Essentials
Gaiwan/Teapot Gong Dao Bei Kettle
A Gaiwan is an ancient piece of tea ware. It translates roughly to 'cup and lid', and the leaves are left to sprawl while it brews and the lid is meant to keep them contained when you pour it out.
Chinese Teapots are much smaller than their western counterparts, meant for making small brews that encourage savoring the tea.
A Gong Dao Bei is a pitcher that you pour freshly brewed tea into. Usually easier to pour out of, it also serves the purpose of keeping the brew consistent for each cup. This is where it gets its name of 'Justice Cup'.
Kettles are the easiest way to heat water, with modern electric kettles allowing you to control the precise temperature of the water.
Preparation
The Chinese believe that if we cannot be our full selves without being alert and awake, then neither can tea. It makes sense, as you probably will not be at your peak when you first hear the alarm clock. If we compare it to cooking, we preheat our pots and pans before putting our ingredients in them, and it is the same here.
To wake up our vessels, we pour hot water into each vessel before bringing out the leaves. Thicker tea ware such as celadon or unglazed clay require more time or even multiple rinses to heat up fully, where porcelain and glazed clays will heat up rather quickly. Once we add the leaves, we give it a quick rinse to wake up the tea leaves as well.
For our water, you can use the accepted temperature levels that we use on our tea guide, or you can feel it out on your own. Just remember that higher temperatures infuse the tea faster, so be careful when brewing a lighter tea.
Leaf ratio is subjective, generally there are much more tea leaves than in western style brewing which we demonstrate in our brewing guide. Around 50% more leaves is a good place to start. You can measure your leaves or just eyeball it, whatever your preference may be.
Extra Accessories
