Gaiwan Adventures continued

[Herb_Master]

Spurred on by Abx

You should give it a try with less leaf in an eggshell gaiwan, as Imen prescribes, and let us know how it compares Here is what she told me by email:
Imen wrote:
The key to brew good Dan Cong is thin vessel, be it clay pot or gaiwan, the thinner the better. I use either Chao Zhou pots or a gaiwan as thin as egg shell. Hot boiling water first and 2nd brews and lower temp for later brews. Try it with fewer leaves (2-3 g) in a small gaiwan.

I was only too keen to invest in some new Gaiwans.
Eggshell being the 'in vogue' word that I was looking for I was limited to a few sites, not to worry, I opted for TreasureGreen a site I had never heard of before, and certainly not seen mentioned on these forums recently.

Today they arrived

My initial order resulted in a quick response from TG that some of them had sold out in the preChristmas sales rush and they had not had time to relist availability on their web site. A modified order was quickly arranged [once they had returned to work after the Xmas and New Year break

They only had 1 Gaiwan left, listed as 'Eggshell', and I did not want to waste the shipping costs on a solitary purchase, so decide to acquire a matching set to ho with my 'Peony' Egshell.

I opted for the Green Bamboo range.


2 Different size Gaiwans, a Faircup/Pitcher, and 2 Tasting / Aroma Cup sets.

I have yet to play with the Gaiwans but have used the other items whilst retrying DTH Ba Xian in my TreasureGreen Eggshell Gaiwan.



The lid does not quite nestle comfortably in the top of the Gaiwan, but otherwise seems excellent. I have absolutely no trouble handling it, and the resultant brew with the Ba Xian was delightful.



Too delightful for me to take any photos, I kept gulping down the cups and finding the Faircup empty.



and as for gulping down quickly, I needed to, I was surprised at how quickly the Bamboo tasting cups cooled down (and Bamboo Gaiwan).



Is this rapid cooling a known factor in extra thin porcelain?

Would it be safe to keep the Faircup/Pitcher over a tea-light candle warmer ?



The tea tastes great - I had thought of my DTH Ba Xian as about 7 out of 10 before, but now think of it as 7.5+

The peony Gaiwan is a delight, 1 small problem with the lid aside, and not too hot too handle.

The Bamboo faircup shocked me a bit at first it felt lighter than I expected at first - but now I am accustomed to it's weight I love them all!



and so as not to keep running out of tea so quickly, I need to break in the larger Gaiwan

[Victoria]

Wow very nice! Love green! I love the tasting set especially.

[Herb_Master]

Wow very nice! Love green! I love the tasting set especially.

Yes, I am very happy with it, but 1 slight design flaw I forgot to mention - The inverted aroma cup is a very neat fit in the Tasting cup and can become lodged - Need to be very delicate when inverting so as not to ram it into an almost stuck position.

[Victoria]

Hummm interesting. I am still looking for just the right set. That website is poor and hard to navigate, and your pics are much nicer. They need help.

You should have posted this in the teaware forum for more to enjoy.

[gingkoseto]

Hummm interesting. I am still looking for just the right set. That website is poor and hard to navigate, and your pics are much nicer. They need help.

You should have posted this in the teaware forum for more to enjoy.

Exactly! After seeing their website, I think they should buy herb_master's photos Their prices seem good, but I can't see things clearly.

Is the peony gaiwan from treasuregreen as well?

[Herb_Master]

Is the peony gaiwan from treasuregreen as well?

Yes, this was the one I ordered (Cherry Blossom)

http://www.treasuregreen.com/product/200512

They replied to say that it had sold out but had a Peony One they could sell me, and would be updating their site.

The order was submitted by about Jan 8 and arrived this side of the Atlantic on Jan 14 so that was good.

But I see they are still "selling" the Cherry Blossom one ???? and probably not yet the 'Peony'

It was a nightmare negotiating the site to make my purchases small Gaiwans are under cups and large Gaiwans are under Teapots and the various parts of matching items can be scattered throughout several pages that need traversing.

To make it worse they had run out of some of the Matching Cherry Blossom items - so when I went to make a complete set of "Green Bamboo" I not only had to traverse left and right through the pages avoiding Blue Bamboo and other items that looked or sounded similar - but also to hop on to Teapots and a few other places to check I was not missing any part of the set!

That apart I do like them Very Much

[Herb_Master]

Hummm interesting. I am still looking for just the right set. That website is poor and hard to navigate, and your pics are much nicer. They need help.

Yes and if you click for a larger picture it is in a small frame and you can only see 1/20th of it at a time

You should have posted this in the teaware forum for more to enjoy.

Yes I wondered about that at the time, but it was a natural progressionfrom a number of comments on recent Oolong threads and i wanted to keep it fairly close to them. It was also supposed to be more about the different impact that it had on the tea, but I was so excited playing with my new toys that I did not take detailed enough notes

I wondered about posting it twice [in the Teaware as well!] But I know it is bad form to do that sort of thing, someone recently placed an identical post in 8 different forums and Chip had to go round tidying up!

I may do a different post for Teaware showing all my Gaiwans and Porcelain at 1 go that way Chip might approve!
[/quote]

[Bubba_tea]

Hmm... this is an interesting product... a fuel boiler!

http://www.treasuregreen.com/product/G030

[Salsero]

Nice stuff, Herb_Master. I had never heard of TreasureGreen either. Leave it to you to go boldly where no TeaChatter has gone before.

[tenuki]

I was surprised at how quickly the Bamboo tasting cups cooled down (and Bamboo Gaiwan).

Is this rapid cooling a known factor in extra thin porcelain?

It is the whole point. That is why it tasted different.

[ABx]

I was surprised at how quickly the Bamboo tasting cups cooled down (and Bamboo Gaiwan).

Is this rapid cooling a known factor in extra thin porcelain?

It is the whole point. That is why it tasted different.

Well the gaiwan more than the tasting cups, but indeed the cups cooling will change things as well.

Something to be aware of is how the temps will change as you preheat. When the cup is cold it's going to suck a certain amount of heat out until they both reach an equal temp - which will be cooler than boiling for sure. So if you want to maximize temperatures then you're going to need to preheat more than once. You'll never get everything at near-boiling temps, but with attention, care, and speed you can keep things as hot as possible.

Do play around with different pitchers and cups, though. You'll likely have some stuff that works great with the whole set, but then you'll find other teas do better when you mix and match. Personally I like to use a faircup that will retain lots of heat. I do also like having matching sets as much as possible, but when it comes to actually brewing, I'm much more concerned about the tea than how well the teaware matches.

Once you get into teas that really require lots of heat you'll want to get a cha chuan to soak everything in boiling water. I'm looking at getting one very soon myself

[Herb_Master]

Hmm... this is an interesting product... a fuel boiler!

http://www.treasuregreen.com/product/G030

and only $42 including the glass kettle - are you going to get one and share it's secrets with us?

Does it run off something like Methylated Spirits hopefully without the smell?

[Herb_Master]

Nice stuff, Herb_Master. I had never heard of TreasureGreen either. Leave it to you to go boldly where no TeaChatter has gone before.

Abx encouraged me down this route

and you have encouraged me to attempt better indoor photography - but it is still sometimes hit and miss getting the autofocus to concentrate on the area I want, it won't work at all in SuperMacro with the Flash up, fortunately it works well enough in Macro because I often photo too close to the Lens for normal non macro.

One day I will tidy up around the tea table and make room for the tripod so I can zoom in from distance

[Herb_Master]

I was surprised at how quickly the Bamboo tasting cups cooled down (and Bamboo Gaiwan).

Is this rapid cooling a known factor in extra thin porcelain?

It is the whole point. That is why it tasted different.

AND

Well the gaiwan more than the tasting cups, but indeed the cups cooling will change things as well.

Yes I had been pre-coached about the Gaiwan, it had just never crossed my mind about the cups! It really surprised me how much the liquor could cool in about 15 seconds. I guess this should have been pointed out as an additional point on that recent post from someone asking about larger or smaller cups. But then again Porcelain cups always seem to come larger than Glazed Clay cups.

I guess the faircup will be safe over a tea light ?

[Herb_Master]

Once you get into teas that really require lots of heat you'll want to get a cha chuan to soak everything in boiling water. I'm looking at getting one very soon myself

I already have 2 or 3 Cha Chuan, 1 with a raised pedestal in the centre, but find them quite expensive on hot water (volume rather than cost )
I prefer to use small cooking vessels like ramekins that allow the items I am warming and little more other than the water.