Gaiwan

A Gaiwan (Chinese盖碗/盖碗, Pinyin gàiwǎn ) also known as Gaibei (盖 杯/盖 杯, gàibēi ) or焗 盅, Juzhong, Cantonese guk6zung1, is a Chinese vessel for preparing and eating tea. It consists of a saucer of a spherical bowl and a lid.

History

The Gaiwan evolved from a simple tea cup, the Chawan in which poured the tea, and from which he was then drunk. The Chawan is similar to the commonly used in the tea ceremony Matchawan, is stirred in the Matcha. Still in the 9th century, the master of ceremonies Lu Yu describes the use of simple Chawan. With the Ming Dynasty changed the form of the preparation: Instead of in a powdered form of tea leaves were blanched and then poured the tea. For pouring the tea leaves were retained by means of a lid in the infusion vessel. The preparation devices were so large that they had to be held with two hands. Today Gaiwan are smaller and can be used with one hand. Here you have the tea, especially green tea and white tea, not decanted. It can be drunk directly from the Aufbrühschale and brewed again.

Use

Can be used as described the gaiwan to drink the brewed tea directly from the shell. In addition, the gaiwan is also used as a pure Aufbrühgefäß as part of a tea ceremony. Here, the Gaiwan is first rinsed with hot water to heat it for the preparation. Then the tea leaves are added, poured the water and the lid placed (depending on the type of tea and preparation method may be using the tea leaves " washed " by scalded very short and the water is poured off again, sometimes more than once). After the end of the brewing time, the lid is placed slightly obliquely, so that a gap is formed, so that the tea can flow, but the leaves retained. Usually, one summarizes the Gaiwan then so that your thumb and middle finger touching the outer edge, while the index finger holding the cover, the gaiwan is taken here from the opposite side of the gap. Now the Gaiwan is raised and the tea filled through the gap in the preheated drinking cups. These usually one uses a Teetischs which is provided with holes to catch passing by drops.