preheating gaiwan vs hotter water, general temperature stuff

[wayneberndz]

Hello tea lovers out there

I'm recently trying my hands on brewing green teas in a gaiwan and thought about the following: I always read one should put hot water in the empty gaiwan for preheating, which is no problem for the first brewing. But if you don't follow the first one right with the second etc, the gaiwan of course cools down. Now you have the leaves in there and can't preheat from inside. I tried preheating by putting the gaiwan in a bowl with hot water, but that's a bit complicated to do all the time.

I meassured the water temperature and it seems to drop about 15 (!) degrees from the boiler to the gaiwan, the porcelain really absorbs a lot (or lets escape a lot). I've got a boiler where you can set the temperature to 60, 80, 100°C. So couldn't I just heat the water to 100°C and shortly after put it in the gaiwan, when it's still maybe 90-95°C? It would then immediately drop to the desired ~80°. I'm just not sure if it would damage the leaves. Maybe if you are experienced you could try to drop the water on the walls of the gaiwan and let it drip down and cool a bit off on its way. Of course I simply can try But I'm curious about how you experienced gaiwan users do it

This would also be interesting concerning darker teas in pots, especially yixing. Since the clay does not conduct the heat very well, I imagine it would be hard heating the pot from outside after the first brewing.

Generally I'm wondering about some temperatures people mention sometimes. As even clay seems to absorb a bit at the beginning, it's almost impossible to get around 95°C or even above.

Maybe I'm making this a bit more complicated than it is, but I guess this forum would be the right place for such a discussion So...any thoughts?

[Chip]

IMHO, for Chinese greens, preheating your gaiwan is not super critical, not always what I thought however. Sometimes I do and sometimes I do not. If I am brewing a green that brews nicely in cooler water, I often do not bother anymore. I am actually really enjoying certain Chinese greens brewed below 160* these days, brews a nice sweet liquor.

If it is one that likes it a bit hotter, you can preheat or as you mention, pour slightly hotter water along the sides of the gaiwan.

[Oni]

Hi, welcome to the forum, try reading this informative site http://chineseteas101.com/large_gaiwan.htm, and glass brewing http://www.hojotea.com/item_e/g06e.htm.
I think you need to pour the gaiwan around half full with hot water swirl a bit empty, after that put in the leaves, as I observed chinese tea drinker do not let the water cool down in the kettle to the desired temperature, instead pour from a height and only enough water that covers the leaves, if using a 150 ml glass gaiwan pour only 50 ml, when you switch off your kettle the water is around 98 - 100 C, after preheating and pouring from a height the 50ml worth water hits the leaves at around 85 - 90 C, and the heatloss of the thin porcelain gaiwan (use it uncovered with green tea) or the glass cup is essential, that is why it doesn`t overbrew your tea, after that 50 ml with tea stood for around 30 seconds or more, pour up with hot water from the kettle, wait brew it uncovered and test it continually and stir with the lid and taste till it reaches the desired strength, drink only 100 ml, until 1/3`d of the volume of the gaiwan leaves there to cover the leaves, that is called the root, and pour it up with hot water (slightly hotter and from a height), wait and repeat these steps until the tea looses flavour.

[wayneberndz]

Thanks, I'll try the glass brewing method, this Hojo site seems really informative. And I'll skip the preheating for now.

[Proinsias]

When drinking green tea I use the preheat as more of rinse for the teaware to make sure everything is nice and clean before adding the tea.

[wayneberndz]

In China it seems common to drink green tea directly out of a glass, leaving the leaves in it all the time, am I correct? I'm wondering if that does not give quite a bitter tea. Normally I begin brewing green teas about a minute, and they really are to hot to drink after that time. So.. either burn your tongue or get bitter tea?

[scruffmcgruff]

In China it seems common to drink green tea directly out of a glass, leaving the leaves in it all the time, am I correct? I'm wondering if that does not give quite a bitter tea. Normally I begin brewing green teas about a minute, and they really are to hot to drink after that time. So.. either burn your tongue or get bitter tea?

Cooler water is used for this kind of tea drinking, around 130-140F (a little hotter than what comes out of your tap, probably) or so.