Gaiwan

To have an authentic tea experience, you need to have a good tea cup. At Ci Porcelain, our Chinese Tea Cups are made especially for tea enthusiasts who appreciate a fragrant, smooth tea experience. Among our collection is the quintessential Gaiwan, the lidded tea bowl for perfect tea brewing.

The Gaiwan or the lidded Chinese teacup is more than a teacup with a lid. It’s designed specifically for brewing tea leaves. The body/cup of the Gaiwan is where you put the tea leaves and boiling water. The lid controls how the tea is brewed. The lid handle is purposely designed to have a concave surface so your index finger has a place to easily move the lid around.

Gaiwan is the favoured tea cup in China for several reasons, such as;

• Its ability to control the temperature of the tea while it brews. The lid ensures the tea stays at a certain temperature until all the tea leaves steep properly. This feature makes Gaiwan perfect for teas like Oolong, Green, or White, which need specific temperatures to brew.

• Gaiwan preserves the tea scent from escaping from the cup. The tea experience also includes your sense of smell, so the more aroma is trapped inside the cup, the better the tea. This also extends to Gaiwan’s ability to let out steam at certain intervals and gradually reduce temperature.

• The lid on your Gaiwan can hold the tea leaves away from the cup mouth so you can sip the tea without obstruction. With proper technique, you can have small sips of tea and savour the taste until the very last drop.

Chinese Tea Cup with Lid

What’s great about Ci Porcelain’s Gaiwan collection is the material we use to craft them. Similar to the Chinese tea cups, our Gaiwan are made of Jingdezhen porcelain, hand-painted with traditional Chinese motifs. Our white porcelain does not react to teas, so they won’t affect the taste. Fired at high heat to achieve its thin but sturdy texture, our porcelain Gaiwan has a thin lip to allow the tea to slip smoothly into your mouth. 

Other than porcelain, we also have glass Gaiwans, which is another material that won’t affect the taste of tea. The clear glass adds a visual element to your tea brewing, complete with porcelain lids.

Explore our Gaiwan and Chinese tea cup collection now.