Gaiwan, aka lidded bowl, is our very favorite way to brew tea, hands down. We adore the simplicity, the elegance and love the way it really helps us understand each tea while giving us the ability to really get the most from the leaves. Gaiwan brewing affords for a more relaxed, contemplative experience.
With a little bit of practice, one can quickly come up to speed with brewing in a gaiwan. We recommend your first gaiwan experiences using teas that require cooler water temps until you are able to get used to handling a hot bowl. If you begin with a pu’er and you are not used to the high temps, you may drop your precious new tea gear due to your fingers feeling too hot. We don’t want you burning yourself.
We have a large selection of gaiwans on the site so head over to check them out after you watch our gaiwan demo below. Remember that good leaf may be steeped again and again. Start with short steeps and increase the time as you go.
Additonally, if you’re coming back to your brewing vessel after a spell in order to resteep, do a flash rinse using the same temp water you’ll brew at just to get the leaf and gaiwan warmed up again and discard that water just as you would the initial rinse.