Gaiwans don't get enough love. I'm kind of the one man Gaiwan defense force on the internet, it seems, but I think it's important to constantly remind people of the option. Now I'm not going to start spreading anti-yixing propaganda, but I will tell you that I've not had the greatest experiences with yixing. I've used five of them, ranging in price from 12$ to 60$, and only two of them were any good. One of them was decent enough for me to keep using to this day after about a year and a half of use, and thankfully it was the 60$ one! They're either too slow, too messy, too thick, too thin, made the tea taste bad, muted the tea, etc. etc. The two that were decent have fast pours, decent lid fits, and actually do slightly improve the taste of two types of teas respectively. Overall though, even with a decent 60$ pot, I found that it only improved the taste of shu pu'er, and while I'm a fan of shu, I don't drink it often enough to justify a 60$ pot solely for brewing it.
Enter the gaiwan. It's simple, elegant, light, criminally cheap, easy to use, and incredibly efficient at just plain making some tea. It eliminates the variables of poor clay, slow pour, or general dirtiness. It provides a clean representation of a tea that is easily repeated, and it's honest.
This is all well and good, but I understand how a gaiwan can seem intimidating, or that it would scald your fingertips off or some other horrific thing would happen if you used one.
The 100ml gaiwan is the cheapest, and probably most common. Steve over at Jas-e tea sells an excellent one for 6.99$, and if you want to get fancy there are many sizes, colors, and decorations available as well. I highly recommend just getting a plain white 100ml gaiwan to start with not only as it's so cheap, but if you're new to quality teas you might find that you'll brew more consistently quicker, and thus provide an overall better experience with which to ease yourself into the massive world of tea. If you've used anything else but a gaiwan so far in your tea journey, then at 7$ why not buy one to see if you're missing out on anything? If you don't like gaiwan brewing, it's not the biggest loss.
If you have a gaiwan, and aren't sure how to use it, or are thinking about maybe purchasing one, then you sure better know how to hold it. I only really know of two ways, and if there are others out there, please let me know. Practice these with an empty gaiwan to really get a feel for them, and make sure you're comfortable holding the gaiwan this way before trying them out. That way you don't run the risk of spilling boiling water on yourself or anything like that.
This is the beginner's stance. It's basically a cradling of the whole gaiwan including saucer until everything kind of locks into place. Remember that the lid is usually a round circle, while a lot of the gaiwan cups will actually be oval shaped. This is so that you can tilt the lid to act as a filter to allow the tea liquor to pass through, but not the leaves. The idea is to make a slit with this tilt, and thus controlling the flow of the infusion. Always remember that when handling a gaiwan, you should maintain a firm grip, but never be forceful. Holding anything too hard while brewing will cause a piece to fly out of your hands, thus likely injuring yourself or someone else. Remember to use common sense when handling extremely hot liquids.
This way is the classic version, or at least I'm told. Don't fill your gaiwan all the way to the top, and even if you don't it will still be a little hot so use caution! If you hold it by the very tips of your fingers, you should be fine, and eventually those fingers will callous and you won't notice the heat anyway. I prefer this method, although I didn't start with it. I recommend the beginners grip which is easier if you're not used to handling a gaiwan.
If you're a fan of yixing, that's great. I'm not trying to be negative or anything like that. I love my two yixing that work well. I just would like to recommend something different. I think it's odd that most people getting into teas seem to jump straight into yixing ownership without having a wide experience of tastings under their belt to really figure out if the yixing is helping or hurting. I understand the lure of yixing ownership in all of it's exoticness, and collectability, but at the end of the day I still brew 100% of all tea that I try in the gaiwan at least once, and 90% of all the tea I've ever consumed or will consume has come from a gaiwan. I hope this mini guide has helped a little bit.
Enter the gaiwan. It's simple, elegant, light, criminally cheap, easy to use, and incredibly efficient at just plain making some tea. It eliminates the variables of poor clay, slow pour, or general dirtiness. It provides a clean representation of a tea that is easily repeated, and it's honest.
This is all well and good, but I understand how a gaiwan can seem intimidating, or that it would scald your fingertips off or some other horrific thing would happen if you used one.
The 100ml gaiwan is the cheapest, and probably most common. Steve over at Jas-e tea sells an excellent one for 6.99$, and if you want to get fancy there are many sizes, colors, and decorations available as well. I highly recommend just getting a plain white 100ml gaiwan to start with not only as it's so cheap, but if you're new to quality teas you might find that you'll brew more consistently quicker, and thus provide an overall better experience with which to ease yourself into the massive world of tea. If you've used anything else but a gaiwan so far in your tea journey, then at 7$ why not buy one to see if you're missing out on anything? If you don't like gaiwan brewing, it's not the biggest loss.
If you have a gaiwan, and aren't sure how to use it, or are thinking about maybe purchasing one, then you sure better know how to hold it. I only really know of two ways, and if there are others out there, please let me know. Practice these with an empty gaiwan to really get a feel for them, and make sure you're comfortable holding the gaiwan this way before trying them out. That way you don't run the risk of spilling boiling water on yourself or anything like that.
This is the beginner's stance. It's basically a cradling of the whole gaiwan including saucer until everything kind of locks into place. Remember that the lid is usually a round circle, while a lot of the gaiwan cups will actually be oval shaped. This is so that you can tilt the lid to act as a filter to allow the tea liquor to pass through, but not the leaves. The idea is to make a slit with this tilt, and thus controlling the flow of the infusion. Always remember that when handling a gaiwan, you should maintain a firm grip, but never be forceful. Holding anything too hard while brewing will cause a piece to fly out of your hands, thus likely injuring yourself or someone else. Remember to use common sense when handling extremely hot liquids.
This way is the classic version, or at least I'm told. Don't fill your gaiwan all the way to the top, and even if you don't it will still be a little hot so use caution! If you hold it by the very tips of your fingers, you should be fine, and eventually those fingers will callous and you won't notice the heat anyway. I prefer this method, although I didn't start with it. I recommend the beginners grip which is easier if you're not used to handling a gaiwan.
If you're a fan of yixing, that's great. I'm not trying to be negative or anything like that. I love my two yixing that work well. I just would like to recommend something different. I think it's odd that most people getting into teas seem to jump straight into yixing ownership without having a wide experience of tastings under their belt to really figure out if the yixing is helping or hurting. I understand the lure of yixing ownership in all of it's exoticness, and collectability, but at the end of the day I still brew 100% of all tea that I try in the gaiwan at least once, and 90% of all the tea I've ever consumed or will consume has come from a gaiwan. I hope this mini guide has helped a little bit.
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