Gaiwan
A gaiwan is three pieces: a lid, a bowl and a saucer. It has been in use since at least the Ming dynasty, it is the most common brewing vessel in China, and it is the one piece of teaware that will brew anything you own. The lid does the work a strainer does elsewhere, holding the leaf back as you pour.
- Capacity
- 100 to 150 ml
- Material
- glazed porcelain, sometimes glass
- Origin
- China, in use since the Ming dynasty
- Best for
- any tea, and the reference vessel for tasting one honestly
What it is
The bowl flares outward toward the rim, which is what lets you hold a vessel full of near-boiling water without burning your fingers: the rim stays cooler than the liquid. The lid sits inside that flare rather than on top of it, so you can tilt it to whatever gap you want and pour through the slot. The saucer is a handle. Glazed porcelain is the standard body, and a gaiwan holds somewhere near 100 to 150 ml, close to the size of an ordinary teacup.
What it does to your tea
Almost nothing, and that is the point. Glazed porcelain is vitrified, so it absorbs no oil and holds no aroma from the last tea you brewed. A gaiwan therefore gives you the tea rather than the tea plus the vessel, which is why it is the vessel to reach for when you want to know what something actually tastes like. The wide mouth also lets you smell the wet leaf and the underside of the lid between infusions, which carries aromatics that never reach the liquor.
What it suits
Everything, with one honest caveat. Its neutrality suits green and white tea, where a clay pot would flatten the delicacy, and its small volume suits oolong and puer, where you want a high leaf-to-water ratio and many short infusions. The caveat is heat: a thin porcelain bowl with a wide open mouth loses heat quickly, so drinkers of heavily roasted oolong and aged puer often prefer something with more mass.
How to use one
Rinse it with hot water first, which warms the porcelain and stops it stealing heat from the brew. No thermometer for green or white range: fill the gaiwan about a quarter with cold water, then top up with water just under boiling. Add leaf, pour water down the side rather than onto the leaf. For black or oolong, rinse the leaf too, draining it off through the lid, then cover with the lid to steep. Green leaf is usually given no rinse, and many brewers leave the bowl open while it infuses so the leaf does not stew. Tilt the lid to leave a slot narrower than the leaf, hold bowl and lid together, and pour off completely: what you leave behind keeps extracting and turns the next infusion bitter.
How to choose one
Hold one before buying. The rim should flare enough that your thumb and middle finger can grip it while the lid is held down by your index finger, and that is a hand measurement, not a specification. A rolled or slightly thickened rim is easier to hold than a thin one. Check the lid rocks freely inside the bowl rather than binding, and pour water from it in the shop if you can: a gaiwan that dribbles down its own side will do it every time.
Care and cleaning
Rinse with hot water and let it dry. It is glazed porcelain, so it will not take on flavour and needs no seasoning. Detergent is unnecessary but harmless. The lid is the part that breaks, so store it inside the bowl rather than balanced on top.
What people get wrong
Treating it as a beginner's vessel to graduate from. It is the reference instrument: neutral, cheap and able to brew anything, which is why experienced drinkers keep using one long after they own clay. The other mistake is filling it. A gaiwan is meant to be poured off completely into a second vessel, not sipped from while the leaf sits in the remaining liquid, unless you are drinking it the everyday Chinese way and topping it up as you go.
What it is made of
Sources
- For black or oolong tea, rinse the leaf first and cover the gaiwan with the lid while it steeps; for green tea, skip the rinse and leave the gaiwan uncovered. Pettigrew, J. (2004). The Tea Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide, p.46-47
- To reach green or white tea temperature without a thermometer, fill the gaiwan about a quarter with cold water, then top up with water just under boiling. Gascoyne, S. et al. (2014). Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties