Gaiwan (盖碗）is a traditional Chinese tea set with a cover on top, a bowl in the middle, and a tray on the bottom. It is also known as the "Sancai Bowl" and was popular during the Yongzheng period of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. In ancient China, Gaiwan was mainly used for drinking tea (drinking tea directly from the gaiwan), such as Sichuan "Gaiwan Tea" in China. With the rise of Chinese Kungfu tea, Gaiwan usually be used as a tea set for brewing tea.
What's the difference between brewing tea in a teapot and a Gaiwan?
Anyone well-versed in the tea ceremony knows that the tea ceremony pays special attention to "observing color, smelling aroma, tasting, and viewing shape".
When brewing tea with an ordinary teapot, we cannot directly see the tea's shape and color, and it is difficult to gauge its concentration. After pouring hot water, we need to lift the teapot and find a suitable tilt angle to pour the tea.
Due to the different shapes of teapots, we often need some time to pour out the tea soup from the teapot completely. If the tea dregs block the spout, it will take longer, causing the tea to soak in the pot. If it is too long, the tea soup will cool down and the aroma will be lost, missing the best time to taste the tea.
The Gaiwan is large at the top and small at the bottom. After placing the tea leaves and pouring hot water, we can directly open the lid of the Gaiwan to observe the shape of the tea leaves and the color of the tea soup. This ingenious design makes it easy to operate and control the tea-brewing process. Compared to the teapot, the Gaiwan's large-opening design is easier to clean.
The benefits of Gaiwan
Making tea in a Gaiwan lets you pour the tea soup quickly. When pouring the tea soup, we can use the gap between the lid and the bowl to pour, which can be adjusted manually. As long as the gap is appropriate, the soup can be poured quickly, and the tea dregs can be filtered out, so there is no problem of clogging the water outlet.
Secondly, the lid of the Gaiwan is a useful tool for smelling the tea's aroma and keeping it warm. When we make tea with a Gaiwan, the lid prevents heat from escaping and helps retain the tea's temperature. After the tea leaves are added to the boiling water, we wait a few seconds, then lift the lid to smell the aroma. For tea with a strong aroma, it is a very important method of observation. While smelling the fragrance, we can see the tea soup and directly appreciate the stretch of the tea leaves after brewing. We can also make full use of the tea lid to control the concentration of the tea soup. If we want the tea soup to be thicker, we can use the tea cover to gently scrape the water's surface, so that the whole bowl of tea is turned up and down. Light scraping will make it weak, and heavy scraping will make it thicker.
Most importantly, the Gaiwan is well-suited to brewing all kinds of tea, allowing us to easily switch between them. If you usually like to drink different teas, then Gaiwan is definitely your first choice of tea set. Many people like to use purple clay pots to brew tea, but the special double-pore structure of purple clay teapots makes it particularly easy for them to absorb tea flavor. If you brew a kind of tea with it for a long time, the tea's aroma will remain in the teapot. When you brew different kinds of tea in a purple clay pot, the residual tea flavor in the teapot mixes with the aroma of the freshly brewed tea, making it difficult to taste the freshly brewed tea. The result is that you have to match one type of tea to one pot.
And if you use a ceramic Gaiwan with a smooth surface, as long as it is cleaned, there will be no tea aroma residue. We only need to make slight adjustments to the tea-brewing steps based on the characteristics of different teas. Brewing with a Gaiwan allows tea lovers to experience the ever-changing flavors of each brew, making it an excellent tea set for appreciating the nuances of various tea types, such as green, oolong, and white teas. In Wuyishan City, China, judges usually use a ceramic Gaiwan as the tea set when judging the grade of tea.
Drinking tea with a Gaiwan is a traditional Chinese way of tasting tea that allows you to fully experience its aroma and taste. Gaiwan is perfect for brewing and tasting all types of tea, especially high-quality loose-leaf tea.
How do you use a Chinese Gaiwan?
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use a Gaiwan to drink tea:
1: Warm Gaiwan With Hot Water
Before using the Gaiwan to make tea, rinse the Gaiwan and teacup with boiling water. The purpose of doing this is to increase the temperature inside the tureen so as not to be robbed of the water temperature by the tureen when brewing tea; otherwise, it will affect the flavor of the tea soup, and also to clean the tea set and remove odors.
First, we need to pour hot water into the bowl and cover it. Then pick up the bowl with the right hand, hold the bottom with the left hand, and pour the water into the far cup. Then pour the hot water from the far cup into the teacup, hold the teacup with a tea clip, shake the hot water in the cup, and pour it out.
2: Put Tea Leaves Into Gaiwan
We need to put in the appropriate amount of tea leaves according to the capacity of the Gaiwan. Taking a standard Gaiwan with a capacity of 110 ml as an example, if brewing black and white tea, we only need to put 5 grams of tea leaves. If you choose rock tea, you need 8 grams of tea leaves. Only by controlling the appropriate proportion of tea to water can the best flavor expression be achieved, and the thickness be appropriate.
3: Pour Boiling Water Into Gaiwan
When pouring water, it is best to rotate the cup to ensure each tea leaf is fully moistened. The water should be poured into two-thirds of the bowl, so that the highest can not let the water soak into the lid, otherwise, it is easy to heat the hand when pouring tea. The vast majority of tea leaves are suitable for boiling water, and boiling water is advocated. A high enough temperature helps bring out the aroma of each boiling point in the tea, making the tea fragrant and varied in intensity.
4: Soak
Use the lid to gently scrape off the foam floating on the surface of the Gaiwan and turn the tea leaves to stretch them out. Then cover the lid and wait 10-15 seconds before pouring out the tea. Adhere to the principle of fast rather than slow to avoid the tea taste becoming too long and bitter.
5: Pour Out The Tea Soup
Pick up the tureen with your index, middle, and thumb fingers. Gently press the middle of the lid with your index finger, grasp the edge of the Gaiwan with your middle finger and thumb together, leaving a gap enough to pour out the tea soup, then quickly tilt the bowl over and pour the tea into a fair cup until the tea is drained completely.
6: Pour The Tea Soup Into The Cup
Pour the tea separately into the teacups with a fair cup. When drinking tea, you should first observe its color, then smell its aroma, and finally taste it.
How Do You Not Burn Yourself With Gaiwan？
When many people make tea with a Gaiwan for the first time, they often ask how to pour tea with a Gaiwan without burning their hands. In addition to more practice, we also need to focus on correctly using the Gaiwan to pour tea and choosing the Gaiwan that suits us.
There are two commonly used gestures for making tea with a Gaiwan, which are the three-finger method and the bowl-grasping method:
1：Three-finger Method
The three-finger method is to hold the bowl with the thumb, index finger, and middle finger. This technique is suitable for most people, looks elegant, and is deeply loved by women.
When pouring tea with a Gaiwan, we need to tilt the lid first, leaving a gap enough to pour out the tea soup, then put the index finger on the lid button, the thumb, and middle finger grasp the sides of the bowl, the ring finger and little finger bend and next to the middle finger. Throughout the process, keep your fingers away from the bowl, then turn the bowl upright to serve the soup.
Note that the ring finger and little finger cannot be lifted. This kind of holding method requires finding the right position and then practicing more.
2：Bowl-grasping Method
The point of this method is to adjust the size of the lid opening first, then press the lid button with your thumb, stick the other fingers to the bottom of the Gaiwan, turn the lid towards you, and then turn the Gaiwan vertically to serve soup. This bowl-grabbing method is easy to operate and can be mastered with one hand. It looks heroic and majestic and is mostly used by men.
How To Choose The Right Gaiwan?
When we make tea with a Gaiwan, we can't avoid coming into contact with hot water. To avoid burning ourselves, in addition to mastering the correct way to hold the Gaiwan, we also have to choose a Gaiwan that suits us.
① The material of the Gaiwan
In terms of material, the common materials of the Gaiwan are generally purple sand, porcelain, and glass. The Gaiwan made of purple sand will absorb the tea's fragrance. The glass Gaiwan will be lacking in gathering incense, and when used, the glass is slipperier, making it easy to burn your hands.
Porcelain Gaiwan is glazed after firing, so they are extremely inclusive. When brewing different teas with a ceramic Gaiwan, as long as it is simply cleaned, there will be no odor, so the tea's taste is fully preserved.
Among the ceramic Gaiwan, thin-bodied white porcelain fired at high temperature is the most suitable for making tea. The white porcelain can reflect the color of the tea soup, making the red color more vivid and the light color brighter, thereby improving perception. In addition, the thin tire conducts heat quickly; it does not absorb heat from the tea soup, which makes the tea more mellow.
②The capacity of the Gaiwan
When we choose the capacity of the Gaiwan, we must first consider the number of tea drinkers. If 2-3 people drink tea together, choosing a Gaiwan of about 120-150 ml is best. When you use this size bowl to make tea, pour water directly into the waistline, and the tea will come out with just the right shade.
When drinking tea individually, a standard Gaiwan of about 100-110 ml is generally chosen. Here are some tea brewing ratios:
To make black tea, add 5 grams of tea and 100-110 ml of water.
To make white tea, add 5 grams of tea and 100-110 ml of water.
For rock tea, add 8 grams of tea and 100-110 ml of water.
In addition to focusing on capacity, we also have to choose a tureen that fits our palms. Men's hands are larger than women's, so men can choose larger Gaiwan with a capacity of 150-300 ml, while women can choose smaller tea sets with a capacity of 80-150 ml.
③Type of Gaiwan
A good type of Gaiwan should be full and round, and the bowl body should have a certain arc. If the cup body of the Gaiwan extends in a straight line, the distance between the cup mouth and the boiling water is closer. When we hold the top of the cup, it burns. With the curved design, heat will be reduced, and when we hold the bowl, we won't burn our hands.
At the same time, we have to choose a Gaiwan that suits us. Girls' wrist strength is limited; if you buy a large, heavy bowl, after filling it with water to make tea, the heavy Gaiwan will become even heavier. When we pick up the bowl, our hands are prone to souring, which inevitably slows the speed of our pouring, resulting in the tea being soaked for too long and tasting dull and bitter.
People with slightly short fingers are not suitable for wide-lidded bowls. A wide gaiwan makes it hard for our fingers to grasp both sides, and even if we can barely hold them, it's hard to hold down the lid. When we pour the tea soup, the tureen will tilt slightly, and the lid will slip, and it may fall off the table.
For most people, the "inverted bell-shaped" tureen is easier to master.
④Rim of Gaiwan
When choosing the rim of the Gaiwan, we should consider two points: anti-scalding and smooth soup delivery. It is recommended to choose a Gaiwan with a wider rim and a slightly curved edge.
We usually use the "three-finger" method to pour tea with a Gaiwan, with the point we hold on the rim of the bowl. The wider edge of the bowl can separate the heat from the bowl body, making it easier to keep our fingers away from the hot water. At the same time, a wider bowl rim makes it easier to dispense tea soup.
At the same time, don’t choose a bowl rim design that’s too complicated or ornate. For example, petal-shaped, sunflower-shaped, and wavy bowl rims can easily "divert" the tea soup during pouring, affecting the smoothness of the pour.
⑤Lid button for Gaiwan
It is recommended to choose a slightly taller lid button with a concave center. The lid button is higher to prevent us from being burned when fixing and covering the lid. At the same time, after pouring out the tea soup, it is convenient for us to open the lid and smell the aroma. The concave lid button makes it easier to secure the lid when serving soup and prevents it from slipping off.
⑥The thickness of the bowl wall of the Gaiwan
We need to choose a Gaiwan with a thinner bowl wall to avoid burning our hands. Some people may say we should choose thick materials to insulate against heat, but in the actual process of brewing tea, we generally do not touch the bowl body when using a tureen. At this time, whether the bowl is thick or thin, it cannot serve as a heat insulator. On the contrary, the bowl is thick, and when boiling water is poured in, the heat will not dissipate quickly, making it very hot. In addition, the tureen with a thick wall is heavier overall and not easy to handle, which is not conducive to movement when making tea. If you make a mistake while making soup, you're more likely to burn your hands. Therefore, choose a tureen with a thinner bowl wall, which is lighter and more practical.
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