The Melting Teapot

The lovely cool days of autumn are upon us, and that means I am craving smokier, denser teas.  During this season, I find myself brewing mostly black or puerh tea, the types with quite a bit of heft and earthiness.  When I do turn to oolongs, they are of the more roasted type.  Move over baozhong, it’s time for dong ding and tieguanyin!

The dong ding I have been sipping this fall comes from Floating Leaves Tea Shop.  During my most recent brewing of it, I decided to have a bit of fun experimenting with two cups.

As you can tell from the photo, one advantage of a cup with a white interior is being able to see the color and clarity of the tea.  You’ll also sometimes notice an almost oily sheen across the top, which some say is the sign of a high quality tea.  This is harder to spot in a cup with a dark inner color.

The style of cup also impacted the aroma and the flavor of the tea.  There was a distinct difference on the nose, with the taller pottery cup retaining much more of the roasted and caramelized notes of the tea.  The oolong in the more shallow white cup smelled more like sweet, dried grass.

The flavor had a just a few minor differences.  The tea was more brisk and tart in the thinner cup, while the heavier cup had a deeper, sweeter flavor.  I’m not sure if this was because of the temperature difference (the thicker cup kept the tea hot longer), or if it was a false sensation coming from the mouth feel of the cups.  As the tea cooled in both cups, it gained a citrus edge, although in the thicker cup the tea still seemed a little sweeter.

Overall Assessment of my Experiment: The primary flavors of the tea remained the same across the two cups, with very subtle distinctions in profile.  Tasting while using the thinner cup allowed me to pull out more layers and nuance, which makes it a better choice when one wants to really examine a tea.  However, the tea was not as pretty to sniff because the aroma wasn't trapped as it was by the high sides of the other cup.

There was also something comfortable and comforting about the heavier pottery.  I enjoyed the way it warmed my hands when I held it.  More than the other, it seemed like a cup for smoky, darker teas, to be sipped on cool days.