Topic: Recommended tea ware for green tea

I normally brew longjing greens and was thinking of swopping to a proper teapot instead of my Western style one which doesn't allow the air to circulate inside the pot properly during brewing time.

What would you recommend me? A a gaiwan or a teapot? And which of the following materials:

1. Celadon
2. Porcelain
3. Glass

Any other suggestions and corrections are more than welcome as I am not a tea expert.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

If it were me, I'd recommend a thin wall (eggshell) porcelain gaiwan. I'm not sure what you mean about the air, though. I don't think there should be air circulating inside the pot, gaiwan, so not sure what you mean there.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

Thanks for your recommendation which I will follow as I came across some of your posts over at Tea Chat :). Could you please recommend me a reputable online dealer which sell quality tea ware and packages their stuff properly. Last thing I want on earth is a fragile eggshell porcelain getting broken during delivery.

Btw, what size of gaiwan would you recommend me? 90mL, 100mL or 120mL?

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

They won't ship out of the US / Canada through their cart system (you could try emailing them, though, or seeing if someone in the US can order one for you), but the one I'd really recommend is one of these three
http://www.theteagallery.com/category_s/12.htm

Very comfortable to use (you can see some topics about them on Teachat if you want some more opinions), and pretty delicate. They generally pack them very well.

As far as size, depends how you're going to drink the tea (whether you're going to pour the tea into a fair cup or drinking cup, or drink straight from the gaiwan), and how many people you'll be drinking with. I usually drink oolongs and puers, and usually use smallish cups (15-50 ml) and a lot of infusions, so I like the 60 ml one for drinking alone, and larger ones when drinking with 3 or more people. But with green tea, you tend to do fewer infusions and drink more at a time, so I'd say around 90-100 ml might not be a bad size.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

Thanks again. I have noticed that as well. I just shot them an e-mail. I am crossing fingers for a delivery to Australia.

I will be using the Gaiwan for myself and maybe one guest. In this last case, can I get away with 90mL?

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

mayayo wrote:

Thanks again. I have noticed that as well. I just shot them an e-mail. I am crossing fingers for a delivery to Australia.

I will be using the Gaiwan for myself and maybe one guest. In this last case, can I get away with 90mL?

Again, just depends on the size of your cups and how much tea you like to drink at once. To me, 90ml is plenty big for up to 2 or 3 people; if you've got some cups that are around 30-50 ml, you should be good (the tea will take up some volume, but possibly not as much as you think, and you aren't going to fill the cups to the rim).

If Tea Gallery won't ship, you could try http://jingteashop.com/ (based in China).

They have only a limited selection of porcelain on their site, but can generally find other stuff if you contact them directly. Overall, I think the quality of their porcelain is good.

Best Tea House also has some really nice, thin blue and white porcelain gaiwans (you can see some in the pictures I posted in the teaware thread) that are about the right size; they don't have an online shop, but I can put you in touch with folks at the HK or Canada branch if you want to try to order one. The price won't be super cheap - I'd guess around 30 US, give or take.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

Hi,

I am new here and i sincerely hope that i am not offending any etiquette by adding to this post. If i do, please let me know. I am also interested in matching green tea to teapots. Like the threadstarter, I am interested in longjing as well as jasmine tea.

I own a green yixing teapot that is speckled with sand. At the moment, all i am sure of is that i can brew oolong tea with it. But can i use it to brew longjing tea? Or even pu-erh?

Thank you.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

Again, I would recommend (and I think many others also) using porcelain rather than stoneware / earthenware for brewing green tea. There's little benefit to using a yixing pot, and the pot will make it easier to "cook" the tea; you might also lose some fragrance.

Since you mention jasmine tea specifically, I would also caution against brewing scented teas like jasmine tea in a yixing pot, for reasons that will probably be obvious if you think about it a little.

As far as brewing different types of teas in your pot, at the beginning, it may be ok to try some different teas in your pot to see what works well, but I think most people would agree it's better to devote a pot to specific types of tea, though there is some disagreement about how specific that should get.

Re: Recommended tea ware for green tea

Thanks again William for your reply.

Porcelain or plain glass was also suggested by the books i read if I want to brew green tea. I will probably get a japanese porcelain for this as they looked absolutely gorgeous (though I doubt the quality of the tea will be affected).

The vendor told me that the green teapot is suitable for pu-erh. Once i find the cable, i will download pictures of my teapot into the appropriate thread for comments.

One tea enthusiast shared with me that the small lao zhuni should be used to brew wuyi tea and use the green teapot for tie kuan yin. Then use a porcelain pot for longqing. Pu-erh will need a bigger yixing pot than what i currently have. Do let me know if i have errors in my understanding. I value your opinions.