Do you use Gaiwan?

[ablecha]

Hi dear,
What do you usually use for brewing a cup of tea? Teapot? Gaiwan? glass cup?

Being a experience tea lover, I suggest Gaiwan for oolong tea, and teapot for Pure and Black tea.

What about you?

Good Luck for everyone!

[kyarazen]

hi Dear,

thankyou for the luck, it is very important in brewing

regards
kz

[debunix]

Gaiwan, pot, shiboridashi, thermos, glass cup, and sometimes just a few leaves in a tea bowl.....anything that can be used, at times does get used.

[jayinhk]

I use gaiwan almost exclusively for green oolongs.

[Bok]

hi Dear,

thankyou for the luck, it is very important in brewing

regards
kz

I personally prefer a teapot any time, no matter the tea, except a bowl for certain very delicate teas. I somehow never got used to handling a gaiwan, a pot is so much more convenient. Not even talking about the esthetics…

[teagenesis]

Even for hotter teas, if I don't have a clay teapot for them, then I just use the thick clay gaiwan rather than the thin ceramic gaiwan. This makes it easy to handle the higher temperature, and they have a little more volume. I only use the thin gaiwan or glass gaiwan for green, white, and yellow teas. Everything else steeps beautifully in the wider, thicker gaiwans, and they also retain their temperature much longer. A larger teapot is really only descent for heavy, stocky Indian tea plant leaf.
To me, the gaiwan not only allows you to produce better, fresher, more nutritious and flavorful tea, but it is more convenient than a sizable teapot, and conserves leaf to water.

[Gregg]

A gaiwan is my favorite tool. I do have a two little yixings for pu-erh and roasted oolongs, a fantastic larger yixing for pu-erh and assured Japanese pots for different sorts of tea. I confess to a Hojo moment.

Still I always use my 100ml for real investigation. My girlfriend and I use a 150ml for her tea preferences dan-cong and pu-erh particularly.

For ease of use I like the Primula Glass Mug with Infuser.


Gregg

[teagenesis]

How long do you steep your teas in the gaiwan? How much do you use?
What is your infusion duration.

[bonescwa]

Anywhere from 1 second to overnight.
Anywhere from a few rolled up leaves to three quarters full.

[teagenesis]

Anywhere from 1 second to overnight.
Anywhere from a few rolled up leaves to three quarters full.

I'm talking small leaves and buds, red teas, steeping several infusions. I have started to avoid the almost completely full gaiwan "one second steep" method. I started to lose my hold on the tea after doing that for awhile. So, a less-leaf but also not too long steeping time method is what I am looking for.

[ablecha]

It seems Gaiwan is not so convience
While I always use Gaiwan.. even I also think it is too hot when souping out
while its habit already

[TeaSage]

I use gaiwan almost excusively, i i liked it since the first time I poured tea with it

[thirst]

Gaiwans are my most used tea ware. Got into the habit of using my yixing chahu more often over the last year as I attempt more gongfu, but for teas that are cut into pieces and/or last only one to three infusions…I feel like pots are more of a hassle. Gaiwans are just more convenient.

It might seem counter-intuitive to use something without a filter for teas with chopped leafs, but personally I’d rather have my tea liquor contain one or two leftover pieces of leaf than clean them out of teapots.

So, gaiwans: the easiest to clean tea ware and you don’t have to dedicate them to a tea class.

As for heat issues…I just use two hands to hold the gaiwan at the saucer and at the lid knob when I pour, also seems more hygienic when you do more than one infusion because you don’t touch the rim. Can’t remember the last time I burned my fingers using a gaiwan.

To be fair, I don’t place them in a tea boat and keep pouring boiling water on them…but I do preheat them with boiling water.

[William]

I personally use the gaiwan for most of my teas. In my opinion, only a small number of teas really needs a porous vessel to be brewed optimally, i.e. a clay teapot.

What matters the most when talking of gaiwan, is the quality of it, that is something hard to understand. For now, I only found one online seller whose gaiwan are outstanding.

[ablecha]

In China, speical in South area, almost every company office has a set of Gaiwan for tea. and there are many many Tea tool factories for GaiWan. How to say, it is like a rice for people to have a Gaiwan to cup a tea...

I think that also bring the idea that Gaiwan is not an expensive tool for you when cupping tea, while not for tea pot.. Teapot was regarded as artwork