Oolong vessels

[yalokinh]

Why?
They don't have to be expensive, and despite this, it'd the best gaiwan I've had. price has no importance

[edkrueger]

A $10 gaiwan is going to be better than something that tick.

[Suutej_Tsaj]

Why?
They don't have to be expensive, and despite this, it'd the best gaiwan I've had. price has no importance

Not that, the $100 one you posted earlier. As you said, I'd rather buy $100 of tea.

A $10 gaiwan is going to be better than something that tick.

Which makes me wonder: how do thick walls affect tea? Is it something about keeping it warm?

[edkrueger]

It sucks you all the heat from the water. Cooling tea and burning fingers. You can't make a seal with thick material. Pouring function is compromised. In short, as far as I can tell it isn't even a gaiwan.

[SilentChaos]

Just a side comment: if you want to do comparative tasting, this is great too - http://www.adagio.com/teaware/tasting_s ... b0958dc93a

...though Adagio is out of stock.

[yalokinh]

Like i said, i grab the gaiwan from the base, so i never have a problem with heat. And i have never done infusions lasting more than 40s, so the drop in temp isnt that big. I dont have any problems with it

[Evan Draper]

Just a side comment: if you want to do comparative tasting, this is great too - http://www.adagio.com/teaware/tasting_s ... b0958dc93a

...though Adagio is out of stock.

To follow a tangent, these are cheapest ones I'd seen, but the lack of an airhole proved to be a problem. Luckily, I knew someone who could drill holes in the lids for me.

[edkrueger]

I like my set pretty well. Do you find that the addition of an air whole really helped?

[sandra]

i am a huge fan of oolongs, and use a plain simple gaiwan.
best (& cheapest )option imho for oolongs.

[Evan Draper]

I like my set pretty well. Do you find that the addition of an air whole really helped?

Definitely. Without an air hole the cupping sets didn't pour as well. I seem to remember having more accidents where the lid suddenly pops off and spills tea everywhere once the pressure seal broke.

[Tead Off]

I like my set pretty well. Do you find that the addition of an air whole really helped?

Definitely. Without an air hole the cupping sets didn't pour as well. I seem to remember having more accidents where the lid suddenly pops off and spills tea everywhere once the pressure seal broke.

+1.

[thirst]

Wow, that looks impressively impractical!

For how most of us use Gaiwans yes... When I first saw that I was wondering how the heck would someone even use it. I do not know its exact dimensions, but I figure you are supposed to grip the "saucer" and pour while securing the lid either with a finger, or the palm of your hand.

Yes, many gaiwans seem impractical to me. However, they also look kind of "neuter": they won't "absorb" the tea like hagi pottery does and are usually the right size for brewing tea cup to cup. I might give one of these a try - not the one posted by yalokinh, though.

Oh don't get me wrong I think Gaiwans are great, just not for Japanese teas. While gaiwans have a bit more of a learning curve on using them than most teapots, their simplicity is somewhat beautiful in how well they accomplish their task.

Do you say that because Japanese greens are so thin and small or is there another reason? I do use my gaiwans for steeping Japanese greens, I don't mind if a bit of leaf ends up in my cup.

[thirst]

Just a side comment: if you want to do comparative tasting, this is great too - http://www.adagio.com/teaware/tasting_s ... b0958dc93a

...though Adagio is out of stock.

Stéphane still sells something that looks like it could be the same:
http://teamasters.blogspot.de/2006/07/w ... ng_11.html

I don’t like the form much though, so I’d rather buy lots of small gaiwans for comparative tasting.

[Evan Draper]

I like my set pretty well. Do you find that the addition of an air whole really helped?

Definitely. Without an air hole the cupping sets didn't pour as well. I seem to remember having more accidents where the lid suddenly pops off and spills tea everywhere once the pressure seal broke.

To beat a dead horse, the whole point of cupping sets is testing MANY samples at once, so you can't be firing off a line of 10 samples and then find out that some of them won't pour and are still over-infusing in the cup! Back in the day, I saw a lot of vendors that charged like $20 each for ONE cupping set, so it was worth the hassle to fix Adagio's hole-less ones, which cost something like $9 apiece when I bought 6. At this point I'm plenty confident around a gaiwan, but I cannot imagine it's worth futzing around with a long row of them with timers going off. Gaiwan's elegant form belongs on everyone's tea table; cupping sets work better in the tea lab.

[edkrueger]

For someone who know nothing about drilling holes in things, how did you do it?