Black Pottery Disappointment

One day, while exploring the bustling markets and tea shops of Kunming, we stumbled upon a stunning pottery piece called “Hei Gu Tao,” which translates to “Black Ancient Pottery.”

We found the black UFO-shaped disks to be an excellent solution for storing pu-erh tea cakes, along with large jars perfect for loose tea leaves. The standout feature of this pottery is its weight—it’s surprisingly light compared to other clay ceramics. Lifting the big jar feels more like handling hard plastic than fired clay, making it both practical and elegant.

We spent some time tracking down the place of production—though it’s not the original birthplace of this pottery technique—and decided to take a shopping trip. The small town is nestled in the mountains of the Pu’er region, between the Wu Liang and Ai Lao ranges. It’s accessible by three main roads, and “luckily” all of them are under reconstruction.
We chose the route from Simao, only to find it completely closed, so we had to detour via Menghai. What was supposed to be a 3.5-hour trip stretched into 6.5 hours on a cramped local bus. After that, heading north would add another 8 hours. Siran wasn’t thrilled and suggested swapping the trip for Menghai instead, hoping to at least find some good shu pu-erh there. Despite the setbacks, I felt like this obstacle was meant to be—I had a strong gut feeling we were about to discover something really special.

Completely exhausted, we arrived late afternoon in this small, sleepy town where the economy has come to a standstill due to its difficult accessibility. With no one in sight on the empty streets, it almost feels like we’re nowhere near China at all.

The surrounding mountains, a gentle river, and a nearby park create a very relaxing atmosphere. Directional signs for tourists and cultural billboards hint at the town’s original plan to boost the local economy. However, the new highway from Simao—under construction for nearly three years and expected to bring a steady “flow of visitors”—is still nowhere near completion.

We took a short stroll through the town, hoping to find a shop selling the black pottery. Unfortunately, we only found one, and tea shops were equally scarce.

As we later learned, despite being surrounded by tea mountains, this isn’t the kind of place where people buy tea in shops—locals prefer to go straight to the farmers to make their purchases.

The next day, we asked locals where this kind of pottery is made and received a simple direction: follow the river. After a few minutes’ walk, we arrived at a small village on the edge of town and entered the gate of a modest workshop. The boss wasn’t around, but the workers were busy—especially one in the courtyard. This initially disappointing scene held the unexpected truth behind the beautifully satin-black pottery.

They discovered that coal dust is used during the low-heat processing in the old brick kiln to achieve the black color immediately after the burning stage, whereas in the modern gas kiln, this effect is achieved by reaching the necessary higher temperature.

Since our focus is on the tea business and tea-related pottery, we believe it would be neither safe nor healthy to use this type of clay for storing or brewing tea. When the boss arrives, we are invited into the exhibition shop where all the beautiful jars and tea cake storage pottery are displayed, but we already know it’s a waste of time for us. All our dreams of offering customers and tea drinkers something truly unique have been shattered into a thousand pieces.

I’m curious, so I start checking out the tea cups. I’m told, “Don’t pour very hot water in there!” Boss warns they might break because the material can’t handle sudden heat. But later, after some detective work on dedicated websites, we find out the real issue isn’t the heat—it’s that coal dust might leach into your tea because it wasn’t properly mixed into the clay. So basically, your tea cup could double as a coal mine!

They also have some pottery pieces made without coal in just simple yellow-white plain clay color, but there is nothing impressive to bother with. Also we know the wholesale prices from other source and boss gives us triple price tag on each item ( we were asking only from curiosity at that stage anyway ) without any space for negotiations.

Having observed their workflow and heard about the new shop opening in Kunming, we can expect these products to be produced on a much larger scale very soon.

Two families are involved in the local pottery production, so we decided to visit the second one as well. The second master offers a wider variety of colors and designs, but after seeing their processing technique, we’re hesitant to make any purchases. What stood out about this “silver” pottery is its remarkable durability—a woman deliberately dropped a cup onto the concrete floor, and it didn’t break at all, only producing a sharp metallic sound. We also noticed some pictures of a broken jar lid where the silver coating had not been applied properly.

After extensive research on the Chinese internet, we found an article claiming that in the 1980s, a company tested black pottery from a different province and found no health risks or harmful substances. However, we have decided to put this on ice until we learn more specifically about Yunnan Hei Gu Tao—Yunnan Black Pottery.