using a gaiwan for black tea?

[jogrebe]

Is it recommended to use a gaiwan for black (Chinese Red) tea? Also if you do is it possible to get more than one decent strength infusion out of it in a gaiwan? From what I've read it seems as if gaiwans are most often associated with green, oolong, puerh and white tea brewing but I've never heard anything about brewing black teas with them and was wondering if there was a reason why.

[Warden Andy]

You can use a gaiwan for black tea, but in my opinion, it's more work than is needed for black tea. But then again, I don't drink black tea and never really gave it much of a chance in a gaiwan. Try it for yourself and see if it's worth the extras work.

[klemptor]

I've never had more than one good infusion of black tea. I don't own a gaiwan but I've tried a couple different methods of rebrewing black tea leaves and I've found it pretty fruitless.

[MarshalN]

Of course it works with black tea. Put in about 1/5 of the gaiwan worth of black tea, brew. First infusion is maybe 10 seconds

[jogrebe]

Don't bother trying brewing black tea in a gaiwan. I was able to get 2 3oz cups of black tea out of my gaiwan before the black tea died. If I would have brewed the same leaves English style in a teapot I could have gotten 2 large American mugs worth of tea instead of the 2 small Chinese cups I got

[runrabbit]

How strange that you're having such bad luck with brewing black tea in a gaiwan. I've used a gaiwan for black tea because it pours out so quickly. An advantage when brewing very short infusions.

Medium sized gaiwan with heaped teaspoon of black tea
No washing, or just adjust the 1st steeping time to include time spent washing the tea.
1st - 8/10 sec
2nd - almost immediately off
3 - 10/12 sec
4 - 16/18 sec
after that, I need to be drinking it to figure out the times.
I had to do this for a test. I don't use my gaiwan now for brewing tea because the china is so thin and the water is so hot. It becomes painful to hold so I reserve the gaiwan for green teas.

[Warden Andy]

I had that same problem for a while. The trick is to not fill it up so much, and to hold the gaiwan like this.

[rabbit]

I don't like brewing black tea in my gaiwan just for the fact that not only is the water very hot (I like to use cooler water) making it hard to hold the gaiwan, but also because when I do on occasion drink black tea I like it in large quantities unlike green, white, and oolong which I drink small amounts of at a time.