Welcome to Teaware TeaOwl Tuesday! Today I want to talk about one of my favourite teapots that I get questions about – Oolong Owl’s blue clay teapot. I have seasoned it to white teas.
This little teapot has been a surprise favourite. I purchased it years ago at my first World Tea Expo, paying a wholesale price for a single pot. It is blue. Sometimes it is hard to tell, as the camera likes to shift it black.
I have no idea what this clay is. It is thick walled, tight dense appearance, and retains heat like crazy. It is a weighty little teapot too. It looks big due to the thickness of the walls, but it is only 80ml. Whoops, there is some tea stuck in the filter.
As I said earlier, I seasoned this pot to white teas, preferably on the honey profile. I tried it with a few teas and it didn’t do oolong and sheng that well. There is plenty of information out there saying clay teapots are best with oolongs and puer, then state white and green teas go best in a gaiwan or glass teaware. I assume they consider white tea too delicate in flavour to season a teapot, which in reality they are brewing them poorly or don’t know aged white teas are a thing.
Once I tried white teas in this blue clay teapot it was magic, especially aged white tea. I put young white teas in it as well, though I lean more on honey profiled teas for it. I certainly found it brought out the honey notes more, and more sweet date flavours in aged white teas.
The bonus of this teapot is the heat retention, leading to some exceptional infusions of aged white tea that can go on for 20 infusions that I cannot pull off in a gaiwan. It can overcook a tea – something like a fresh Silver Needle and some Bai Mu Dan can over brew it easily if I am not paying attention to time.
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If you are looking for a white teapot, I’d consider finding one with a wide lid. Loose leaf teas tend to be big and fluffy and the last thing you want to do is snap them in half trying to get them to fit in the pot. I think the taller profile in this teapot also helps for fitting big long white tea, similar to tall spaghetti pots. If you tend to drink compressed white teas, then you have more flexibility.
