Sourcing a blank slate — Michael Zhan visits Jingdezhen
This gaiwan came together on a humid April morning on the eastern outskirts of Jingdezhen, in a small workshop that still mixes its own kaolin body from nearby Gaoling village. Michael Zhan, our Procurement & Sourcing Specialist, had spent the previous week visiting seven different studios, carrying a notebook stuffed with side-by-side brewing logs. “We wanted a vessel that adds nothing and takes nothing away,” he recalled, holding one of the final test samples. “A gaiwan that stays completely out of the tea’s way.”
At each stop, he brewed the same lot of 2025 Bái Hóo Yín Zhēn and a lightly-roasted Tǐ Guān Yīn, tasting for any shift in texture or aftertaste. Most porcelain retained a faint clay minerality; a few rounded the liquor’s edges. The batch that became this product was the only one that delivered identical cups to the control (a laboratory-grade glass vessel). The potter, a second-generation artisan, fires his gaiwans at 1300°C for sixteen hours, achieving near-zero porosity with a tight, ringing tone when tapped.
Michael selected the 90ml size deliberately — large enough for a full aroma cup, small enough to hold in one hand without fatigue during long calibration sessions. The unglazed foot is a practical choice, providing grip even with wet fingers. Each gaiwan carries a minute variation in lid rock and rim thickness, a signature of hand-finishing that speaks to the craft rather than industrial uniformity.