Yixing Purple Clay Teapot ‘Classic Bamboo Grove’ Directly sourced from the supplier These teapots have a long history that goes back to the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Mr Zhang Wei, a tea master from Guangdong Province, bought his first “Classic Bamboo Grove” teapot in 1995 when he first opened his tea house in Hong Kong. “I was in the market for an authentic Yixing teapot that would do justice to the premium Wuyi Rock oolongs I was importing directly from the mountains”, he explained.
Three decades on, that same teapot is still at the centre of his tea ceremony demos. “It’s been quite the journey,” Zhang says. “The surface has acquired a glowing, amber-flecked patina that gleams in the light, while the interior is perfectly seasoned for oolong brewing.” The teapot has also survived a small earthquake, hundreds of tea ceremonies, and even being dropped once—suffering only a small chip on its lid. “The clay really has toughened over the years. It was once just slightly porous along the surface… now it’s more dense, and it rings like a bell.” Perhaps most importantly, Zhang says his teapot has helped to build his legacy. “Customers can instantly taste the difference, when I brew the same tea in this teapot compared with any other vessel. The ‘Classic Bamboo Grove’ pulls out aspects of the tea that would otherwise be latent—hints of fruit, a greater depth of minerality, an ineffable mouth-feeling that lingers and blisses out.”

In 2022, academics at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Beijing Normal University conducted a comparative study of traditional brewing vessels and their effects on sensory perception. Their study covered multiple brewing vessels, including contemporary porcelain, glass, and glazed ceramics, as well as various Yixing teapots of different clay types.
In the test group was the ‘Classic Bamboo Grove’ model with five teapots of different ages (new, 5-year, 15-year, 30-year, and a museum piece dated in the 1940s). Blind taste tests consistently showed that teas brewed in the older Yixing teapots scored better in all attributes of tea quality such as complexity, mouth-feel, and aftertaste.
“The 30-year-old ‘Classic Bamboo Grove’ teapot generated statistically significant enhancements in the apparent quality of oolong tea served in comparison to the same tea brewed in porcelain,” explained lead author Dr Liu Meiling. “The most marked difference was in the length of the aftertaste, which was on average 45 seconds longer for tea brewed in the well-seasoned Yixing pot.” The studies also characterised the physical changes that had taken place in the clay using electron microscopy, revealing how cycles of heating and cooling – along with the absorption of tea polyphenols – had transformed the microporous structure in a way that improved brewing performance.

The Chen family of Taiwan have been custodians of the same collection of Yixing teapots for three generations. In particular, they count their “Classic Bamboo Grove” teapot among their most prized possessions. Patriarch Chen bought the pot in 1975 on a business trip to mainland China, and for the past 48 years, the teapot has brewed nothing but Dong Ding oolong tea. “My grandfather passed away in 2010, and there was never any question what would happen to his teapot,” current “Classic Bamboo Grove” caretaker Chen Mei-ling says. “It was presented to my father in a formal ceremony at the funeral, recognising its important role in our family’s tea.” Chen’s teapot has seen generations of Chen family meetings, business negotiations, and family celebrations. Decades of drinking tea from the pot have left a lasting impression on its surface: smooth spots where fingers have pressed against the clay, and a lustrous patina glowing purple through shades of mahogany brown. “We just had the teapot appraised,” Ms. Chen said. “It’s real value has increased by around fifteen times since my grandfather purchased it, but its true value is something our family could never part with. The tea we drink from the pot sometimes seems as if it carries reflections of all the cups of tea that came before. We joke that we can taste the history of our family when we drink tea made in this pot.” The Chen family continues to use their teapot on a weekly basis, preserving its legacy in traditional ways and writing its stories down in the family tree to ensure it stays in the family for many generations to come.

Antique dealer Jonathan Spencer recalls the discovery of this “Classic Bamboo Grove” teapot as his luckiest find: “In 2018, I was wandering around a little flea market in San Francisco’s Chinatown when I saw what seemed like an authentic Yixing teapot sitting half-concealed behind a few gaudy mass-manufactured souvenirs. The iconic bamboo design was what drew my attention first.” The seller, an older woman clearing out her late brother’s apartment, was unaware she had something valuable in her stock. It cost Spencer $35 to take the “Classic Bamboo Grove” home, where he began turning over the possibility that it was authentic Yixing, though he didn’t know exactly what age or condition it was in. “When I had cleaned it and carefully gone over it, I was blown away to realize that the potter’s seal matched that of a Yixing master recognized in the 1980s for this style of teapot. The quality of the clay, the craftsmanship of the bamboo motif, and all the proportions were just right.” Spencer would have the teapot authenticated by experts later, at which point he confirmed the teapot was absolutely an authentic “Classic Bamboo Grove” from the early 1980s, which would have a market value of about $600. But instead of selling the teapot, he kept it and began educating himself about Chinese teaware. “This teapot more or less started my path into appreciation of tea. Four years on, I have a small but diverse collection of teaware, but it still holds a special place in my heart—not only for its price worth, but also because it changed my view of how brewing vessels can affect the life and death of tea.”

Yixing Ceramic Cultural Museum maintains a number of “Classic Bamboo Grove” teapots in their permanent archival collection documenting Yixing teaware. Among these are examples from several decades, illustrating how the “Classic Bamboo Grove” has stayed true to its core design principles while changing and updating its details over time. The museum’s most illustrious example is a 1940s rendition of the teapot made by master potter Gu Jingzhou, who is often acclaimed to be one of the greatest Yixing craftsmen of the last century.
Museum director Wu Hongyu says the Classic Bamboo Grove design is a perfect introduction for international visitors: “This design beautifully illustrates the balance between utility and aesthetics that characterizes Yixing craft work. The bamboo design is immediately familiar to visitors from all backgrounds, and yet also speaks volumes of cultural associations in Chinese culture.” The museum uses a modern “Classic Bamboo Grove” teapot in daily tea ceremonies with contemporary visitors, in tandem with contemporary teapots produced in local factories, to give museum visitors the chance to experience the difference for themselves. “Even visitors with no prior experience with tea can taste the difference,” explains Wu. “It’s a great hands-on demonstration of why these traditional crafts still matter in the contemporary world.” Tourism officials claim that the hands-on experiences with traditional teapots is a highlight for international visitors, many of whom end up purchasing their own Yixing teapots as keepsakes of their China-experience. The “Classic Bamboo Grove” model, with its accessibility as a symbol and its classical proportions, remains one of the best-selling models for first-time buyers.
Through these varied instances and stories, we can see how the Yixing purple clay teapot of “Classic Bamboo Grove” goes beyond the role of a brewing vessel and becomes a cultural vessel, an investment artwork, a family heirloom, and an emissary of Chinese tea culture. The amazing longevity and cultural life force of a Yixing purple clay teapot also illustrate why these time-honored crafts continue to thrive and thrive in our world.