Gaiwan

   I´ve been drooling over some Yixing- teapots lately. The only problem is that they aren´t exactly cheap and with christmas coming up and taking all my money, I settled for the next best thing: a gaiwan (apparently they can also be called zhong). It´s a smallish cup (mine is about 100ml) with a lid and a saucer. Mine is made of dark clay and the inside is coated with porcelain.

   With a gaiwan you do these kind of continuous steepings: you add leaves and water, steep for a minute or so and when you´ve almost emptied the first cup you pour more hot water in and re- steep for a while, drink again, repeat as long as there´s any flavour left in the leaves or you have someplace else to go. The lid is used to keep the leaves from getting into your mouth. I´m under the impression that it best suits green teas, but I guess you can do pretty much any kind of tea with it, as long as the leaves aren´t too small. I see it as a very elegant method of making and enjoying tea, it fits especially well the chinese greens which are usually very light and delicate; the continuous steeping extracts more flavour from the them.
  
   Now that I´ve had the opportunity to have a few "rounds" with my gaiwan, I can give a couple of observations. A thermos bottle is pretty much a necessity (I made do this far without one) so you have hot water available without having to boil some and measure the temperature again. I haven´t found out the "official" method of holding the gaiwan other than that you shouldn´t be holding it by the "cup" part (it´s hot anyways), but by the saucer and the lid, so I hold the saucer´s edge with my left hand while I open the lid just a little bit with my right hand, so that no leaves get to my mouth while I sip. It´s pretty easy after just a little practice. My gaiwan´s saucer (do the parts have their own names?) has quite a deep indentation for the cup to sit in, which is a good thing because this way it won´t slip and fall. Another porcelain gaiwan I looked at the tea shop where I bought mine from had almost no more of an indentation than your normal western tea cup and saucer- combo has; I instantly had a vision of hot tea falling all over and didn´t buy that one.

   I still have some adjusting to do when it comes to the drinking experience with the gaiwan. There´s a bit more stuff to think of when having tea this way. Maybe it contributes a little in making the experience more concentrated in some way? You really have to have your mind more present, you can´t just sip away with a mug in your left hand while reading a book at the same time. So there´s a time and a place that´s absolutely right for a gaiwan, but you should not take it out for every quick cup of tea you´re having. A gaiwan gives more diversity and options to your tealife.