Thinking about buying my first Gaiwan

[caulfield]

I have been drinking loose leaf, via the Western method, for years, but I recently discovered this board and have become very interested in Gongfu brewing. I have been thinking about buying my first Gaiwan. So I have two questions:
1) What size should I buy? I have been looking at 150 mL or 200mL.
2) Do you rebrew the water for a session? I have watched several videos on youtube, but I can't really tell if you rebrew the water each time.

Thanks for your knowledge/advice. I love this website.

[debunix]

I keep water hot with an electric kettle that maintains the temperature I set (within a few degrees); so I come down on the side of reheating.

As for the gaiwan, if you're going to be using it for gongfu, the size you need depends on your teas of choice and your bladder capacity. With white and green teas, where I might stop after 4 or 6 infusions, I occasionally use a gaiwan that is about 150 mL. With oolongs and puerhs where I might brew 10 to 20 infusions, I use gaiwans that are smaller still--100 mL.

In addition to issues with the volume of the larger gaiwan, I also find it a little more awkward to use, due to the larger size. I have medium to large hands, and I think a 200 mL gaiwan would be awkward to handle, especially when dealing with teas brewed with hottest water.

So I'd look first for one no more than 150mL, and better still 100-120mL.

[Proinsias]

yeah, 200ml is a little unweildy for a gaiwan in my experience. 150ml would be my upper limit though I prefer smaller.

I use just a standard kettle, reboiling a couple of times isn't much of an issue. For darker teas like oolong, red or pu-erh I will boil the kettle more often and for greens or whites less so.

[tea.and.peace]

I really like 120ml for my own tea consumption.

I also have a around 200ml ish gaiwan which works great for 3-4 people.

Mostly using taiwan oolong myself. A secondary use for the larger gaiwan is to experiment with green tea(not using the top while brewing) for my own consumption.

Initially I only had the larger gaiwan for my oolong, but felt it was too large for only myself. So I got the smaller size.

[sherubtse]

Here is the link to an interesting article on the gaiwan, including some suggestions about choosing one:

http://teaguardian.com/tea_preparation/gaiwan1.html

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[tingjunkie]

120ml is a good size for 2-4 people. If brewing mainly for myself, I much prefer a 60-80ml size. I can drink obscene volumes of tea, but the larger the brewing vessel, the more each personal tea session costs. Something to think about when you bust out those $1+/g teas.

[caulfield]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Since I've never used it, it seems so strange to think that 120 ml would be enough, but I didn't think about the $ of using a bigger gaiwan.

@tingjunkie-I certainly haven't been drinking any $1+/g tea, yet...