Classic White Porcelain Small Gaiwan 60ml

This gets more use than any of my other gaiwans thanks to the very small amount of tea required to fill it – I usually use around 3.5 grams. I usually drink tea before I leave for work at 8am, so unless I want to get up very early, I can’t stretch a session out for hours. As such, to get the maximum number of steeps out of my tea, I need to use a small brewing vessel.

I gave this a 100 rating, but it isn’t perfect for every tea. No vessel is! This one’s ideally suited to most teas that require under-boiling temperatures, but it struggles to retain enough heat for hei cha or sheng. Even some oolongs taste a little watery brewed in here. I’ve also found a few teas with leaves long enough to stick out the sides of this before they grow limp in the hot water. However, solving either of these ‘problems’ would require compromising this gaiwan’s qualities (by making it retain too much heat for delicate teas, and by increasing its volume), so I don’t consider them real issues with the vessel.

I’m gonna go ahead and throw a 100 on this, too. In addition to Girl Meets Gaiwan’s review, I’d like to add a little more. The saucer is a thicker porcelain than the gaiwan, with six stylistic indentations around the edge and has a divot that keeps the gaiwan in place. The underside of the lid rim is lightly textured, I suppose to keep the lid in place. The porcelain is thin and allows some light to move through, but it’s not so thin that I burn my fingers when using high temperature water. I consider this a very worthwhile purchase.

I love this gaiwan. First off, it’s adorable. Second, it is perfect for solo gongfu sessions. The amount of time and volume of water consumed by a session with my larger 100-120ml gaiwans meant that I rarely had opportunity to sit down and enjoy it. This size is great – I can fully steep out a tea without staying up all night.