What are the requirements for drinking tea with Gaiwan?

Mr. Lu Xun once wrote in his article "Drinking Tea": "To drink good tea, you need to use a covered bowl. So I used a covered bowl. Sure enough, after brewing, the tea has a clear color and sweet taste, a slight fragrance and a little bitterness. It is indeed a good tea." Among the many bowls, cups, pots and cups, why did Mr. Lu Xun only appreciate the covered bowl?

Chen Xiaoqing, the director of A Bite of China, said: "Beijingers are particular about their lives, and they like to make their unchanging, repetitive lives feel especially ritualistic." Just like drinking tea, old Beijingers love a pinch of jasmine tea, which is still sweet and delicious even after sipped under boiling water for a long time.

Old Beijingers have many rules when drinking tea. When drinking tea from a covered bowl, they must follow etiquette, holding the saucer and bowl in one hand, and gently opening the lid with the other hand, and then raising it to their mouth to sip.

There is a reason for this. The covered bowl has a tray so it won't get hot, and the lid won't lose its aroma. One person can drink alone, and a group of people can use it as a pot. At home, you can drink whenever you want, and when you go out, it's easy to carry, so it can be called a "universal tea set."

1. What is a Gaiwan?

Gaiwan is a tea set with a lid on top, a tray on the bottom and a bowl in the middle. It is also called "Sancai bowl" or "Sancai cup". The lid represents the sky, the tray represents the earth and the bowl represents people, implying the harmony between heaven, earth and people. "Tea tray" is also called "tea boat".

To make Gaiwan tea, you need to rinse the bowl with boiling water, then put tea leaves in the bowl, cover it with water and the tea leaves. The soaking time is about 20 seconds to 3 minutes depending on the amount and type of tea leaves. Gaiwan was popular during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty.

There are several advantages to brewing tea in a covered bowl:

1) It is easy to control the speed of water flow and the strength of the tea soup

Tea lovers who are proficient in using Gaiwan can control the flavor of the tea and the speed of water flow by the amount of water added and the angle of the lid opening and closing. During the process of tea flow, they can also use their fingers to slide the angle of the lid to flexibly adjust the size of the water outlet.

2) Good thermal insulation

Gaiwan are mostly made of porcelain, which has a low thermal conductivity and dissipates heat slowly, making it better than tea sets made of glassware and pottery in terms of heat preservation (the double-pore structure of purple clay ware is also conducive to heat preservation, but is not included in the comparison).

3) Convenient for viewing tea

Drinking tea requires "observing color, smelling fragrance, tasting, and observing shape".

It is inconvenient to adjust the strength of tea soup when brewing tea with a cup;

It is inconvenient to observe color and shape when brewing tea with a pot.

When brewing tea with a gaiwan, you can observe the entire process of tea leaves from contraction to expansion by opening the tea lid, and you can also more conveniently smell the fragrance of the lid, smell the fragrance of the tea soup, observe the bottom of the leaves, etc.

Therefore, gaiwan is also used in professional occasions such as tea competitions and tea evaluations.

4) Wide applicability

Generally speaking, Gaiwan is suitable for brewing any type of tea. Other tea sets have more or less certain usage restrictions when used with different types of tea, and are far less applicable than Gaiwan. Therefore, many old tea drinkers "use one Gaiwan to travel around the world".

2. The importance of drinking Gaiwan tea

Lu Xun said in "Drinking Tea": "Drinking tea should be done under the paper windows of a tiled house, with clear spring green tea, using simple and elegant ceramic tea sets, and drinking with two or three people. Half a day of leisure can equal ten years of worldly dreams. After drinking tea, you can then pursue your own victorious career, whether for fame or profit.

Anyone who is familiar with the tea ceremony knows that tea tasting requires "observing the color, smelling the fragrance, tasting the taste, and observing the shape".

Using cups or pots to brew tea is not conducive to observing the color and shape, nor is it conducive to adjusting the strength of the tea soup. The cup-shaped tea set is in the shape of a straight barrel. The tender leaves and buds of tea in the cup are all stewed by the boiling water. How can there be any elegant interest in tea tasting? It can only be "drunk".

The large pots popular in the north make tea, which is easy to cool down and lose its aroma, making it unpalatable and uninteresting. In addition, the quality of tea will deteriorate if it is brewed for a long time. Whether from the perspective of tea appreciation or health care, the shortcomings of brewing tea with cups and pots are obvious.

The Gaiwan Tea Set has a bowl, a lid, and a tea boat, with a unique shape and exquisite workmanship. The tea bowl is large at the top and small at the bottom, and the lid can be put into the bowl, with the tea boat as the bottom support. The lid is not easy to slip off when drinking tea, and the tea boat is used as a support to avoid scalding. And you only need to hold the tea boat to stabilize the center of gravity, and you don’t need to open the lid when drinking tea, just half open and half closed, the tea leaves are not in your mouth, and the tea soup can slowly seep out, which is very comfortable and avoids the trouble of pot blocking the cup.

The lid of Gaiwan tea is placed in the bowl. If you want the tea soup to be thicker, you can use the lid to gently scrape the water surface to turn the whole bowl of tea upside down. Light scraping makes it light, and heavy scraping makes it thick. This is the magic.

For Gaiwan tea, you must warm the cup, then put in the tea leaves, add water and cover. The time for the tea to soak depends on the amount and type of tea leaves, which is about 20 seconds to 3 minutes. The tea bowl is large at the top and small at the bottom, so the lid can be put into the bowl, and it is not easy to slip off when drinking tea; there is a tea tray and it will not burn your hands.

When tasting Gaiwan tea, hold up the tea bowl with a tea tray and scrape the lid on the bowl a few times to turn the tea up and down. Scrape lightly for a light tea and hard for a thick tea. This is the advantage of Gaiwan over other tea sets.

When you are a guest at someone else's house, the host serves Gaiwan tea. Guests should drink it slowly. If you want to drink more after finishing a bowl, do not finish it. Leave a little water at the bottom of the bowl, and the host will understand and add more tea. On the contrary, if the guest finishes the tea, the host will not refill the water.

If you are in a teahouse, put the tea lid on the table, which means that the tea is finished, and the tea master will come to pour tea. If you leave the tea table temporarily, put the Gaiwan on the bamboo stool, and the waiter will take care of your tea bowl and snacks.