Aroma cup
A tall narrow cup used in Taiwanese practice alongside the drinking cup. Tea is poured into it first, the drinking cup is inverted over it, the pair is turned over so the tea transfers, and the empty aroma cup is then smelled — the residual warmth releases aromatics that the liquid itself does not give up.
Identity
- Category
- Drinking vessel
- Native name
- 聞香杯
- Romanised
- wen xiang bei
- Also called
- fragrance cup, smelling cup
- Material
- Porcelain
- Typical capacity
- 25–40 ml
- Skill level
- Intermediate
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Where it comes from
Taiwanese, and closely associated with high-mountain oolong where aroma is the point of the tea.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
No substitute really works, because the shape is the function. A warmed empty cup gives some of the effect.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) — A high-leaf, low-volume, many-infusions approach: a great deal of leaf in a small vessel, steeped for seconds at a time and poured off completely, repeatedly.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
Rinse with hot water only. Detergent residue in a vessel used for smelling defeats it entirely.
Other drinking vessels
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this piece of teaware against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Aroma cup vs tasting cup — A piece of Taiwanese equipment whose shape is its function, and which does something no substitute reproduces. It is the one piece of gongfu equipment for which no substitute really works.