A lidded bowl and saucer in one piece, built for controlling a tea's temperature and strength cup by cup.
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Studio photograph of the current Gaiwan form. Additional angles are in production.
The gaiwan is a lid, a bowl, and a saucer designed to work as a single instrument: the bowl holds leaf and water, the lid traps heat and doubles as a strainer gate, the saucer keeps the hot bowl clear of the table and the drinker's fingers. It's the most flexible vessel in Chinese tea practice — brewing pot, drinking cup, and tasting bowl in one.
Most tea vessels specialize — a pot for brewing, a cup for drinking. The gaiwan does both, which is why it remains the standard tool for serious tea tasting in China. We selected it because it rewards attention: get the tilt, the timing, and the pour right, and the same leaf can taste different every round.
There's no dial or timer built into a gaiwan — you judge the steep by color, by smell, by how long the lid has been resting. That makes each pour a small decision rather than a repeated step, and it's part of why gongfu-style tea sessions slow down and hold attention the way they do.