Sacrilege?

[Beanbean]

I'm almost afraid to post this but here goes.

Am I the only person on the planet who chooses the largest mug she can from the cupboard for her tea? I don't believe I have a "teacup" that holds less than 12 ounces. While I find the tiny Japanese cups and the delicate English porcelain cups to be beautiful, they are not very functional for me. I need a lot of tea!

Anyone else more of a "Bubba" when it comes to teacups?

[FoolongChoo]

i usually prefer either an 8 ounce cup (my traditional Chinese gaiwan) or a 16 ounce mug (Steepin Mug by TeaSpot). Anything more than that I can't actually consume before it gets too cold to drink...and even a 16 ounce mug cuts it close sometimes!

[Cinnamon Kitty]

My favorite mug is a 16oz mug that says "Rocket Scientist" on it. It gets used for almost every tea I have during the day. Whenever I go home for breaks, I bring that mug with me since none of the mugs at home are big enough. I have a 10oz Japanese style cup that I use for green teas though, but since I ran out of sencha, it does not see much use.

[Eastree]

I certainly won't call it 'Bubba' to any extent.

I drink in larger or smaller cups, depending on what I brew and how. the what usually precedes the how, but not always.

When I want something warm and not so involved, I'll brew a small heap of black tea in a large pot.

[Victoria]

My favorite cup is a glass Bodum Latte that is 15oz.



I feel deprived at work when forced to downsize into my 14oz Adagio mug.

[ThinkingOutLoud]

I almost always drink out of a 20 oz mug from Laura Zindel:

http://www.zindelceramics.com/vess_6.html

Yes, one of these days I will learn how to put pics here ...

When the tea gets cold, I keep on drinkin'. I like almost all tea, almost any temp.

[tenuki]

[PolyhymnianMuse]

Lol tenuki

How do all of you brew tea to fill up those big mugs? I suppose I'm just a cup to cup person but on occasion I may brew 2 or 3 cups of tea at once and than keep it in a pot to stay warm but thats about it.

[daughteroftheKing]

Yep, gotta drink out of my 16 oz. cups. I like my gaiwan and pretty little china tea cups, but the large cups start my mornings and get me through the work day.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

How do all of you brew tea to fill up those big mugs? I suppose I'm just a cup to cup person but on occasion I may brew 2 or 3 cups of tea at once and than keep it in a pot to stay warm but thats about it.

My current hot water dispenser only heats 16oz of water at a time, so I just fill it up all the way and use an infuser basket to brew tea directly in my mug. Sometimes if I know it will take a while to drink the entire mug of tea, it goes in my travel mug of the same size.

Yes, one of these days I will learn how to put pics here ...

Here is the picture:


And here is the code that I used to link it. I got the url by right clicking the picture from your original link and copying the image location.

Code: Select all

[url=http://www.zindelceramics.com/images/work/vess6.jpg][img]http://www.zindelceramics.com/images/work/vess6.jpg[/img][/url]

[osadczuk]

I'm a 16oz at a time girl myself. 8 just seems so... sad.

[trent]

I'm all for the tiny pots... that way I can have a few different kinds of tea per day.

-80ml yixing
-5oz tokoname kyusu (I'm purchasing it soon)
-tiny tasting cups

I'm the kind of person that brews teas until they're dead, so I need to drink out of small cups.

Except... I drink herbal or houjicha out of a 10oz mug every night before I go to bed.

[chamekke]

I do sometimes drink out of a big mug when it's "share the teapot" time...

That's when you make a big potful of tea (Brown Betty style), take out the tea (usually bags - sorry) at the appropriate moment, then pop on a good toasty tea cosy to keep the rest of the tea warm.

Such as this felted tea cosy with matching trivet. Felted wool cosies are the most effective insulation ever!

[witches brew]

If I am going to be home all day, I'll brew something in my tetsubin and keep it warm over a tealight. Then, it doesn't matter how small my cup is, because I can refill it again and again.

[ABx]

I would say it's really about what I'm drinking and how I'm drinking it.

During the work day I usually, but not always, use my 8 oz infuser mug. I tend to use it for the lighter oolongs that don't turn out much differently when gongfu'ed and simpler teas like shu that don't demand much attention to taste. I rarely finish the 8 oz mug before it goes cold.

When I drink something with any kind of complexity, however, I definitely gongfu. Since I am usually only brewing for myself I use my ~5 oz double-walled glass cups and decant the entire pot into the cup.

When starting out it always seems incomprehensible to drink such small amounts at a time. What happens after that seems to depend on what kind of tea you gravitate to, I think. When drinking Chinese teas it becomes very natural to fall into gongfu'ing no more than 4oz or so. The taste can be dramatically different (better and much more complex), and drinking it while it's piping hot keeps that flavor. At that point it becomes incomprehensible to drink any more at a time. I also find that I become impatient with steep times longer than 45 seconds or so

I'm sure that if I was drinking more black tea, and such, that I would probably use the bigger cups. The "Western" style brewing tends to suit them better. When it comes to the Chinese teas, however, I just don't get a satisfactory experience from any but gongfu brewing. I think that when the tea master makes the tea for a particular type of brewing (ie, he judges its quality/readiness using a particular type of brewing), then that is the type of brewing that produces the most satisfying cup for that tea.