Am I a heathen?????

[tjkoko_off]

Why do most teacups for oolong teas have such a small capacity, like around 1-1.5 oz? Why not larger capacities? Do most asians typically brew and serve in such small cups?

[scruffmcgruff]

Smaller cups are used for a number of reasons. For one, it is easier to serve a single infusion to multiple people. Also, most oolong teas are meant to be brewed many, many times, so one can appreciate the subtle changes between brews; to brew large cups with enough leaf to support several infusions, it would be prohibitively expensive (oolong isn't cheap!).

[Salsero]

Scruff's testimony certainly applied to gong fu brewing, but I believe that most everyday oolong consumed by the average person in Asia or out of Asia comes out of a regular size cup or mug.

Even for gong fu, I prefer a 3 to 5 oz cup when it is me alone. Many will combine a tiny cup and a serving pitcher. There's no rule and I think the tiny cups have flooded a market where most people would rather buy something a bit bigger.

[PolyhymnianMuse]

Scruff's testimony certainly applied to gong fu brewing, but I believe that most everyday oolong consumed by the average person in Asia or out of Asia comes out of a regular size cup or mug.

Even for gong fu, I prefer a 3 to 5 oz cup when it is me alone. Many will combine a tiny cup and a serving pitcher. There's no rule and I think the tiny cups have flooded a market where most people would rather buy something a bit bigger.

I agree. I appreciate and understand the idea of using smaller cups, but really find it impractical for everday drinking. I've always liked the idea of a fair cup to decant into first, but never purchased one.

[wyardley]

Why do most teacups for oolong teas have such a small capacity, like around 1-1.5 oz? Why not larger capacities? Do most asians typically brew and serve in such small cups?

It's mostly related to gong fu ("kung-fu" / "congou") tea, which originated in Guangdong province in China, and has also spread to other areas, especially Fujian, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This method of tea preparation generally uses small everything - small pots, small cups, historically a small kettle, etc.

Even in those areas, many people drink tea out of larger cups much of the time, or out of those tea thermoses. Since Guangdong and Fujian are two of the largest oolong producing areas, and I think would be considered by most to be the regions where oolong tea originated, it's a very popular way for people who like oolong tea to drink it. A lot of western tea drinkers who are interested in Chinese tea drink using a similar style of brewing, and many of the shops online that sell these teas cater to this style of drinking. If you want larger Chinese style cups, I'd just go to a Chinese market or Chinatown or something.

There are several reasons for the use of cups in gong fu / kung fu tea. I think some of them are:
1) Tea leaf was, and is, expensive. If you're making very concentrated tea with high quality leaf, using a large pot / cups would require you to use a lot of it.
2) Drinking too much extremely strong tea is hard on your system, and has a ton of caffeine. When you're making a very concentrated brew, you wouldn't want to drink whole cups of it, the way you would if you're drinking to satisfy your thirst.
3) It lets you get a better view of the changes between infusions
4) You can drink the tea quickly, before it cools off. Typically, you should drink the tea in 3 or so sips - not all at once, but not little tiny sips either. Most people like to slurp the tea across the tongue, to get a better sense of both the taste and mouthfeel.
5) Since this style of brewing is popular for tea that can typically last many infusions (oolong, pu'er), using small cups lets you more easily notice the differences between the infusions.
6) Originally, the tea was poured straight from the pot into the serving cups. Having a small cup makes it easy for everyone to be done at about the same time, and ready to pour another round before the teapot cools off.

Probably some others I'm forgetting.

Not all the cups are this small; I've found ones as small as < 1 oz up to maybe 2-3 oz. Some of the antique or fake antique cups are on the larger size. Like with wine, the shape of the cup can also have an effect on the way the tea looks and tastes. I don't think I have the palate to discern those subtle differences most of the time, but some people claim to be able to.

To me, it seems much easier to taste tea in the small cups, or at least, tea tastes different when consumed this way. I usually use a 1-2 oz cup when I'm by myself; if I make more tea than that in an individual brew, I either pour it over my pot or something, or keep it in a fair cup and decant more into my cup when I finish. It's good to have different sized cups around so that you can use the same size pot to make tea for different numbers of people (in traditional Chaozhou gong fu, there are pretty much always exactly 3 or 4 cups, and if there are more people than that, people alternate).

If I'm drinking tea in larger cups (say at a restaurant or something), I usually prefer to brew the tea closer to Western style, in a larger pot with less leaf and a longer infusion time.

To answer the last question, you're not a heathen. Do whatever works for you and whatever tastes good for you. I know for a fact that somewhere there are plenty of cups in almost any size you could want. However, if you're putting sugar in your tea, then you are a heathen.

[ABx]

Like with wine, the shape of the cup can also have an effect on the way the tea looks and tastes. I don't think I have the palate to discern those subtle differences most of the time, but some people claim to be able to.

I've noticed a difference in aroma more than anything; granted, the majority of what we experience as taste is actually aroma, though I think most of that is really coming up from inside the mouth/throat. Different shaped cups seem to make the aroma, or parts of it, more accessible. Some cups actually seem to hide the aroma a bit. I've noticed a difference with the taste of some teas and the heat of the cup, though - I have at least one cup that gets pretty boring unless the cup is very hot - so in that sense I could see the heat retention properties of a cup changing the taste to some degree. I could also see the same being true with cups that are taller than wide, which could change how quickly the tea cools.

There's not much more I can add to what everyone else has said, other than that I was talking to a vendor in Taiwan about small teapots (as in 1-2oz). She had mentioned that they usually used larger pots over there and couldn't understand why we wanted such small pots, but eventually realized it was a cultural difference; over there they always drink tea with friends, where we often drink tea alone.

I really like my 80ml (2.66oz) teapot and cups, but most of my pots and gaiwans are on the order of 3-4oz. I have some slightly larger cups that I use (which do a great job with aroma) and I decant the entire pot/gaiwan into a single cup when I'm drinking alone. I don't always finish it off before it goes cold, and the leftover goes to help create a patina on the pot (when I remember to do so), but I would rather have it all in one cup - even if it's still not much tea Of course I do use the small cups when I'm drinking tea with friends. Granted, I do usually like to have some empty space at the top of the cup, so even if I'm only serving 1 oz at a time I still don't usually use the tiny 1oz cups.

[tjkoko_off]

THANKS!!

...and absolutely no sugar in my tea, either.

[gingkoseto]

Scruff's testimony certainly applied to gong fu brewing, but I believe that most everyday oolong consumed by the average person in Asia or out of Asia comes out of a regular size cup or mug.

Even for gong fu, I prefer a 3 to 5 oz cup when it is me alone. Many will combine a tiny cup and a serving pitcher. There's no rule and I think the tiny cups have flooded a market where most people would rather buy something a bit bigger.

I agree. I appreciate and understand the idea of using smaller cups, but really find it impractical for everday drinking. I've always liked the idea of a fair cup to decant into first, but never purchased one.

I don't have a fair pitcher either. I sometimes use another teapot as fair "pot", and then use a small cup. In this way the tea can remain warm for longer, and that's a way to season 2 pots in one tea session But most of the time I brew in the kitchen and carry the tea to my desk drinking. So I don't want to deal with an extra piece most of the time. And just like you guys, I often use a small pot and larger cup.

I really like using small cup though, and even for 100ml of tea, I would rather there were one or two people to share with me (which very very rarely happens ) and one small cup each person would finish a pot.

[Salsero]

and that's a way to season 2 pots in one tea session

Great idea, Gingko!

[PolyhymnianMuse]

Scruff's testimony certainly applied to gong fu brewing, but I believe that most everyday oolong consumed by the average person in Asia or out of Asia comes out of a regular size cup or mug.

Even for gong fu, I prefer a 3 to 5 oz cup when it is me alone. Many will combine a tiny cup and a serving pitcher. There's no rule and I think the tiny cups have flooded a market where most people would rather buy something a bit bigger.

I agree. I appreciate and understand the idea of using smaller cups, but really find it impractical for everday drinking. I've always liked the idea of a fair cup to decant into first, but never purchased one.

I don't have a fair pitcher either. I sometimes use another teapot as fair "pot", and then use a small cup. In this way the tea can remain warm for longer, and that's a way to season 2 pots in one tea session But most of the time I brew in the kitchen and carry the tea to my desk drinking. So I don't want to deal with an extra piece most of the time. And just like you guys, I often use a small pot and larger cup.

You gave me a great idea. Wayy back when, I bought one of those $9 personaliTEA teapots, but since being enlightened by the gaiwan and then further enlightened by yixing, I barely use it much anymore....

I think that would be perfect to use as a sort of faircup

[Herb_Master]

1) Tea leaf was, and is, expensive. If you're making very concentrated tea with high quality leaf, using a large pot / cups would require you to use a lot of it.

4) You can drink the tea quickly, before it cools off. Typically, you should drink the tea in 3 or so sips - not all at once, but not little tiny sips either. Most people like to slurp the tea across the tongue, to get a better sense of both the taste and mouthfeel.

Some great points throughout WYardley's reply but for me these are the 2 salient ones in my case.

When new to Oolong (even newer than I am now) I wanted to taste the tea over and over again as much as i could to get the flavours and impressions to sink home. I favoured a yixing pot nearer to 300ml than to 100ml and found the cups too small. I frequently only got 3 or 4 infusions out of a session , and the following day I would be keen to try a new tea.

Often I might even not finish the 3rd session, distracted by Phone, Doorbell, or simply my mind wandering on to other things.

Now I am concentrating on pots nearer to 100ml and the faircup goes over a tea-light candle warmer.

I am frequently getting 8 infusions from a batch of leaf, and when distracted for a short while I can top up the cooling liquor from the faircup, or discard a minimal amount and move on to the next infusion.

I also play with different size cups, some of the porcelain cups hold half the contents of a 130ml Teapot once the leaf has only allowed in reality about 90ml of tea to be brewed.

[chrl42]

I tend to use typical Wuyi competition style cup(like one with Dahongpao picture) and fairly large bowl-looking cup, depending on the mood.

From shops, use fairly small cups for customers so it may offer more convincing result for tasting? I dunno..
'small and thin' is what's mentioned from gongfu scripts

I personally like 'one shot' feeling of gongfu cup, like those Sake drinking images in winter of Japan...it's all moody thing to me..

[stanthegoomba]

I personally like 'one shot' feeling of gongfu cup, like those Sake drinking images in winter of Japan...it's all moody thing to me..

Mmm... Hot Sake really does make me think of gongfu tea. It also gets me in nearly the same mood, but only for the first four ounces or so.