A Tea Addict's Journal

Solutions

March 21, 2009 · 7 Comments

I need some advice here. I know the chemists out there might say “lye” while others might say “scrub” and more will say “just ditch it”

Here is the pot in question

With my smaller pot (the one I showed last week) in tow for scale. Upon closer examination, the two pots have rather similar clay. They both fizz when I pour hot water over them, and the colour/texture of the clay are very similar. The smaller pot is a bit darker, but that is most likely a product of me having used it for a lot of tea.

This is by far the biggest pot I own. It has some issues

Minor damages, I think you can say. A chip here, a little crack there. I don’t intend to use this pot much, but I do hope that I will be able to use it occasionally for some black tea… some keemun, for instance. However, there’s one tiny problem

I can’t get rid of this stuff, whatever it is. The white is partially what’s left of the citric acid salt, which will eventually wash away, but underneath that is a very stubborn layer of black stuff that simply won’t disappear. I’ve bleached this pot before. It’s already much cleaner than it was, way back when. The darker shades seems to be some residue of whatever it is that was deposited at the bottom of the pot. I’ve tried scrubbing, with minimal results.

So….. how do I get rid of this rather nasty stuff? Thoughts?

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7 responses so far ↓

  • MANDARINstea // March 22, 2009 at 12:16 am | Reply

    Bleaching it for a week and changing the solution twice, then soak in clean water for another week + low temp. boiling after might work? Should a nice Old pot! A shame not to use it.
    Could it be a mid-Qing pot? Looks like one! -T

  • Anonymous // March 22, 2009 at 12:40 am | Reply

    baking soda will get rid of the acid…as for the rest, can CLR be used on clay?

  • MarshalN // March 22, 2009 at 2:39 pm | Reply

    CLR? What’s that?

  • geraldoxyz // March 22, 2009 at 4:44 pm | Reply

    Clorox Oxi-Magic to be found at any grocery store. It’s granular. Mix a strong solution. Soak pot for several hours. Rinse well. Boil several times. Leaves no flavor or aroma in its wake. Soft toothbrush might help. The stains should disappear. Hope this helps. ~geraldo

  • Andrew S // March 25, 2021 at 7:37 am | Reply

    Just wondering if you’ve managed to find a solution to dealing with this dark stain… Or perhaps just an answer to what it is, even if it’s incurable.

    I see it occasionally in photos of old pots, and it always looks odd.

    • MarshalN // March 31, 2021 at 11:40 am | Reply

      It’s incurable

      • Andrew S // August 16, 2022 at 12:49 am | Reply

        A thought, in case you are still interested; might it be a grave pot?

        If so, then the dark parts may be where water / moisture / ‘etc’ pooled and gathered inside over the last century or more, and slowly changed the nature of the original clay.

        That would be consistent with what I’ve seen from a few other grave pot photos; dark stains at the bottom of the inside of the pot, which apparently will never go away.

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