can you brew chinese teas in a gaiwan
Yes, but you need to pay attention to the following points:
1. Choose the right teacup: If you want to drink tea directly from the gaiwan, you need to choose the right teacup, preferably one with a wide mouth. This makes it easier to separate the tea from the liquid and also keeps the temperature.
2. Pay attention to the temperature: When drinking tea from a gaiwan, you need to pay attention to the temperature, especially if you are a beginner. Do not pour too hot tea directly into the teacup, as this could burn your mouth and throat.
3. Pouring the tea: When drinking tea in a covered bowl, the tea in the bowl needs to be poured into the teacup, but this needs to be done slowly to avoid pouring the tea leaves into the cup.
4. Pay attention to the taste: Because it is not easy to control the steeping time of the tea when drinking tea in a covered bowl, it is easy to affect the taste. Therefore, you need to pay attention to adjusting the amount of tea and the steeping time to achieve the effect that suits your own taste.
How to brew tea in a gaiwan
How to brew tea in a gaiwan
1. Don’t buy a too large gaiwan
A large gaiwan has its advantages.
This is especially true for tea leaves with large leaves and long stems that look fluffy, such as Qiu Shou Mei loose tea.
A larger gaiwan can hold more.
Some tea lovers have taken note of this and bought a very large gaiwan when they first start brewing tea, thinking that a large gaiwan can hold millions of tea leaves.
This logic is not incorrect, but other factors need to be considered.
One is that a large lid bowl can hold a lot of water, and you need to consider the proportion of tea water appropriately.
Another is that a large lid bowl is also heavy and cumbersome, and it may not be easy to hold.
The most important point is that you also need to consider the size of your palm.
When buying a lid bowl, you can hold it up and compare it with your hand.
If your hand is too small, and you can barely reach the sides of the lid bowl with your middle finger and thumb open, then you should reconsider whether such a lid bowl is suitable for you.
Generally speaking, a standard 110 ml lid is more practical, not too big or too small, and it is effortless to hold.
2. Recommended three-finger grip
Some tea lovers will attribute the hot feeling to the lid not being heat-resistant.
This is really unfair to the lid!
The lid itself is actually very ingeniously designed. It is not a teaware item that snaps together and fits snugly, but rather leaves a gap, which is convenient for pouring tea and allowing the heat to escape.
To understand whether a cover bowl is heat-resistant, you need to understand where it is hot and where it is not.
After pouring in hot water, the surface that comes into direct contact with the water and the lid, which is steaming with heat, are both hot.
But if you look closely, you will notice two other special places.
One is the rim of the bowl, which extends outwards and cannot come into contact with the hot water.
The other is the knob on the handle of the lid, which extends a certain height.
Remembering these two places leads to an obvious conclusion.
If you want to brew tea without burning your hands, you must start from these two points.
Here, we recommend the three-finger grip method, and it must be used correctly.
First, in terms of technique, use your usual hand to exert force.
Buckle your thumb and middle finger around the rim of the bowl on either side, and then rest your index finger in the middle on the lid knob. Be careful not to buckle your index finger into the lid knob.
You can practice in advance before brewing tea.
Pay attention to the fact that the points where the three fingers come into contact with the lid bowl should form a line, and the point of force should be on this line.
The thumb and middle finger are locked in place and then exert force, while the index finger lightly presses to ensure that the lid does not slip down.
When pouring the tea into the fair cup, you should also pay attention to adjusting the force of the index finger. The centre of gravity of the lid bowl should be moved forward to ensure that the tea is poured steadily.
Therefore, as long as you ensure that your hand is placed in the correct position and exert force correctly, you should not be afraid of getting burned.