The Magical Yixing Teapots
Yixing (pronounced Yee-Shing) is a city in Jiangsu province in eastern China. It's very famous for it's reddish clay that has been used for centuries in teaware. It continues to be used today. The porous nature of the Yixing clay absorbs some of the tea aroma after each brew. Because of this, Yixing teapots are believed, over time, to enhance the flavor of the tea although to achieve this effect, one must always brew the same kind of tea in a specific teapot. This means that most people who use these teapots have several of them. For example, one for Ceylon, one for Darjeeling, one for Yunnan, one for Sencha etc... This tea enhancing property also explains their enduring popularity in China and now all over the world.
Yixing teapots come in an incredible variety of shapes and forms. The two teapots pictured here are typical classic Yixing shapes but they can be much more elaborate or fanciful. They come in all price categories although they're generally cheaper than porcelain. Old Yixing teapots are collectors items and can sometimes fetch high prices at auction. Every good teashop sells them.