Why does tea brewed in a gaiwan taste better?
I often times drink my tea in a long glass. I just put my tea in, pour on water and refill when needed. However, I noticed that whenever I brew with a gaiwan, the tea tastes much better! Its much more fragrant and flavorful.
I thought that maybe the fragrance is locked in as opposed to an open glass. Why do you think this is?
Also, a somewhat unrelated question; how can I best brew green tea in a gaiwan? When I brewed green tea and I remove the lid from the gaiwan, the air causes it to oxidize and changes its flavor within minutes. But when I try to prevent this by leaving on the lid, the heat can’t escape and also hurts the flavor of the tea. Because of this I most often brew my green tea in a tall glass so that it is always covered by water, but it is much less flavorful than when brewed in a gaiwan.
Any tips?
There’s actually been a lot of thought and research/speculation put into how different brewing vessels affect taste.
On the gaiwan front: A few thoughts. If heat isn’t dissipating quickly enough, try letting the water cool a bit more first before even pouring it into the gaiwan. Another idea is to tilt the lid a bit when you set it to brew, instead of just letting it sit flush; tilt it at an angle as you normally would when you go to pour, that way some of the heat’s allowed to escape.
Throwing some general things down, since I’m sure there’ll be some more in-depth thoughts from others: Tea can be affected by the material of the brewing vessel (and the thickness of the walls), the shape of the tasting cup, and also the brewing technique (it looks like you were making it quote /endquote “grandpa style” in the glass, versus controlled steeps in the gaiwan).
Different materials will dissipate heat differently (which affects brewing in that certain molecules move into solution better at higher temperatures [less caffeine in cooler brews], but things like—I can’t remember which without spending twenty minutes flipping through my books—theaflavins or thearubigins degrade under excessive heat, and leaves the cup dull; especially when stored in a thermos too long), but also in the case of metals and unglazed clays, can either react with the teas or trap molecules, changing flavours.
Drinking vessel shape gets debated a lot, and isn’t even unique to tea; I think you see that a lot (if not more) among wine-drinkers. I don’t think there’s anything concrete (I could be wrong), but some stuff to consider (off the top of my head):
*The 1660 LONDON Tea Cup Connoisseur Set were a hot thing for a little while, which exploits the idea of vessel shape and introduces ‘a cup for each tea’; there was a Teachat thread on it, if I remember they won an award or two, but sorta disappeared into history; neat idea, but you could probably put together your own lineup for 1/100th the price
*Tea Tasting and Fragrance/Aroma Cup sets are still pretty popular, and take advantage of teacup shape—a low profile one that’s meant for getting a good mouthfeel and taste, while the higher profile one apparently enhances the aroma to get a better sense of the fragrance, and is only meant to be sniffed and not drunk from.
In my own experience, I tend to prefer my thin-walled, ‘modern’ mugs for tea over all of my much thicker mugs (I’m always disappointed when I realize they’re all in the dishwasher and I’m forced to use a thicker one), and that I prefer to make very bold, or astringent teas in my metal thermos because it tends to take the edge off of them. I tend to prefer shengs in my gaiwan, shus in something that retains a bit more heat. That’s all personal preference.
So keep in mind that a lot of things ARE personal preference—what notes you WANT to get out of a tea shape what vessel you want, and also sometimes a lot of what we perceive’s just in our mind. Our favourite/most prized/expensive/collectible teaware makes the best tea and all that.
Edit: Also found this article by Verdant, but I haven’t read all of it yet, so I can’t say how much of it is fact to product placement: http://verdanttea.com/tea-ware-and-taste/
It may simply have something to do with the fact that the gaiwan is covered and your grandpa style teacup is not. Keeps the heat in better for one thing. You might argue that the cover is keeping the flavor in too.
Is there a difference in volume between the gaiwan and tall glass?
By the way, the covering aspect is very interesting. One thing that I don’t like about coffee lids is that they change the distribution of speed of molecules in the up. That could be of benefit when brewing black tea though.
A lid for keeping the heat in is definitely good although I don’t know exactly how much of an effect it has. Also, some teas work out better with grandpa style brewing than others. That is a common style I know for brewing Dragonwell Green Tea although I don’t think the Chinese call it grandpa style.
It could be the emphasis and concentration that you put into gaiwan brewing. It tends to slow you down and focus a bit more. The nuances are heightened this way.
That makes a lot of sense, I suppose. But still, with the glass the leaves steep for much longer than they would in the gaiwan. Even when brewed to the point of astringency, it is still somehow less flavorful to my taste. Or maybe I’m starting to imagine things…
Making tea is more art than science. The benefit of a gaiwan is that you’re more ‘in control’, which allows you to practice art. I personally like the fact that I’m better able to observe the leaves and the flexibility of having a lid that I might use or not use depending on the type of tea.
Gaiwans are usually made from ceramics/porcelain (but not always) and doesn’t affect the flavor/aroma of tea, while for example clay teaware could. You might want to read this: https://www.teasenz.com/chinese-tea/gaiwan-vs-yixing.html
It seems you’re comparing two different steeping methods – grandpa vs. gongfu- rather than brewing vessels. There’s more to it than just having the lid on or not. The quantity of tea used and the length of steeping time with each method matters more than other factors.
I see what you mean… But surely, there will still be a difference if I brew 1 gram of tea in 120ml water in both a gaiwan and a long glass, wouldn’t you think? I’ll experiment with it to make sure.
If you brew only 1g of tea in 120ml of water you are not using enough tea, at least for an Asian style steep. Anywhere from 1g per 15ml to 1g per 30ml is more the suggestion. You must obviously find the amount that suits your taste but that is more in line with most suggestions.
Thank you for the suggestion, Allan, but I do usually use a lot more tea. But for the experiment I figured as long as the water and tea have equal amounts that it should technically be no different from using more tea. I’m trying to figure out if there is any difference between long glass brewing and gaiwan brewing. So I thought the tea and water amounts should be identical. Because what if the very reason that the taste is different from gaiwan brewing and long glass brewing is nothing more than the fact that I use more tea when using my gaiwan?
Also, sometimes when I have guests over I just give them a 200-250ml mug with 1g of tea in it, because they usually don’t refill and only drink that one cup of tea. It actually makes for a nice cup of tea. Good enough for experimenting at least, I hope.
I have gotten amounts down to my tastes in general. When brewing sheng in a 150ml gaiwan I use around 7g to 8g of tea. That I find works well with the short steeps I am starting out with. 1g of tea would probably not work in a 150ml gaiwan with a 5 second steep. If you are doing longer steeps then 1g of tea may be sufficient but I would use more. When I steep tea western style I tend not to even measure out the grams weight but simply use 3 tsp per 16oz tea pot. I don’t even in that case really know the weight of the tea.
Ah ok. I usually also drink puerh with 6-8g as well in my 160ml yixing teapot. I tried long glass brewing with 1g, but it tends to be a bit dull. But for green, oolong and black teas it seems to work fine. I don’t drink that much puerh. When I drink puerh it is usually only shu puerh after dinner, even though I still have like 10-15 different sheng pureh samples that I never get around to using.
For the experiment I won’t be doing 5 second steeps, but long ones. When I do normal gaiwan brewing I usually use
I measure out my tea a lot as well. Too often, in fact… I have a small digital scale and I feel I have become dependent on it and now find it difficult to estimate the amount of tea by eye. I actually think I enjoyed tea a bit more before I purchased my scale, because now it has become a little bit of a choir each time I want to drink tea, haha.
I have a tall thin infuser, which is fine for small leaf teas, but I prefer a gaiwan for things like ball oolong, where the leaf wants room to unfurl. The tea is also beautiful to look at and smell in a gaiwan, which for me is a big part of tea’s allure. The infuser is much easier to travel with and holds twice as much though, so I’m glad I have both.
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