On Apr 27, 9:50*am, AK > wrote:
> Dominic T. wrote:
> > On Apr 27, 7:45 am, AK > wrote:
> >> How much water do you heat up at a time and how do you keep it hot?
> >> I almost never use gaiwan lately because it's too much hassle to go
> >> to the kitchen and heat up more water and I don't like the taste of
> >> water boiled with an electric kettle.. other than that I'd love to
> >> use gaiwans more often. I end up only drinking blacks, greens and
> >> yellows because of this. -ak
>
> > Often I do use an electric kettle, one of which has a temp hold
> > feature and one that does not. At work I use the water cooler/heater
> > which is a local PA spring water and I turn the thermostat all the way
> > up so I get ~195-200 degrees. I actually don't heat and reheat the
> > water very often, in fact because I drink many teas that take lower
> > temps i make the first brew and then just make subsequent brews with
> > the water at whatever temp it remains to be. Many swear by adding heat
> > for each subsequent brew, but with greens I find that it's not really
> > necessary for many... the descending heat does just fine, I may up the
> > steep time a bit but that's all. Yellows also do great like this.
>
> > Same thing could be done with a kettle on the stove, heat it up once
> > and keep using it. I often give the same treatment to oolongs and
> > blacks without a major issue. There is an art to it that took me a
> > while to perfect and to match to my tastes but it can be done with a
> > little effort. The big thing is to find a kettle that keeps the heat
> > really well or I'd imagine you could pour off to a nice glass vacuum
> > thermos and use that for each brewing after the first.
>
> > - Dominic
>
> That's pretty much what I've tried to do many times but it's always
> a bit off. I mean, if I heat up about 4 gaiwans worth (I have a very
> small gaiwan), then it's perfect but then I have to heat up the kettle
> once again.. Basically, it comes down to spending ~7 minutes to make
> a 3-cup pot vs. spending at least ~45 minutes hanging around the kitchen,
> heating kettle 2-3 times, timing the infusions right, and drinking
> the tea leasurely. I could speed the whole thing up but then I have
> to drink it too fast and that's no fun. If I could work in the kitchen
> on the laptop, I would probably adjust eventually, but I hate the
> laptop's keyboard.
>
> What I end up doing is this: I have two 3-cup glass pots and I brew
> in one of them, with no infuser, and then decant into the second one.
> I have to say I was never able to make greens and yellows in a gaiwan
> as nicely as I get them with this method, although I haven't tried
> that many times. But.. it's just hard to imagine that it's possible
> to make better green, yellow and black tea than that - very often
> it comes out just perfect; I do like light tea--I think part of
> the advantage of a gaiwan is that it's possible to make much stronger
> tea without adding too much astringency and sourness; but light
> tea suits me even better.
>
> So, my only problem is oolongs and puerhs. The funny thing is that
> I keep buying them and I do like them so they just keep accumulating
> and... it's a good thing that they don't go stale! (well, greener
> oolongs might..). But I found that I can make green oolongs quite
> nicely with glass pots, too, with less leaf and longer infusions.
>
> What I really need is one of those butane portable burners they
> sell in some stores in chinatown. I saw one for only $15 and I'm
> still kicking myself that I didn't get it back then.. That will
> solve my puerh and oolong problem! -ak

Oh, well maybe we are on two different pages. Let me step back and
kind of qualify what I was saying. For me 3-4 gaiwans is what I am
aiming for in a typical brewing, not speed or volume which may be more
of where I misunderstood your initial question. I can probably get 4-5
gaiwans brewed with one heated pot of water, so probably 400-600ml
(14-20oz.) of tea which doesn't really require any time investment
beyond the initial "boil" of maybe 5-7 minutes and a couple trips back
to the kettle for more water. At most I might reheat the water once
more or heat a fresh pot to boil for the last rounds or if I've spread
it out over a longer time period and the water has cooled.

Something like a Zojirushi small-mid sized kettle might work for you
if you can get past the aversion to electric heat as they can be set
and keep the water at the right temp and there is no "wasted" time or
effort. I can't see butane being preferable to electric as it is going
to possibly impart an actual taste or at least fumes which aren't the
most pleasant.

I don't do a ton of Puerh or green oolongs and when I do those tend
not to find their way to my gaiwan anyhow. That's mostly the domain of
Yixing for me. It took me a considerable amount of time to finally
settle on my gaiwans and to proclaim that they have "won." I struggled
and went back and forth over time, but for me they finally proved to
be the best balance of all aspects and even exceled in a few. My best
suggestion would be to not force it and just find your own sweet spot,
they may not be for everyone and it may take time to finally click.

- Dominic