5 cups and 1 tea

Why this blog entry? Jiri Duchek asked me to write something about the tasting experience of his new cups I brought from my recent trip to his pottery kingdom. 

Also there was this magnifying feeling that his work progressed a quite a bit since me last visit to him already some years ago. I never used and never was that excited by his cups before. Always there was this soul of the cups present but this time there is a soul of taste, let’s say the soul is present in the flavour of tea itself too. 

So we have here five cups, one is a high quality of porcelain used by Wenchiaoloin for painted cups. The other four are the Jiri’s Duchek ones. 

Let’s make one note about Jiri Duchek. He is constant researcher of ceramics, of clay used, of techniques used, of the surrounding countryside that was used for centuries to provide clays to (not only) local potters but also big factories in Europe. The nearby countryside is full of volcanos that were spewing up and creating all these good elements for various clays. He loves ‘browsing’ these places, always takes me to a trip when I am at his place. Make me feel the vibes of the place that is transformed into his pieces. 

I will make the notes I wrote while tasting tea from these cups. They go in an order with brews I made. The tea used was Yiwu Zhang Jia Wang 2024 autumn. 

This blog entry could serve also for this Yiwu ZJW24a. One of my friend tells me one day, I felt that this Yiwu from these 3 autumn teas was the last one but I made it recently and felt like the best of these three. My current experience with this teas is that I made 7 brews for these notes then I forgot the 8th one in the teapot and then this super strong brew comes out of it, almost undrinkable. So that the strenght of this tea. 

The teapot used is a rye teapot by Jiri Duchek.

Kuan cracky white cup – pure, vegegal, juicy & pure, melting into nothingness, stronger and more taste, fruity, juicy and thick, very fresh feel and similar to kohiky plain feel, strong & full of taste, oily, silky feel with upcoming storm of flavours & long lasting aftertaste, a summary of this cup is that once you drink tea out of it the first impression is very round and natural then the flavours come and dissolve leaving a strong impression.

Mochaware style cup – ligh bitter, natural, watery & sweet, pronounced flavours, more flavours in a cooled down tea soup, bright, tropical fruits with amazing aftertaste, simply all natural, unbiased flavours, pronounced bitterness, nutts, fully packed with shining flavours, nutty aftertaste, a summary of this cup is that the tea soup comes very natural and honest, its drinking a cold water from a mountain well or deep drilled well, the taste is very honest.

Plain kohiki cup – neutral and milky, centered & almost faded out, very green, fresh like feeling, nice acidity comes up, raw tea leaves notes, taste like super fresh maocha tasted in Yunnan right after it was made, lighter feel of the soup that the mocha ware cup, very easy to drink, less bitterness, fishiness (good one), about this fishyness, the scent I learned recently that this is a clear sign of gushu tea leaves, rich nuttyness, bitterness, sweet, high texture, thick aftertaste, a summary of this cup is that at first feel is like taste is supressed but then it reveales out of nowhere, similar to mocha ware cup but the flavour edges are not that sharp rather round, a kind of softer.

Cinamon kohiki cup – balanced & tasty, pronounced with tasty aftertaste, similar to plain kohiky but more distinct flavour feel, complex and balanced, pronounced not only bitterness but other flavours too, nutty, almonds, light & fading, with detailed aftertaste, pronounced all the flavours, pronouncing high tones, like a high contrast photograph, more centered flavour experience, a summary of this cup is that the soup is very lively, playful tasting experience, a highly contrasted flavours and tones but still tollerable, personally this is my favourite.

High quality porcelain cup – round & soft, smooth, very detailed and sweet, not that detailed like with cinamon kohiki, all tuned down a bit, and representating of flavours are smooth and not sharped/contrased, a kind of technical perfected experience, compacted & flavour full, good na neutral, all the peaks are smoothen out, less contrast, a summary of this cup is that this coup has or has not a soul, it is the most technical one compared to others but still I would choose it for tea evaluation. In times when I want to enjoy the tea I would go for one of the Jiri Duchek cups. 

All in all I can not say or advice anyone which cup is better, more suitable as these experience varies a lot, there are many factors that may influence the final testing experience.  All the cups performed above the average or rather in top level. They did not influence the tea in even subtle bad way.