This traditional earthenware is handmade in the village of Shijitou, near Qianjiang, Chongqing Municipality. Methods, clay preparation, and firing system date back to the origins of history, and I personally found evidence of connections of this primitive ware with Sueki ware produced in Korea and then in Japan in the 8th century and its modern-day inheritor, Bizen ware, at least in aesthetics and the use of Dragon or Climbing Kilns.
I introduced this earthenware to my friend Alex of One River Tea, and we experimented together its use in the vernacular way in Loushuiyuan Tea Cooperative last spring 2024. We tested the earthenware jug on sprinkling fire and discovered that the local farmers back in the 1940s and 1950s were right to drink this way: roasted green and white tea taste rocky, intense with forest and roasted chestnuts flavor, and delicious.
Shijitou Traditional Earthenware. Jug/Jar
You can always use it in a simple way, brewing teas inside the jars with hot boiling water. Alternatively, you can try an interesting, "archaeological" experiment:
-prepare a small electric stove or a living fire in your garden or anywhere.
-place the jar on stones or directly over the fire, around 5 to 10 cm from it.
-put some green tea or white tea from Loushuiyuan Cooperative, or in fact from Hubei, into the jar. Let it roast for a few minutes untill it smells nicely, but beware not to roast it too long since it might burn.
-add boiling water in the jar and let it decant for two or three minutes more, then you can drink it in earthenware or stoneware cups that can retain the heat inside but not convey it outside, so you don't get burned.