TeaChat

Put some flames on it. Oh wait, that only works in making cars faster, right?

I've had four gaiwans crack on me over the years. All four were in use almost every day, and never were shocked by significant quick temperature changes. Just use, I guess. The cracks never leaked, it should be mentioned, but got darker and darker making the cracks more obvious. I think the most I paid for any of them was $3. Just never saw a need to spend more on something that I figured would eventually break, but I'm guessing any gaiwan that isn't dirt cheap would probably last quite a bit longer.

Alex wrote:

bagua7 wrote:Maybe your reasoning is flawed?

Not for me . I've used both loads over the last 10 years, and prefer thin. Someone else may prefer thick.

I can always use a tea boat if I really want to help the gaiwan retain heat, which when I use to brew oolong I would do sometimes on very late stages of the session.

I agree 100%. I believe buying a thicker Gaiwan for extra heat as the primary factor doesn't make much sense to me considering that thick gaiwans are the ones that seem to burn fingers more often on an average basis than thin ones ever do. The thin gaiwans offer two benefits that are crucial (for me at least). 1) The thin flared rim creates as little surface area touching your fingers as possible, in turn, drastically reducing the possibility of burned fingers. 2) Thin walls on a gaiwan make it so the tea (light oolong) doesn't get stewed and taste like spinach or other green vegetables and even keeps the vegetal qualities of darker teas like Yan Cha at a bare minimum and allows the caramel and toasty flavors to come through. Honestly, in my opinion, it makes no sense to buy a thick gaiwan for more heat when that's what a yixing is for (especially for the darker teas that require the extra heat). If you really need the extra heat and you want the neutrality of a gaiwan, the tea boat idea that was previously suggested does the same if not better than a thick gaiwan!

edkrueger wrote:Perhaps the Gawain will keep heat better if you paint it red.

Actually, that would probably work! A coat of paint would technically make the gaiwan a bit thicker.haha

I hope some of you realise I never mentioned thick gaiwans. All my gaiwans are medium thick and this last one I am using now a tad less than that. I had once an eggshell gaiwan but the damn thing didn't last very long, big chip after I accidentally bumped it against a plate that was sitting on my kitchen countertop which left it unusable. Maybe I hold a grudge against thin gaiwans...I need to meditate on this.

I'd call the one in the picture you posted extremely thick (at least for porcelain), I suspect others see that too.

Extremely thick? How so?

From the vendor:





Maybe time to updgrade to this?

From the foreground to the background, from left to right, (sorry bad quality)

- Teahabitat's little gaiwan : good porcelain, medium thick, perfect size for samles and super expensive teas.

- The Mandarin's Tearoom gaiwan : perfect size for everything, thin to medium thick bone china porcelain of great quality. I use it with every type of tea I drink.

- My favourite gaiwan, from Postcard's : handmade, thick gaiwan with the best porcelain I have seen. I use it with everything, except very expensive teas as it is rather big.

- A large medium-thick and dense porcelain gaiwan from the puerhshop. I just love the drawings. I use it with chinese green/yellow/white teas. Not the best porcelain there is, but I just love using it.

- An eggshell gaiwan bought from Teasmtih. Very good porcelain, I use it with my red teas as it has a kind of english poshy style.

bagua7 wrote:Extremely thick? How so?

I do need glasses (getting some tomorrow). But, that is extremely thick as far as porcelain goes. If you can't see that perhaps you need a telescope or microscope or some experience pertaining to gaiwan or porcelain in general. For example, see David R's post. All of his are thinner than yours, but, I'd day, they range from medium-thin to medium-thick. Even the eggshell one appears to be on the the thicker side of eggshell.

Not that I'm am dissing them at all or think that super thin is always the best. I have a medium thick one that I love. BTW, nice gaiwan David, I'm envious of a few of them.

You are right maybe I need to attach a microscope to my face.

But those things are heavy, aren't they? Not quite sure how to manage the weight

edkrueger wrote:Not that I'm am dissing them at all or think that super thin is always the best. I have a medium thick one that I love. .

Agree, as long as the piece retains an elegant feel in the hand and is of good quality porcelain then I'm in!

Well since we're on this topic, anyone knows where I can get a nice and small eggshell porcelain gaiwan? Volume range somewhere around 80ml to the brim? I've been looking high and low for them but can't seem to find any that small and with thin porcelain

So far I only managed to find one at Teahabitat and a mini qingbai gaiwan from Teamasters. Anyone knows if Stephane's gaiwan uses thin porcelain?

these are the gaiwan I have, I wouldn't call them "high end" per say but they are a far cry from some of the poorly made cheap things I have seen floating around.

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... pring.html

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... ummer.html

anyone else have experience with these? two local tea shops here in san diego use these as their house gaiwans.

blairswhitaker wrote:these are the gaiwan I have, I wouldn't call them "high end" per say but they are a far cry from some of the poorly made cheap things I have seen floating around.

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... pring.html

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... ummer.html

anyone else have experience with these? both the local tea shops here in sand diego use these as their house gaiwans.

... are they really that big, 6 ounces?

when completely full yes, however usable volume is less. I mainly only use them for green tea so I am not doing a super concentrate brew, I also frequently serve up to six people at a time so I am not always looking for a tiny vessel to use. they are a good size for the two shops I frequent for a similar reason they are usually serving a group of people at their tea tables.

blairswhitaker wrote:these are the gaiwan I have, I wouldn't call them "high end" per say but they are a far cry from some of the poorly made cheap things I have seen floating around.

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... pring.html

http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/ga ... ummer.html

anyone else have experience with these? two local tea shops here in san diego use these as their house gaiwans.

I have the Spring gaiwan. I use it for Chinese greens. Good quality and easy to handle.