Friday TeaDay 10/22/10 More experience = ... ?

[Chip]

Good TeaDay one and all. You are welcome to enter TeaDay and share what is in your cup throughout the day.

Yesterday we discussed whether TeaChat was "free" or not. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. So, as you gain experience drinking TEA, are your pots and cups getting bigger or smaller or staying the same size? Please share.

I am looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with everyone ... as always. Bottoms up.

[Seeker]

Hmmm.
I think my pots and cups aren't getting anywhere anymore.
So, I voted 'other'.
But, looking back a little bit, I will say that as my experience was growing both got smaller.
The exception would be chawan however - I prefer a slightly (or even not so slightly) larger chawan rather than a smaller one.
Oh, and I'm still looking for a slightly larger gaiwan - most are irritatingly small for me.
Last tea I had was a couple of hours ago while out for day-after-b'day dinner, had some jasmine dragon pearl.

[IPT]

I too picked "other". I have big cups and pots, as well as small pots and cups and depending on the circumstances I use them both. I purchase both large and small tea ware as well. For a while, my cups did start to get bigger, but I found that as my cups got bigger, I started gulping tea down and that's kind of a waste, especially with really good teas, so I limit myself to small cups to keep me keep me sipping.

[dooble]

Yep, they at first they got smaller. But nowadays I will choose a pot depending on the situation: a small 50ml for myself, ~90ml for two and so on. I need more 50ml cups though, I think it's the perfect size :p

Drank some Da Yu Ling today. It was good, put I used too much leaves.. A 50ml pot was full from 4-6 ball-shaped leaves, I put something like 9..

[Kunkali]

Definitely smaller....started with a 16 oz tetsubin now I brew everything in my 4 oz gaiwan....except kukicha and sencha those go in a 10 oz glass tea pot which I only fill a quarter of the way. Have a nice small yixing on the way.

[David R.]

Bigger or smaller ? That is a question I am asking myself a lot these days.

Some will say that big leaves, such as taiwanese balled wuloong, need space in order to expand and deliver their flavours. But on the other hand, some will pack their little teapots like crazy.

I guess I have a lot of tasting to do to find my responses to this dilemma.

For the moment, I tend to use bigger teapots for wulongs, especially for the least roasted ones, and not using too many leaves to let them expand fully.

[JBaymore]

Staying the same... since I already have a vast assorment of both. Pick and choose as needed.

best,

..........john

[brad4419]

Both are continueing to get smaller and smaller. I went from using coffee mugs and 360ml pots to 60ml pots and cups but I don't think I will go any smaller than that.

long jing this morning

[JRS22]

Smaller and smaller teaware - is there anything smaller than the Tea Gallery 3 oz gaiwan?

In my cup this morning, first a comparison of 2 young raw puerhs from the OTTI, and then some TPHK from Teaspring.

[olivierco]

Hmmm.
I think my pots and cups aren't getting anywhere anymore.
So, I voted 'other'.

+1

3-4 oz for my cups, 2-5 oz for my teapots (I sometimes use a 8 oz teapot).

Ippoen gyokuro this evening.

[TwoPynts]

Same size, though I expect they will get smaller further into my tea journey.


Den's Fuka-midori in my cup this morning.

[Victoria]

My pots and cups are getting smaller in size - in general. Yet sometimes I do buy a larger cup, but infrequently. When I started here my favorite cup was a 15oz Bodum latte. Now I prefer 4oz or less. All my pots and gaiwans keep getting smaller.

Started the day with tea from Tea Emporium in a Deishi Hagi cup. Which just happens to be larger than most.

[Seeker]

In the very beginning, I used to brew my sencha in t-sacs and drink out of a ~18oz mug - throwing the t-sac away after only 1 infusion!
Then, along my tea journey, I learned more and more, and things changed.
For me the evolution has not been unidirectional only trending toward a decrease in size, but more toward what constitutes appropriate volume.
Also, perhaps similar to what JB, Dooble, and IPT have said - nowadays I really choose appropriate teaware for the situation at hand - larger, smaller, mediumer; depending on whether it's just me, me and my sweetie, or me and more guests. Sometimes that calls for a larger teapot, etc. And I don't mean to suggest it's all about the people involved - the tea has a lot of input to the ware that will be chosen and used.

Just arising from my nocturnal slumber - 10am-ish here, having a cup of j g mix that I had left in kyusu from yesterday, having only had time to infuse two or three times. So likely a 4th infusion with day old leaves - a mix of 2 great senchas and a top notch kukicha. Yummy.
Matcha soon of course.
Cheers.

[brandon]

My birthday Shui Xian in a small cup.

[entropyembrace]

I said other...the pots I´ve been using are still 300-400ml and that´s stayed the same since I bought my first pot. The cups are mostly the exact same mugs that I´ve been using since I was brewing tea from teabags. I do have a chawan now that I drink both matcha and sencha from...that´s actually bigger.

But I´ve been drinking sencha, matcha and black tea...none of which need small brewing vessels.

When I order some oolong and puerh for the winter this year I will be making sure to have a much smaller pot or gaiwan and cups ready for them.

So I said other...since my oolong and puerh brewing vessel size is about to change drastically but it hasn´t happened yet.