a fun experiment: How does your Tea Ware effect the taste of your Tea?
Hello folks!
So, the way that tea ware effects the taste of your tea has been on my mind quite a lot recently. I think most of us can accept the fact that brewing in a gaiwan creates a different tasting brew than making tea with a brew basket in a mug, or brewing loose in a glass and sipping all day, or brewing tea in porcelain vs. yixing.
However, so much of that has to do with brewing style. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could really separate and tease out the effect that a brewing vessel or sipping vessel’s shape, material, heat retention, porousness etc, effects the final brew?
David just wrote an introductory article on the subject, just to get us all started and thinking about these things:
http://verdanttea.com/tea-ware-and-taste/
I would love to hear anecdotal feedback from all of you on this subject! I propose a simple experiment, for anyone that has two cups of about the same size (capacity), but made out of different materials or form in different shapes.
Step One: Brew tea any way you like; the way you normally like to brew would be ideal. If you can, use a tea you know fairly well.
Step Two: Now, pour a generally equal amount of tea into your tea cups.
Step Three: sip from both cups, back to back, and take notes. What differences can you taste? Is one more aromatic than the other? Is one warmer or cooler than the other? Does one have more texture, more flavor, more aftertaste?
Step Four: Repeat with more steepings, more teas, and / or more cups!
Step Five: Share your results here, or link to the Steepster tasting note where you saved your notes! If you can describe the shape and material of your cups, super cool!! If you have any photos of the tasting (instagram, anyone?), even more fun!!
In this way, I think it would be really fun for all of us to try out different styles of tea and tea wares to find new, unexpected or even ideal pairings. Anecdotally, I know that my teas taste really different if I sip them from a very thin, bowl-shaped Jingdezhen cup than when I sip them from glass bubble cups or heavier glazed and stoneware cups. I can also taste a big difference depending on the shape of the cup, even if the two pieces are made out of the same material: for example, a tall skinny cup is often more aromatic, but because the shape directs the volatile aromatics up into my nose more easily, and also because the brew is warmer with better heat retention in that shape (and heat makes things more aromatic!). However, these taller cups have me sip a little differently than a wide bowl, which can sometimes reveal different things in the aftertaste or give a less complex texture: and also, hotter things can sometimes be more difficult to taste with nuance!
Either way, this is a fun experiment I love doing with friends and at tea tastings, and I think it would be a cool thing for us to do, and all get together and share our own experiences on the subject.
This is more about the actual material and shape of the tea ware you’re using at the effects that those have on the brew, but I do understand it will be difficult to tease apart brewing vessel and brewing style. Whatever thoughts you have to share, I would love to hear them!
I’ve done a few experiments of this nature in the past. I’ve found the shape of the lip of the cup has a lot to do with the taste. Cups with an outward flowering lip really open up the flavor to more subtle notes and emphasize the “lighter” tasting flavors in a tea (floral, grassy, etc.) while inward curving cups eliminate a lot of those flavors but bring out the darker, richer flavors in a tea (earthy, mushroomy, etc.). I generally prefer a straight lipped cup or a straight V shape cup for most teas I drink as I feel they are well balanced. I like to use an outward flowering lip when really trying to savor the more subtle notes in a tea. I’m not a big fan of the inward curling lipped tea cups. I find they eliminate a lot of the character of the tea. That’s my 2 cents anyway.
Excellent! I agree – you’ve got a great description of the way these kinds of shapes pair up with and emphasize different characteristics of different teas.
What about the material itself? For example, glass is a completely vitrified material – it does not interact with it’s contents, which is one reason why it’s used in labs. On the other extreme, you’d have yixing / porous clay and stoneware cups with glazes that craze. Or even: cups made out of metal – anyone ever sipped from silver? etc. etc.
Definitely shape has an effect, but what if the shape of the cups were essentially the same, but made out of contrasting materials?
Love it! Thank you, awilsondc! If you ever do a side-by-side taste comparison, please share it.
For science!
For science – haha!! :) I hope you have the opportunity to do a comparative tasting soon; I would love to read it!
Will try this weekend, perhaps. For science.
Even still – I think it would be interesting to see if mugs in different shapes / thickness / materials / etc have an effect on flavor. Technically, there should be some effect, but it is possible that the (larger) amount of tea in the mug helps cancel out some of it or make it a little harder to detect.
Either way, I am looking forward to your notes :)
Okay, here goes. My first experiment. Poured out the tea into different sized vessels after I brewed it like normal in my mug.
Tea- Zhu Rong Yunnan Black
12 oz mug (for my daily cuppa)-
Cocoa scent, slightly smoky. Sweet, chocolate malt flavour. Similar to my first tasting note.
Corningware Tea cup -
Sweeter scent, more of the cocoa. Mildly malty flavour.
Japanese glass (I think sake)-
Smoky scent a bit stronger. Darker chocolate flavour, and the smoky flavour is stronger.
So cool!! I thought there must be some difference, but it is really, really to see such distinct differences playing out even in a larger format.
Thank you so much for sharing!!
Just for my own understanding: was the Japanese sake glass.. made out of glass? I am excited to do a mug-vs-mug tasting of my own now! Thank you :D
Nah, it was ceramic. I’m not sure it’s for sake, but it looked to be the right size and shape.
That makes sense! By the way, which of the three did you prefer, taste wise?
Do you think what you tasted will make you more or less likely to try sipping from other mugs / cups?
I liked the tea cup mostly, but the mug was still really good.
Will try from other mugs/ cups in the future.
This blog post drops some serious tea knowledge. I like how you draw attention to some of the subtleties involved in making tea, like leaving the lid on vs. off. These are things that people often don’t pay attention to but make a huge difference in taste. I only wish this information was around back when I got into tea. Had to learn it the hard way :-)
Thank you!! At the end of the day, this is still essentially an introduction – it’s such a complex, nuanced question that it would probably take a book to explore each of the sections thoroughly.
While writing it, I know that David was really tempted to write another article at the same time on brewing styles: for example, how fast do you pour in the water, where does the water hit the leaves or the brewing vessel, is it a steady stream or do you raise an lower the water to swirl and agitate the leaves? etc etc.
The Zhenyuan Dongsa Farmers’ Cooperative just finished a small publication on the subject (among other things), which David’s been working on translating. That’s another reason why all of these questions have been on our minds.
Nice blog post, lots of information.
Thank you, AllanK! It’s a lot of great things to think about.
I think we all know that vessel shape and size and material have some effect on our brew, but I think many of us assume that the difference is mainly psychological (aka: placebo) or simply the way it effects our brewing style (gong or western or somewhere in between?) rather than the actual chemical (measurable! science!) effects.
I hope you get a chance to play and experiment with this on your own! If you do, I think we’d all love to hear your personal experience of the results :)
I’m going to try this challange, but it’s going to take days – I have a lot of teaware. As an opening disclaimer, I’m not 100% sure what some of my teaware is made out of. I’m going to post what I think it is but please feel free to correct me. The question is where to start…. I’m opting to start with tiny tasting cups and work my way up to mugs, trying to keep pairing similar in size. I’m just going to add replies to thus post as I experiment. So for science…..
https://instagram.com/p/656hKauE6X/
I’m starting with a 2015 ZSXZ from YS. I have a lot of this and it’s not my favorite so I don’t mind sacrificing some for science. The first two cups are tiny (about a tablespoon). One is unglazed Zi Sha clay, the other is glass.
Initial reaction is that the tea is smoother less harsh from the clay. The glass tea seems sharp. I’m getting more aroma on the nose from the glass. I don’t like how the clay feels on the mouth. As much as I prefer the taste of the tea from the clay, the mouthfeel is a deal breaker and I prefer the experience from the glass. I would never use cups this tiny so I’m not sure uf the experience would be different from larger cups.
https://instagram.com/p/65_qz5uEy2/
This is the same tea I just did a second steep and switched out the cups. These are about 60 ml filled to the brim. I think the one is cheap porcelain and the other glass. This wasn’t as much fun. I actually drank steeps 2 and three from these cups and I couldn’t tell them apart. My taste isn’t that refined. I’m calling this a tie. Both nice to drink our of. The porcelain might have held heat just a tad longer, but really too close to call.
Super fun, and really cool to see so much of this in action!
“Initial reaction is that the tea is smoother less harsh from the clay.”
This definitely makes sense, based on the porousness of each material, and from my own experience. The glass is essentially completely vitrified, which means it should be the most “fair” evaluation of the tea: it is giving nothing to the tea, and taking nothing away.
Here’s one little theory: as David mentioned in his article, the teaware you use can help your brew swing between the two extremes of Big Aroma / Smoother-more stable texture+flavor and Big Texture + Flavor / Less Aroma.
Now why would this be? Aroma is very… volatile – that’s why there’s called volatile aromatics! What does that mean practically? Well, they’re not super attached to whatever it is that is giving off the aroma; they are easy to dislodge, which is normally a good thing – that’s what makes it possible for us to smell them.
That’s also why heat has such an effect on aroma. More heat = more movement on a molecular level, which means more volatile aromatics burning off and reach our noses. Though the clay cup is better able to retain heat, it is also “absorbent” – because it is porous and not vitrified, and it absorbing more of the aromatics, in just the same way the paper in a paper tea bag does. This is probably what contributes to that “smoother” feeling – because the aromatics are playing a lesser role, it is easier to focus on the flavor of the tea, and because the clay is porous, it is smoothing out or rounding out the texture of the tea.
I suppose that leads to another question: what is texture in tea? I think this is quite a big question with a lot of nuance to get into, but at the end of the day, texture is basically your tongue (the physical sense organ, not the chemical detector) relaying physical sensations to your brain. What is your tongue literally feeling?
In my experience, one of the best examples of texture comes from very downy teas. If you brew without a strainer, you can literally see the little downy hairs floating in your brew, lending it a clouded appearance. If these teas feel fuller, thicker, creamier? It’s because of that down! In a way, your tongue is sensing this “micro-sweater” and, combined with the aromatics and chemical “taste” of the tea, creates a certain sensation of texture.
A vitrified vessel like glass or porcelain won’t have an effect on these sorts of texture elements. There are no little tiny pits or crevices, etc, on the surface of the cup to trap and collect them (unlike our teeth, which can get “tea stained!”) so this character of the tea is more faithfully preserved. A porous clay definitely would have an effect on this texture.. by providing places to trap physical tiny particles that would otherwise convey textural sensation, it “smooths out” the brew.
“I don’t like how the clay feels on the mouth. As much as I prefer the taste of the tea from the clay, the mouthfeel is a deal breaker and I prefer the experience from the glass.”
So cool! You know, if you prefer the flavor of the clay but not the way the clay feels on your lips (I totally understand!) then you might prefer a stoneware cup with a glaze that is not porcelain. This shouldn’t have quite the smoothing out effect of the clay, but there will definitely be some effect. Anything that crazes (like Ru Yao) or anything that you can “raise” / yang (like Tian Mu) will always “take” a little something away in this way, or smooth out flavors.
“I’m calling this a tie. Both nice to drink our of. The porcelain might have held heat just a tad longer, but really too close to call.”
Interesting about round two! Essentially, porcelain does share some characteristics of glass. The higher the quality of porcelain, the more vitrified it will be. In that sense, you’d think there would have been more difference between glass (completely vitrified) and the more common porcelain cup.
However, it also kind of depends on the tea! I’ve found the biggest difference between my super-crazy Jingdezhen cups and my thicker, more common porcelain cups when I’m brewing a tea with a lot of textural and aromatic complexity. Because there is so much more to taste and sense with these teas, it is easier to put your finger on any differences in a comparison like this.
A simpler, every day tea is already often presenting a less complex experience, which makes the subtleties difficult to pin point.
That said, I think your comment on heat retention totally makes sense.
Did you have a preference about which cup felt better to sip out of? If they were about the same size, shape and thickness, then it also makes sense that the differences were slight-to-none.
TL;DR – Cool! Can’t wait to read more – for science!
I’m very fussy about mouthfeel. How the cup feels against your lips. Suggested a glazed clay rather than an unglazed. Well I have a mountain of pottery cups. These aren’t the two that I was going to try next but based on the conversation , will just go with it.
Re the question about prefering the glass or porcelain in the second round re mouthfeel. Again not much either way. If I HAVE to chhose, I’m again going with glass. The lip on the porcelain cup is much thinner, almost to a point – sharp is the word I want to use. The glass lip is more rounded, and I think that is more pleasing to me. Really that’s splitting hairs, neither is offensive. This is another reason for round 3 choices. One is a thinner finer cup, the other thicker more rustic.
Interesting comment about a more complex tea being easier to distinguish differences. Now that you’ve said it, makes perfect sense, but I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was drinking a tea that I am really familiar with, hoping for – this is what it should or shoukd not taste like – especially using cups I dont normally drink out of.
Will pull out a tea that’s more “special” for next time. Tonight is still everyday tea.
I’m drinking round three as I type this, will be back with results in a bit.
https://instagram.com/p/7HOE4SOE05/
Round 3: glazed stoneware vs Royal Albert Bone China
This round was interesting, I drank three steeps trying to decide why the tea was tasting how it did. Trying to see if I’m learning anything or just making it up.
Soneware: Disclaimer – this one of my absolute favorite cups (I have a red one too) I use these cups all the time. But does the tea taste better in them?
Heat retention – not even close, this holds heat way better. I think the tea is “more” in this cup. More flavor? Deeper? Stronger? Is that because it’s hotter? Does more mean better? Not necessarily.
China: I chose poorly, didn’t think through the choice of cup – I just grabbed the one closest. This one isn’t completely round, it’s more octagonal. Now we have different material and shape. Oh well that’s what it is. Anyway, back to the tea….. next to the other cup this tastes flat, weak, pale. The difference isn’t drastic, but it is different.
Is more better? In this case yes. But now I’m thinking about better quality tea. Sometimes if a tea is really complex, less is more, shorter steeps, weaker, allows me to notice more nuance. For this tea, pottery is better for my tastes.
This is just opening up more questions….. because the china cup isn’t round, I think I sip from it differently, mouth fits differently on the cup. I think I allow more air in when I sip. Almost slurp. Is that a factor in taste? Don’t wine tasters slurp? I’m into the making it up part of this, but more air should mean “clearer” taste? Dunno….
Emotional attachment: That china cup belonged to my grandmother, but I’m not attached to it. I LOVE that pottery cup. The stonware is rustic and rough. The glaze is soooooo smooth, not a bubble or blip, perfectly smooth. The cup is the perfect balance and shape to hold and cuddle. That soothing, snuggled up with a cup of tea feeling. I would never “hug” a china cup.
This was not a fair comparison. My results are probably more emotional than actual. I’m still finding this interesting. There will be more comparisons to come. Lots more teaware, and I’m going to choose a different tea.
I was a bit curious to try this test. I chose TeaAve’s Cape Jasmine Oolong. I had a sample I had never tried before. Trying it in the small cup, I was thinking the jasmine was so faint, barely there. Then I tried it in the china cup. Wow, floral aroma and taste were all intensified. Of course, this may not have been a fair test since the china cup was much bigger. I did put the same amount in each cup.
Very cool! You know, I think this is still a valid experiment: it just brings more focus on the effect that the shape of the cup has. Perhaps the large cup created more of a bell / bowl / nose to capture the aromatics, similar to the beer in a Belgian beer glass, or a red wine glass.
I love seeing such interesting results! If you try any other comparisons, I know we’d all love to hear about them.
I sort of did this involuntarily recently.
Went on holiday in an otherwise very lovely summer house this year. For tea making though… a little improvisation was required.
Even an otherwise quite nice Assam goes a bit meh when you have to brew it like this:
http://i62.tinypic.com/15×8ysj.jpg
(Yes… we drank a fair bit of coffee that week.)
But a rummaged creamer and some big cups can be great in a pinch! We’ve certainly done that :) … many, many times. Love seeing improvisational tea in action!
These were coffee cups, so quite small. The summer house had coffee cups enough to serve 25 people and not a single mug to its name. For some reason it also had two (working) coffee makers. That area of the country is traditionally very much Coffee-land. We bought a couple of mugs in a charity shop the next day, that helped a bit. :p
A few weeks ago I did an experiment with the same tea in 2 different yixing brewed side by side. While it’s not exactly the experiment in the op it’s still a good lesson in how your teaware effects your tea. The differences were actually more noticeable than I thought they would be. The purpose of my experiment was to pair a new pot and to see how much airing out a humid aged sheng for a couple weeks would make in the taste. Same cup and pitcher just different pots. In my older pot the tea came out a bit more flat, little to no high notes storage flavors were stronger. In the new pot the tea was much better. Had some younger notes, storage taste was subdued. After about 6 or 7 steeps I combined the contents of both yixing in a large gaiwan. Again a big difference in taste. Tea had some grassy notes and was even a bit sour. Did not like it at all as compared to the yixings. I’m all cases I liked the aired out tea better than the none aired version. I suggest everyone and experiment as much as possible, never know when you might discover something you like better than what you were previously doing
Very interesting!! Apart from how long you had been using each pot, were there any other differences in the pots? For example, clay type / capacity / shape?
I definitely agree with your advice: experiment as much as possible, because you never know what you may discover! It also helps keep us all learning and tasting with an open mind.
So both pots are about the same size. Pot 1 I had been using for all my sheng but that has been mostly young(under 3 years). It’s shui ping shape. Fairly thick walled and medium fired. Pot 2 was unused other than seasoning, is xisha shape medium to thin walls and very high fired
No sure. So many things factor in to the end product including the porosity of the clay and heat retention, both of which are a bit of an unknown to me. I’d say the zini pot is more porous but I’m not sure which one holds heat better or has denser clay. Overall I’d say hongni pot rounds out the tea less than the other zini one but if less rounding was the only factor then the gaiwan should have proved better than either and it was by far the worst of the 3. Most of my notes on this are attached to some instagram posts I made. Profile name is grill__ if you’re not already following me.
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