After each use
Red tea brews at 95 °C and leaves more behind than a green tea, mostly as a brown film.
Empty the leaf within 5 minutes, because wet red leaf stains faster than any other category.
Rinse the vessel with hot water and wipe the inside with a cloth kept for the purpose.
The film comes off easily while it is fresh and needs scrubbing if it is left for a week.
No detergent on anything porous, and as little as possible on anything glazed.
A residue you can smell will end up in the next cup, and red tea hides it less than you would think.
Turn the vessel upside down on a rack and let it dry completely before it goes away.
Leave the lid off, since a gaiwan（盖碗）closed while damp stays damp for a day.
Drying is the whole routine, and washing is only what you do to make drying possible.
A porcelain pot of 250 ml dries in an hour or two in open air.
Clay takes longer, because the wall itself holds water as well as the surface.
Two minutes after each session is enough for anything in this category.
Dedication versus neutrality
Red tea is the category where dedication first becomes a real choice rather than a rule.
Porcelain and glass stay neutral, and can serve red tea today and something else tomorrow.
Rinse between the two and nothing carries over, since neither material holds anything.
Clay is different, and a pot seasoned on red tea is genuinely better at red tea.
The pores take up oils from the liquor, and after about a year the cup is rounder.
A clay pot of 100 ml used on one tea will season faster than a large one.
That improvement is real, and it is also the end of the pot as a neutral vessel.
A red tea pot makes red tea, and it makes everything else taste faintly of red tea.
Dedicate it if you drink one thing often, and accept that the decision is permanent.
Keeping a clay pot neutral is not an option, since a pot absorbing nothing is a pot unused.
Start with porcelain, use it for a year, and see which red tea you actually reach for.
Buy clay only after that, and only for that one tea.
What to avoid
Avoid detergent on anything porous, and use as little as possible on anything glazed.
Avoid the dishwasher, since the detergent is stronger than tea ware needs and the heat is higher.
Avoid abrasive pads, because a scratched glaze stops being neutral and starts to hold liquid.
Once liquid gets into the body of a vessel, it begins to remember what you brewed in it.
Avoid leaving leaf in the vessel overnight, which is the most damaging habit on this list.
Wet red leaf left for 12 hours turns sour and stains the surface at the same time.
Avoid putting ware away damp in a closed cupboard, since a warm kitchen grows mould quickly.
Avoid one shared cloth, because it carries the smell of whatever it dried last.
Avoid stacking wet pieces, since the moisture between them cannot escape.
Avoid a brush with stiff bristles on a seasoned pot, which scratches the surface doing the work.
A rinse of 10 seconds with hot water after every session prevents all of these at once.
Nothing here needs a cleaning product, and all of it needs dry air.
Long-term
Over years, a porcelain pot stains brown inside, and that is entirely normal.
The stain is tannin, it is harmless, and it does nothing to the tea.
Leave it alone unless it bothers you, since scrubbing it out means scratching the surface.
If you want it gone, use a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water left for 30 minutes.
A seasoned clay pot should never be scrubbed at all, inside or out.
Rinse it in hot water, dry it thoroughly, and let the layer it has built stay where it is.
Check glazed ware for craze lines once or twice a year and retire anything cracked.
Check the lid on a gaiwan as well, since a chipped one will not seal and will spill boiling water.
Replace cheap porcelain freely rather than repairing it, because it costs very little.
Replace a clay pot only when it cracks, and never because it looks old.
A vessel used daily for 3 years has taught you more than a new one will for a long time.
Clean it, dry it, replace it when it fails, and there is nothing more to it.