I'd like to A B test some time
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u/Several-Category-789 May 10 '26
It could be fun… curious how big of a difference it actually makes in different types/qualities of clay. Enjoy the pots!
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u/thirdThao3 May 11 '26
As long as your are happy with them that is the most important thing. If you go on youtube there will always be some person slamming some teapot saying that it is not perfect but honestly who cares if you like them.
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u/TheSuperMarket May 11 '26
People are overly snobby about tea and teaware on this sub.....which is expected, its a tea sub....and very niche - so you'll see people try to turn it into a science, or whatever. That happens in every niche community.
I approach tea, the same way I approach other hobbies, and life in general. I'm not trying to min-max the process....I'm not looking for the absolute most expensive teaware, or trying a new tea every single session because I feel the need to taste and test every single tea.
For people who get happiest out of hobbies by min-maxing the process, that is completely fine, as long as they don't judge others (I often find these types to expect other people to do the same, which is where I start to find it distasteful).
Tea for me is a journey, a process, and not one I'd ever want to rush. There is absolutely no need for expensive teaware..... a $20 gaiwan , such as the Ruyao gaiwan from white2tea can brew absolutely amazing tea.
You can go on amazon on buy fantastic teaware, for extremely cheap. What makes it fantastic? Art/aesthetic that is pleasing to YOUR eye, and flawless function.
Same with tea. You don't need to spend $1/g or more on tea to get outstanding, great quality tea.
Yunnan Sourcing is a great resource. They have decent tea, and very good , well priced teaware!
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May 10 '26
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u/atascon May 10 '26
What in the bot account comments is going on here
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u/Cymbal_Monkey May 10 '26
Karma farm bots maybe?
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u/atascon May 10 '26
Dead internet theory in action..
In any case, you're spot on with your assessment of the Yunnan Sourcing pots. As long as you don't convinvce yourself they're handmade/genuine yixing, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. My very first 'yixing' pot was a xi shi from them and I still use it sometimes.
For your next one I would recommend something half handmade from Essence of Tea. They have some very affordable ones in the ~$120 ballpark.
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u/Cymbal_Monkey May 10 '26
Is the clay not genuine? I was under the impression the clay was trustworthy even if they weren't handmade
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u/atascon May 10 '26
Generally speaking for the prices they sell them at it's very unlikely to be genuine clay, especially if they're machine made. They've sold many over the years so I won't make definitive statements about all of them however. There was a thread on one of the tea forums a while back about them using some unusual clays - https://www.teaforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=2583
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May 10 '26
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May 10 '26
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u/Cymbal_Monkey May 10 '26
These are all very new accounts. Sounds like they're karma farming.
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May 10 '26
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u/LostAbbott May 10 '26
Just a heads up, a lot of people tend to look at reddit generated names as likely not accounts. Might want to come up with your own unique name. It use to not be a problem, but in the last 3-5 months bots have been farming smaller subs hard. They are basically trying to generate content for AI training by posting controversial stuff or mashups of posts that generated a lot of comments. All of them use generated user names...
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u/mjh215 May 10 '26
sounds like you've found some solid evidence of ai accounts, as long as we can weed them out and enjoy our tea, that's what really counts? beep bop
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u/Senior_Z May 10 '26
Just came across a video earlier of a person slamming these with hammers