small vessels for green tea

[yalokinh]

If I ever wanted to indulge in some higher quality green tea, and I wanted to really make it last by using a small vessel, where would I find something that small that isn't yixing, do they make smaller gaiwans?

[Hmm]

How small are we talking about? I believe gaiwans are normally in 75-90ml range.

In China, they do sell even smaller ones than that, but I am not sure how readily available those are in the int'l market.

[Joel Byron]

Dragon Tea House carries some small gaiwans in the 50-60 ml range. The 50ml ones are kinda pricey though. You could also try to get a hohin or a shiboridashi from Peter Novak or Andzrej Bero here on the forum. They usually have some smaller sizes available.

[Teaism]

Small gaiwan have some issues with extracting the good stuff out from the tea. There is not enough space for the tea leaves and water interaction to work with. For a moderate size e.g.75ml gaiwan, it works even with little leaves. Put just enough leaves to cover the base of the gaiwan (the amount is a little as if you would use a smaller gaiwan) and flash brew it with boiling water. You could get more out of it. Those small gaiwan and pots are cute to see but harder to do any decent good brew with lower margin of error.

You can imagine making a milkshake with a tiny cup or blender, much of the gusto is lost due to lack of space.

[yalokinh]

Ah ok, so 70ml it is

[Chip]

Some of our TeawareArtisans make some rather small brewing vessels as well. I have gotten some from Shawn and Petr. And if you do not see it, you can special request it making it even more special.

Also Japanese and Korean Shiboridashi and Houhin are great for small brews. There are even very small Kyusu.

[Teaism]

Actually, I like those small little teapots. They are really cute and when my frugal personality surfaced, I just enjoy the fun of using it rather than working on the quality of the brew. They can be brew effectively but given the tight space and low margin for error, I rather enjoy the overall cute atmosphere and fun of using it, rather stressing myself on the brew quality.

Also small teapots are much harder to make as compared to the big ones. They also command lower price too which make them not so viable commercially.

[debunix]

Some of our TeawareArtisans make some rather small brewing vessels as well. I have gotten some from Shawn and Petr. And if you do not see it, you can special request it making it even more special.

From Shawn, specially requested to match some cups of his that I already had, 50-60mL useful volume



Also from Shawn, in use with some gyokuro



From Petr, about to be used for some gyokuro, about 60 mL useful volume



lots of opportunities abound. And all of these were fairly frugal in price too.

[AdamMY]

Also, never feel you have to use all the space in your teapot, gaiwan, etc... Especially with green tea it is very easy and safe to get away with only using half the space in the vessel.

I do own a few small brew vessels for green tea, but I honestly did not buy them specifically because of their size, I bought them to fill other niches in my needs. In fact my smallest Kyusu while I love it and enjoy using it, I often find it a little bit too small, as I always want to add more leaf than I should.

[debunix]

I rarely use my really small vessels for green tea--a 3 to 5 oz vessel filled 4 times is still around a pint, a nice drink but not too much at one time. I also don't buy a lot of seriously expensive greens. I bought the smallest of them with puerh & dan cong in mind. But for the gyo OTTI, they all had a go and did great.