Welcome to the YangKriege Tea Academy | Lesson 3.1

The Gaiwan is a unique piece of tea-ware. Originating from China, its design appeared in the 17th century at the time of Manchu Qing Dynasty. Manchu, who conquered China, had lost their heart to its sophisticated, refined and highly spiritual culture which assimilated them entirely. Emperors of Qing dynasty became adepts of tea. In this period the tea business has been rapidly developing with the variety of tea houses opening around the country and major part of its inhabitants’ drinking tea.

The name of gaiwan itself translates as a cup with a lid. Initially gaiwan, used for individual tea drinking, eventually it started to be used for steeping tea and pouring it into cups.

A porcelain gaiwan is universally applicable for brewing of any tea, be it a green tea or pu’er. Therefore, it fits the best for introduction to the Chinese tea culture.

 Experiment with water temperature and your tea-ware beforehand. Boil up water, pour it in your Gaiwan 盖碗 and keep watching over its condition, measuring the temperature with the thermometer to familiarize yourself how the water will behave at each stage. Doing so will familiarize you with how it warms up the Gaiwan 盖碗 , Chahai 茶海 and, Chábēi 茶杯 and how fast it cools down. Keep your hand over it and sense what heat radiates at different temperatures. 

At the time of brewing, a thermometer is inappropriate to use, it becomes auspicious when you familiarize yourself with the water and your tea-ware. If you are using a glass kettle, attempt to bring the water to a boil with a thermometer, notice what kind of bubbles appear at different temperatures. In a word, take a time with water and thermometer prior to your tea session.

The Gaiwan 盖碗 must be held with one hand to while pouring into the Chahai 茶海 while at the same time filtering the tea leaves. Depending on the Gaiwan 盖碗 is made of, the temperature, of your brew, and your pouring technique, this could be quite hot to sensitive hands. You will master it after several steeping’s, but at first it will appear and feel awkward.

Use well filtered or good quality bottled water. Tap water has chemicals, additives, deposits, and other un-wanted material that will affect the tea flavor. 

Measure the required amount of tea and cast it into Chahe茶荷.

Set out tea-ware.

Boil water.

Acquaint yourself with the tea leaf in Chahe | 茶荷. In China it is customary to contemplate the tee and for us is more common to smell it. The aroma is inhaled as follows, hold the wide side of Chahe | 茶荷 to your nose, using both palms. Inhale and after a short pause exhale warm air onto the tea leaf, inhale and hold your breath again. To estimate the depth of the aroma you should inhale up to three times.

Preheat the tea-ware, this prevents tea-ware from drawing heat from the steeping’s. This should be done as follows, pour some water in empty Gaiwan 盖碗, then from Gaiwan 盖碗 to Chahe 茶荷, and from Chahe 茶荷 to teacups. Afterwards water from teacups is dumped in a Chápán 茶盘 or a tea Cháchí 茶池. You may immediately take advantage of this procedure and find out if the capacity of Gaiwan 盖碗is sufficient for all guests. Should you fill the teacups full, to the middle or just cover the bottom slightly. Don’t forget that by the third steeping, the tealeaf in there will take up 1/3 of Gaiwan 盖碗 volume.

Throw the tea in the warmed Gaiwan 盖碗, cover with the lid, shake it a little, and try the aroma again which now is much brighter even without in and exhaling.

Steep the tea with water of the respective temperature using the chart above.

Pour the tea into Chábēi 茶杯immediately, the lid should be crack open slightly as not to let the tea leaves slip out. If this is hard to do or the tea leaf is too small you can use the sieve/strainer. There is no disgrace to put the tea back in Gaiwan 盖碗 from the sieve/strainer if it slipped out in abundance. 

The first steeping of Oolong and Pu’er is to be disposed of. You may use it for repeated preheating of cups, pour it off in a Chápán 茶盘, or offer a cup to your Tea Pet. Next steeping with no delay is poured into Chábēi 茶杯.

From chahai the tea is distributed between teacups. There are several options to take if the cups are full, but there’s some tea remaining in the chahai. First Option, pour it off in the chapan or shower the Tea Pet. Second option, evenly add the tea to all teacups. Third Option, retain it and drink another round. This is appropriate when the tea is plenty, and the guests are few. The extra tea is not a problem, it is much worse when one of guests is left deprived. 

Every time pay attention to how much tea should be poured in the teacups in order to distribute it evenly as the tealeaf may keep swelling up to the 6-th steeping and occupying the internal space increasingly with each steeping, retaining less space for water.

Generally, the first cup is handed over to the guest and the rest he takes by himself. In China the teacup remains with the guest and the tea is filled up wherever he leaves it.

Proceed with the steeping’s. Pour in water and at once pour off the infusion into chahai. If after 5-10 steeping’s you will sense that the flavor has reached its climax and started to decline, you may increase each consecutive steeping by adding 10, 20, 30 seconds to it.

Keep steeping to the moment which you consider appropriate for the given tea. Control temperature of the water, using the kettle maintain the temperature by periodic heating to the respective level thereof, otherwise, your tea will brew incompletely.

Good Chinese teas withstand much steeping’s, see chart above, however in practice the number of steeping’s depends on several factors such as tea variety, water temperature, choice of tea-ware, steeping time, and your taste preferences. Many teas will wear off smoothly, some will end up unpalatable, mind you own senses.

Concluding the tea session, express gratitude to your guests for sharing this tea and time with you. Do not postpone washing of tea-ware especially when it comes to sieves and chapans. They may be spoiled by dried out tea. Use detergents only for teacups, for the rest of tea-ware rinsing and wiping is sufficient.

 Everyone works out their own brewing practices. Some like to do it most natural way with the minimal set of utensils. Others, on the contrary, are eager to acquire any article that could be used in the brewing process. This majorly depend on the mentality of a person as both these approaches are not axiomatic. But the set of tea utensils is better to be enlarged in steps. For example, if you feel that wet foot of a teacup distracts you, buy a tea towel and wipe the bottom of a cup before handing it over. If you dislike tea leaves slipping into chahai,  buy a sieve. But if you disregard the following inconveniences, then you need neither a sieve nor a towel. Pin cha does not impose any strict rules of provisions