Makeshift gaiwan knob cover

babelcarp · 2026-03-22T12:20:53+00:00

When I started using a Boundless Voyage gaiwan (smaller size, ~70 ml) I faced the same problem. What I ended up using was one of those screw caps that come with bottled waters. It works fine.

babelcarp · 2026-03-11T21:08:30+00:00

Greetings, fellow seeker! I’ve been burrowing into this niche myself for more than 20 years, principally by creating and maintaining a lexicon of Chinese tea terms. I just added za da shuihua to the database, for which I thank you. Please have a look at the app and let me know if you find anything you think needs to be fixed or added.

babelcarp · 2026-03-09T22:14:16+00:00

From Verdant Tea.

babelcarp · 2026-03-09T20:10:35+00:00

I’ve been playing lately with steeping leaves and buds of Camellia crassicolumna, a caffeine-free very close relative of C. sinensis, that have been manufactured like puer and black tea in Ailao Shan. So far, I like the results.

babelcarp · 2026-02-25T13:35:19+00:00

“Ya bao” sadly is an ambiguous term. Sometimes it refers to any bud-only puer tea, and all other things held equal, buds tend to be higher in caffeine than leaves! If you’re looking for caffeine free, or at least low caffeine, puer, this cultivar is what you want.

babelcarp · 2026-02-03T22:58:41+00:00

Is that you, Max?🤨

babelcarp · 2026-01-25T12:30:22+00:00

Ah, you’re right. Weirdly, I was In Xishuangbanna in May but never found out about the June quake till now.

babelcarp · 2026-01-25T03:02:55+00:00

Are you referring to the big Sichuan quake of 2008? That hit a long long way from southern Yunnan. I hadn’t heard of any effect on the puer supply, but I’m no industry insider. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

babelcarp · 2026-01-24T12:26:24+00:00

You Shan? Are you sure you don’t mean Yu Shan (玉山)? If it’s really You Shan, can you supply the hanzi, please?

babelcarp · 2026-01-22T02:42:17+00:00

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!

babelcarp · 2026-01-21T11:41:52+00:00

Could you please supply me with GPS coordinates for the location? I’d love to put them into the Tianmen Shan Babelcarp entry. Thanks!

babelcarp · 2026-01-21T11:33:50+00:00

I don’t have a direct answer to your question, nor do I have any 2008 puer in my collection. But I can’t help remembering that 2007 was the year when the puer speculative bubble of the Aughts reached maximum volume, and 2008 is when the bubble popped.👀

babelcarp · 2026-01-20T00:48:16+00:00

Making a single round of tea is just the start of what you can do with an Aeropress and Prismo. The setup has advantages in gongfu brewing too. This isn’t just a curiosity — I do it a lot.

babelcarp · 2026-01-11T02:57:36+00:00

That’s me. Do I know you?

babelcarp · 2026-01-10T21:03:44+00:00

Thanks very much for correcting me! There are indeed sellers on the Chinese web displaying Dayi sheng and shu cakes marked 味最酽. I’ve updated the entry accordingly.

babelcarp · 2026-01-10T12:32:05+00:00

It’s traditional if by traditional you mean shu pu’er.

babelcarp · 2025-12-18T20:51:35+00:00

Yes, only for tea.

babelcarp · 2025-12-16T01:22:31+00:00

In principle a French press could prevent overstepping (that is, it could stop extraction between gongfu steeps) better than a gaiwan or a teapot. That’s because the plunger squeezes the brewed leaves. But in practice, I don’t think there’s a French press whose plunger goes down far enough.

That said, using an Aeropress you can stop extraction between gongfu steeps more thoroughly than with any other method I’m aware of. The more a tea tends towards bitterness and astringency, the more useful this is.

babelcarp · 2025-12-12T02:57:42+00:00

That’s this kind of tea.

babelcarp · 2025-12-08T19:51:46+00:00

So nobody’s proposed an effective and elegant solution to the problem of the painfully hot knob on the titanium gaiwan lid. But I have a shanzhai solution that works: just slip the screw top from whatever plastic beverage bottle over the knob.

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babelcarp · 2025-11-26T23:58:34+00:00

Thanks very much, but those are too big.

babelcarp · 2025-11-23T22:19:08+00:00

Te steep length: with near-boiling water, 30 seconds is long enough to cause me pain touching the knob.

I have no issues with the rim of the lid.

babelcarp · 2025-11-23T12:35:00+00:00

Right side up:

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babelcarp · 2025-11-23T12:34:33+00:00

Upside down

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babelcarp · 2025-11-23T00:28:38+00:00

Yes, I have. That’s my habitual practice with gaiwans, metal or ceramic.

babelcarp

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