paisan70 wrote:Similarly, Cinnamon, is there a different brewing method between a gaiwan and a kyusu? They are both BEAUTIFUL and I'd be happy to get both especially because they don't seem that expensive, but why get both?
Just to make this interesting, yes and no. In the big picture sense, both are just vessels in which tea leaves can mingle with hot water to form the wondrous liquid that we call "tea," which can then be decanted to another vessel so that you can enjoy the brew sans leaves.
The actual difference is more in the style of the brewing. The kyusu is a teapot with a spout and screen that prevents the leaves from traveling up the said spout and into your cup. It has a lid and a nifty side handle. The gaiwan is more of a cup with a lid and saucer, in which the lid is used to block the leaves from pouring out of the cup as the tea is decanted.
The main reason to get both is not necessarily because they will brew things completely differently, but because of the ease of brewing different types teas in each. Though it is doable and there are pictures on this forum somewhere to prove that it can be done, using a very fine, small leaf tea in a gaiwan without a mesh filter has a high chance of you ending up with a cup full of tea leaves and a large mess to clean up, which does not make for an overly fun tea time for a beginner. The same tea with the very fine, small leaves would be so much easier to brew in the kyusu with the filter to hold the leaves back from going into your tea.
On the flip side, if you have an oolong with huge leaves, brewing it in the kyusu has no really benefit since the leaves are too big to need to be filtered in that manner, and would mostly clog the mesh filter from their size. In a gawain, the gentle pressure of the lid holds the larger leaves back while still allowing the tea to escape to your cup without getting clogged up. Then again, we've had people on TeaChat brew oolongs in a kyusu too, so either method can be perfectly viable for any type of tea, but it just depends on ease of use and user preference.
Having both a gaiwan and kyusu with a mesh filter/strainer gives you an easy way to brew anything from the tiny tea leaves of a Japanese green to the biggest leaves of a puerh or an oolong that you can stuff into the gaiwan. Tingjunkie already touched upon the size capacity differences and brewing styles rather nicely, and those apply to the kyusu and gaiwan as well.
As a side note, a simple glass or porcelain teapot could work fine too, but through my own experimentation, I have successfully broken both of my pieces of glass teaware and keep burning my knuckles on my porcelain teapot with its back handle. I've found the side handles on the kyusu make for a more natural and less awkward way to pour tea. Also, after figuring out how to hold the gaiwan correctly, burnt fingers are rarely an issue.
