Gai Wan

Have you had a cup of tea today!

Gai Wan, or San Cai Bei or the Covered Bowl (Chinese lidded bowl, Chinese Tea Bowl), is one type of tea cups that's used for Chinese tea ceremony. You can either drink the tea directly from it or use it as a tea pot and make the tea from it. There are total three parts , the lid, the cup (or the bowl) and the saucer and in a way it represents the Sky, People and the Earth. This way we often said it's the cup of tea that brings us together! It was first invented in the Minh Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and there are many versions of how people invented the "tea bowl", and here is one of my favorite one: long long time ago, people from the ancient land of China often drinks hot tea from just a regular Bessel, but the problem with this method is that often people burned their fingers when they held it. A young girl was playing with the tea bowl one day and she put a small saucer under the tea bowl, all of sudden she thought, only if she can just hold the saucer then her fingers would never get burned. It worked for awhile, until people realized that this way was not quite stable to hold, so they added a lid on it and while pushing the lid against the cup to make it more stable, it also help to filter the tea leaves!

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