"Lewis Perin" wrote in message
news
Please don't consider this a visit from the Gaiwan Police. You are
within your rights not to use one, but maybe there are things you
haven't considered.

"Melinda" writes:
[...]
I have been thinking about this lately, I have about five gaiwans and
they
are nothing but a pain for me to do gung fu in, as far as pouring off the
liquid. I'll brew and drink from them (with pleasure) but using them as
brewing vessels for me is really difficult, partially because I have
really
tiny hands

Maybe you know this, but there are gaiwans available in many sizes,
including ones small enough for a child's hand.

but also because of the water temp.

In my experience, the difference between a gaiwan that's very hot to
the touch and one that's comfortable is a matter of how much the lip
flares. (More is better.)

They don't have a spout so my tea tends to go all over.

Maybe your trouble controlling the pour is related to the size and heat?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html


More than likely you're right Lew, when I steep greens for two it's usually
in a bigger quantity than, say, 100 ml or so, so I try to use the larger
size. Also with greens, the leaves are smaller than oolongs, so I hold on
tighter to keep them from slipping out of the gaiwan and the tight hold
causes problems. I do have a shallower gaiwan with a wider lip, I don't know
that I've tried it yet but that will work well for an experiment

I suppose that if I were to want to actually work on this I'd start by
learning to pour water out of a gaiwan into another container without the
lid slipping and without any liquid dribbling down the side of the gaiwan.
It just seems easier (and also less disruptive to the whole gong fu-ing
experience) to use a glassware accoutrement for steeping greens though. My
trouble gongfu-ing wth the gaiwan though doesn't apply to everyone of
course, those who have a mastery of pouring out of a gaiwan have my
admiration.

-Melinda

On Feb 25, 7:54 pm, "Melinda" wrote:
I suppose that if I were to want to actually work on this I'd start by
learning to pour water out of a gaiwan into another container without the
lid slipping and without any liquid dribbling down the side of the gaiwan.
It just seems easier (and also less disruptive to the whole gong fu-ing
experience) to use a glassware accoutrement for steeping greens though. My
trouble gongfu-ing wth the gaiwan though doesn't apply to everyone of
course, those who have a mastery of pouring out of a gaiwan have my
admiration.

-Melinda

Practice makes perfect, and a good gaiwan makes it all a hell of a lot
easier. The biggest problems I see are people using the wrong tea and
water temps. Gong Fu does mean skilled and it does take time and
effort. Make sure you are using lower temps and greens to get the hang
of it all... or for that matter just practice with cool water and no
tea.

As Lew mentioned a gaiwan with larger flaring around the rim helps.
Don't overfill the gaiwan either, less water makes it easier and less
heat at the rim and lid where your fingers are.

I darn near burnt my fingerprints off trying to do Puerh with too
little skill and too much/hot water in some of my first attempts. That
says a lot too since I can flip things I'm pan searing with bare hands
with no problem. Now I can do any tea and any water temp no matter how
full with ease, it just takes time.

Check Youtube or other video sites for video of people using their
gaiwans with proper technique and you should be on your way. Best of
luck.

- Dominic

Ah, the gaiwan experience! You love it or you hate it, right?
Well, I believe that most people can enjoy it once they figured out how
to best pour the tea.
If you have a problem with burning your fingers on the cup itself, try
the following method I've adopted and never had a problem with heat
since:
A gaiwan usually consists of 3 parts: cup, lid and saucer. From what I
gather, you pick up the cup and lid when you pour your tea and leave
the saucer behind. I pick up the saucer with my thumb and middle finger
while holding the lid into place with my index finger (I slant the lid
before picking up the gaiwan). That way, you're grabbing the cold
saucer and are holding onto the (usually quite touchable) knob on the
lid. Most lids have an indentation in the knob that make it quite easy
to keep it in place with the index finger.
I agree that the trickiest bit is to judge the right gap for the lid to
allow free pouring while holding back the leaves effectively. But this,
as everything, is a judgement that you'll master with practice.
Just my 2 cents...


--

Another gaiwan option (cheating?) is to hold your hand palm up and
place the gaiwan (with or without saucer) on it, near your fingertips.
Hold the lid with your thumb and pour by rotating your wrist/forearm.
I find that the rim on the bottom of the gaiwan is cool enough to do
this even without a saucer and with boiling water.

Alan

The thing that I didn't really see overtly mentioned is that multiple
infusions done right (yes, I'd say almost immediately one after
another) is quite time consuming. This is not to suggest that it
should be considered a chore, but just the opposite. I wouldn't worry
about multiple infusions unless you're drinking the tea without
distraction, as an end in and of itself. Otherwise, for me anyway, I
always fail. When I make tea in the office, or at night when reading,
I almost never use the leaves more than once, simply because I drink
the tea gradually over the course of an hour or so. On the weekends,
I can take an hour just for tea making, one little cup at a time,
starting by making a short 45 second infusion, then a 1min infusion,
and so on, often experimenting with infusion times for different teas.
This is why I call it tea itself both a drink and a pasttime!

On Feb 18, 7:17 pm, "Dominic T." wrote:
On Feb 18, 9:01 pm, wrote:



I've been drinking tea for some years, but never managed to
understando how to do multiple infusions of the same leaves. So, I
have the the impression that I am wasting the leaves, not withdrawing
all their potential.
As I am the only tea drinker at home, I use a mug with a Chatsford
mesh infuser.
My questions are these:
Multiple infusions must be made one immediately after another? If not,
how long can I wait before infusing the same leaves again? One hour?
12 hour? One day? a couple of days? That's an important issue, because
normally I only drink tea at night and not always like to drink
several mugs, specially if they are of the same type of tea.
If I can store used leaves for one day, I should I do it? Keep them in
the infuser?

Thanks in advance!

Joao Baptista
Lisbon - Portugal

Olá Joao,

Well, I think multiple infusions may be tough to do with your current
setup. Not that there is anything wrong with it, just that it isn't
optimal for multiple infusions beyond maybe two. I'm not sure what
kind of tea you are drinking either, so maybe let us know that bit of
info too if you would.

Basically multiple infusions are done with smaller vessels and a
decent amount of leaves. Small as in a gaiwan, brew-in mug, or smaller
Yixing teapots. They should all be done in a fairly short time frame
and at most a couple hours, personally in a covered vessel I'd say 6-8
hours max before the air is going to react with the tea and affect the
flavor, but 2-4 is normally as long as I personally would go. Some
types of tea stand up better than others as well, Puerhs being tops
and other higher fermented/fired teas blacks, oolongs, etc. White teas
are hit or miss and might be good for 2-3 infusions and the same with
most greens... again depending on the individual tea.

In a large teapot and with only one person drinking it, one or two
infusions is about all you could ask for. Hope that helps!

- Dominic

5tein writes:

The thing that I didn't really see overtly mentioned is that multiple
infusions done right (yes, I'd say almost immediately one after
another) is quite time consuming. This is not to suggest that it
should be considered a chore, but just the opposite. I wouldn't worry
about multiple infusions unless you're drinking the tea without
distraction, as an end in and of itself. Otherwise, for me anyway, I
always fail. When I make tea in the office, or at night when reading,
I almost never use the leaves more than once, simply because I drink
the tea gradually over the course of an hour or so.

My experience is different. Running multiple steeps at the office
isn't as focused as doing it at home and/or with friends, but for me
it's much better than making tea at the office in a way that's
guaranteed to be less interesting.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

That's a good point: maybe by choosing to do so at the office one can
break the monotony of the day by having to consciously pay attention
to those wet leaves, if only for a moment. My problem is I usually
forget about them.

On Mar 4, 11:53 am, Lewis Perin wrote:
5tein writes:
The thing that I didn't really see overtly mentioned is that multiple
infusions done right (yes, I'd say almost immediately one after
another) is quite time consuming. This is not to suggest that it
should be considered a chore, but just the opposite. I wouldn't worry
about multiple infusions unless you're drinking the tea without
distraction, as an end in and of itself. Otherwise, for me anyway, I
always fail. When I make tea in the office, or at night when reading,
I almost never use the leaves more than once, simply because I drink
the tea gradually over the course of an hour or so.

My experience is different. Running multiple steeps at the office
isn't as focused as doing it at home and/or with friends, but for me
it's much better than making tea at the office in a way that's
guaranteed to be less interesting.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /