Cold Days, Bigger Cups

I have slowly been moving away from the tiny little porcelain thimbles, that are often used for Gong fu cha, unless I am brewing for multiple people.  While a small part of that has to do with the fact that more often then not I am multitasking at least on some level these days, and the bigger cups mean less pouring, and are less likely to turn cold when forgotten about for a few minutes.

It is that heat retention that the larger mass of hot tea has, that has really lead me to think about the cups I have been grabbing this winter.  The colder the day it is outside, the more I find myself reaching for quite large cups.  Even if it requires pouring several infusions into the cup to fill it more than half way, the large cups are incredibly nice to hold and use on a cold day.

This past Sunday, which honestly seemed like the first real winter day I have seen for almost a year in this part of Michigan, where the cold honestly seemed to penetrate deep into everything, causing a deep mistrust of what my thermostat was actually telling me.  I finally think I found a really good use for a Yunomi I have. But the yunomi which is far too dark on the inside to work well with sencha ( impossible to tell the color of the brew), I realized I can use on these cold days to brew up massive amounts of Red tea, and just sip somewhat slowly while getting work done.

I am sure when the temperatures start warming up the small porcelain cups will once again find use, as while tea fosters patience, the hardest part to wait through is when the tea is brewed, and in a cup, but still to hot to drink!