Interesting point, though I'm not sure a gaiwan escapes this scenario either. Many people don't fill a gaiwan to the top because they decant without the saucer, and need that extra space so that the rim isn't too hot to handle.tingjunkie wrote:Depends on the tea. With gongfu, especially using pots as small as 60-90ml, the tea doesn't really float around inside the pot like sencha would do in a kyusu. So, you could fill up a Yixing part way, but some of the leaf on top would probably not be interacting with the water during each infusion.
Re: Vessel Too Small To Brew Oolong Properly?
Re: Vessel Too Small To Brew Oolong Properly?
That's why we're always searching for nice thin gaiwans with very flared rims. 
Re: Vessel Too Small To Brew Oolong Properly?
Agreed.tingjunkie wrote:That's why we're always searching for nice thin gaiwans with very flared rims.
And even with a less flared lid, you should still be able to get a water seal. You can always overfill, put the lid on, and tip slightly to the side. If pouring out the tea is hurting your fingers, toughen them up a bit!
Re: Vessel Too Small To Brew Oolong Properly?
when you have a really small pot, usually the aim is to achieve a high leaf to water ratio. at work i'm using a huge yixing monster around 500ml volume, i brew dilute oolong in it like what they call (grandpa) style, little leaf and infinite long steeps and i usually fill it with water like 2/3 or 3/4 full only.bambooforest wrote:It's very customary to fill a kyuusu less than completely full in water.
If you had a 90 ml yixing pot, could you simply fill it 2/3 full and still get very good results?
Re: Vessel Too Small To Brew Oolong Properly?
Using small Gaiwan won't be a problem, since they tend to flare out at the top.
If you use small yixing pots or pots made of porcelain, you need to match your tea correctly to the pot.
Pouring Taiwan Wulong is usually better done with fairly found pots, similar to chaozhou gongfu pots made of "taoci," clay. This allows the leaves to open horizontally, while capturing the perfume in a small area. Taiwan qingxiang (light perfume) teas do poorly in yixing pots, but baked taiwan teas such as tieguanyin and dongding wulong do very well.
Wuyi teas do very well in yixing pots, especially very small ones. If you have a very high quality leaf and you want to save money a bit, it can be helpful to pour using one of the smaller pots, since you can use less leaf ratio and still get great tea.
Fenghuan Dancong teas do not do well with yixing pots at all, and the tea tends to mix with the clay and become bitter. If you use tea pots to pour dancong tea, you should use chaozhou taoci clay and the pot should be tall rather than wide, so that the perfume gets captured inside correctly. It will also cause the leaf to not overbrew in a low pool of water.
Anything can be poured in a white porcelain gaiwan, and it is really the best way to learn to brew specific teas before going on to get complicated with the tea pots.
If you use small yixing pots or pots made of porcelain, you need to match your tea correctly to the pot.
Pouring Taiwan Wulong is usually better done with fairly found pots, similar to chaozhou gongfu pots made of "taoci," clay. This allows the leaves to open horizontally, while capturing the perfume in a small area. Taiwan qingxiang (light perfume) teas do poorly in yixing pots, but baked taiwan teas such as tieguanyin and dongding wulong do very well.
Wuyi teas do very well in yixing pots, especially very small ones. If you have a very high quality leaf and you want to save money a bit, it can be helpful to pour using one of the smaller pots, since you can use less leaf ratio and still get great tea.
Fenghuan Dancong teas do not do well with yixing pots at all, and the tea tends to mix with the clay and become bitter. If you use tea pots to pour dancong tea, you should use chaozhou taoci clay and the pot should be tall rather than wide, so that the perfume gets captured inside correctly. It will also cause the leaf to not overbrew in a low pool of water.
Anything can be poured in a white porcelain gaiwan, and it is really the best way to learn to brew specific teas before going on to get complicated with the tea pots.