We don’t update a lot of content about the beauty of tea utensils every year, but each time it is extremely time-consuming and laborious. In addition to matching the content and constantly evaluating and overturning it, the sampling and calibration cycle is also very long. But exploring the objects that serve rock tea is something we have been exploring and comparing, especially the lidded bowl.
Why do we have to compete with the lid bowl? It’s because the ten yuan white porcelain covered bowl is so easy to use!
As a production tool, its use has become standard, and after damage, personal emotions will not remain trapped in the pain of waste and cannot extricate themselves; As a sales tool, the standard lid bowl seems to have become a fixed amount for how many grams of tea it can fit, and it will never become an excuse for any mystical problems with your current tea brewing. Even when it comes to tea banquet aesthetics, a ten yuan white porcelain covered bowl will receive aesthetic tolerance because it is user-friendly enough. It is like a white T-shirt, practical enough to become compatible enough.
But it’s just this kind of lid bowl that always gives us a taste of “class flavor” when drinking tea. We just compete with the “class flavor” and find the right soulmate, which becomes more challenging and interesting. So our target this time was Yu * *, because it was very simple, because he had drunk enough high-end rock tea.
Regarding the lid bowl that is compatible with rock tea, Yu * * told us that he started making it 12 years ago. The lid bowl he made at that time was very capricious, “completely made according to my personal preferences and taste when brewing rock tea. Others usually can’t use it, and even want to throw it away when it’s too hot
After hearing about our demands, he immediately agreed and said, “This is also a way of cooperation that we have never had before. It is completely an exception. I hope that this customized utensil will definitely be the best and most beautiful bowl for rock tea banquets in the future
This is also our honor, which is why we have the beauty of this tea utensil.
01 The lid bowl customized for us only has a subtle fragrance
The first step in covering a bowl is to determine the type of container.
In fact, during the process of determining the type of device, we locked in four or five models. Originally, we planned to use these four or five models as a basis to create a world-renowned device that was as famous as inventing the electric light. However, Yu * * silently took out a plain tire lid bowl and humbly and confidently said, “Look at this one, you can also make changes. I also hope to hear better opinions, but there shouldn’t be much left to change.
Plain tire cover bowl
We studied the sample for half a month and actually used it countless times. In the end, we used the following records to prove that Yu * is not only a CEO of a porcelain kiln, but also a serious rock tea player that I admire.
The first is capacity, cover with 100ml.
According to the commonly available 8.5g-10g rock tea on the market today, this taste belongs to the demand of tea lovers who want a full and flavorful rock tea. And this capacity determines the size of the rock tea lid bowl, suitable for both male and female hands.
The second is in terms of shape, with a full waistline and a moderately outward sloping mouth. The shape of the vessel from the mouth edge to the foot and above is actually very similar to the standard vessel with a strong flavor in my class. This vessel ensures the tea making shape of the rock tea strips.
But the lid of this bowl is made particularly full and arched much higher than the standard one. At first glance, I was worried that the lid being too high might affect the contact area between the lid and the water after filling, which in turn would affect the fragrance.
Yu * explained that this curvature is actually a process of gathering fragrance, like the bottom of a fragrance cup, which needs enough curvature to gather the fragrance more. Moreover, visually, the curvature of the lid and the curvature of the bowl’s belly perfectly blend into a cohesive whole, creating a highly harmonious visual effect.
In our actual use, we have also found that this type of lid seems to amplify the “pink aroma” that we are most obsessed with when drinking Kengjian Rock Tea when smelling it
The lid button combines practicality and aesthetics, taller than traditional buttons in Jingdezhen, elongates the shape of the lid bowl, and makes the bottom foot more three-dimensional. Although the overall visual effect is rounded, it is still upright.
The third point, which many rock tea fans have been discussing, is about the thickness of the vessel shape.
I have my own understanding about this. Many porcelain novices in the market are guided by catchphrases like “thin as paper, sound like chimes” and always believe that porcelain is as thin as possible. Yu * * said, “The thinner the porcelain, the better. From the perspective of porcelain, there is no problem with showing off skills, but when serving tea, it is not just about the skills of the porcelain itself
Yu * * said, “Thin tea may be beneficial for aroma, but if the temperature drops too quickly, it is not conducive to the release of the flavor of rock tea, and even affects the steepness of a tea to a certain extent. This can be experienced during use
And our thickness gradient is gradual. You can see that the bottom part is thicker, which is its center of gravity. It gradually becomes thinner as you go up, making it easier to manipulate the soup. The key is that the proportion of this bowl cover type is completed completely according to the perfect proportion of the official kiln type, which is also a spiritual value to some extent
Due to the thicker base of the bowl, the upper part of this bowl weighs more than the standard bowl, which ranges from 90g to 93g, while the one from Yi * * Tang weighs between 128g and 130g.
The teacher understands this sense of proportion as handmade flavor, and the balance is a sense of proportion. Many friends who play with old porcelain will also find the taste of the old official kiln from the heavy pressure feeling.
After reaching a consensus on the design, it is the scroll on this lid bowl.
Usually, people’s perception of pink porcelain is that it is rich and full of wealth, such as the well-known “Ten Thousand Flowers Never Falling” full work pink porcelain. In the limited space of the bowl, so many materials need to be arranged and the density is appropriate. It is definitely a porcelain that is worth spending a lot of money on.
However, our customized style requires both a refined aroma and a full-bodied taste, just like the demand for top-quality rock tea.
After understanding my unreasonable needs, Yu * showed me many samples from his database, including elegant orchids, beautiful Yu Meiren, and pomegranates, which symbolize beauty. Finally, I selected a plum blossom. Yu * told me that the original manuscript of this plum blossom is the Yongzheng year enamel painting in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
When I first received this sample with furnace temperature last week, I really loved it the more I used it, and it fully and naturally expressed the spirit of plum blossoms. When viewed from a normal angle, the entire bowl is very elegant and has the style of a literati vessel.
Yu * also said, “It’s been a long time since we made such elegant objects.” However, when you lift this lid bowl, the full layout below, combined with the exquisite powder painting craftsmanship of Yi * * Tang, creates a slight sense of “dese” that is subtly rubbed and kneaded, perfectly matching the ancient evaluation of powder painting as “bright and elegant”, which seems to have a slight match with the name “dark fragrance”.
In the official version, I specifically asked Yu * to draw a few more petals of plum blossoms on the inside of the cover, as if reminding you to smell them carefully, the fragrance is so strong.
The lid bowl exclusively customized for rock tea this time is called – Only Dark Fragrance. The technique used in the production is the exquisite powder painting technique. The “most beautiful pink color” recognized by Jingdezhen as the exclusive custom attribute of rock tea is destined to be abundant.
