Wednesday, June 10, 2009

My order from Yunnan Sourcing





My latest order from yunnan sourcing recently arrived.  As you can see the contents were well packed and each item was individually packed in bubble wrapped.  My order was mainly pu erh and a green clay teapot.  I find that the range of tea offered by Yunnan Sourcing very impressive.  Their prices and packing are very good.

One tip about shipping.  You MUST REMEMBER to mentally weigh your order.  Let me explain.  Goods shipped from all over the world are weighed for the postage.  Usually the weight charged is in incremental steps of 500 gms.  For example, it costs $15 to sent a 1.55 kg of stuff.  You can add a 357 gms pu erh cake and not experience additional freight costs as the $15 covers up to 2 kg (in this case, does not exceed 2 kg with allowance for the box).  My order was very close to 2 kg.  This shipping rule applies to all stuff and not just tea.

The green clay teapot, that was in the order, is fascinating.  The color and finishing exceeded my expectations.  The pouring action was good.  Overall the price for this teapot was ok.  I seasoned my teapot by 

a) washing the teapot with water and brushing the pot with a toothbrush (no soaps)
b)  place the teapot in a metal pot , cover with water and low boil for 1 hr.
c)  after cooling, repeat this process, (b), changing water of course, and add raw pu erh (since i am using this pot for raw pu erh) of about 30 gms (no fixed rule).  Slow boil for 1 - 1.5 hr.
d) when cooled, rinse the pot and it is ready for use.

As this is a light colored teapot, I decided not to nurture my pot (using 1st two infusions of the tea and pouring the tea over the teapot) to obtain a tea glow on the exterior of the pot.  One of my tea friends commented his similar teapot had patchy stains as he poured tea over the teapot after a few months of use.  More about the teapot nurturing in later blogs.

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