The UK Tea Academy

This unique event will be hosted by UKTA Chinese Tea tutor Juyan Webster. Juyan will give a brief introduction on Yixing Teapots, followed by a live demonstration by potter Zhou Shu Yuan direct from China. Juyan will translate and explain the process by which these extraordinary pots are made. 

Zhou Shu Yuan was born into a ceramics family. Her mother Dong Ya Fang is a famous Zi Sha potter. After finishing university, Shu Yuan returned home and started her formal ceramics education and became her mother’s main apprentice. Under her mother's watchful eye, she developed her skills and her own style. Both her work and her mother’s work have been selected for display in museums across China as well as abroad. 

Yixing teapots are a traditional pot used in Chinese tea brewing, made from Yixing "purple clay". They date back hundreds of years, but remain one of the most important elements in fine tea making today. These unique pots not only look extraordinary, made in every shape imaginable: from simple egg-shaped forms to highly decorative creatures and patterns, but they also reveal outstanding characteristics of your tea and make your tea drinking experience more refined and exciting.