Tasting cup
The small cups a gongfu session is drunk from, typically 25 to 50 ml. The size is functional rather than ceremonial: a session gives six to fifteen infusions and each one is different, so the cup has to be small enough that a whole infusion fits in one and can be drunk while it still tastes of what it is.
Identity
- Category
- Drinking vessel
- Native name
- 品茗杯
- Romanised
- pin ming bei
- Also called
- gongfu cup
- Material
- Porcelain, glazed stoneware or glass
- Typical capacity
- 25–50 ml
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
Chinese and Taiwanese gongfu practice.
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
An espresso cup is close enough to start with. A normal mug defeats the point, because one infusion looks like a disappointing amount in it.
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.
- Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot) — The same short-steep, high-leaf approach as gaiwan gongfu, carried out in a small unglazed clay pot that seasons over time and is dedicated to one tea.
Care and maintenance
Porcelain and glass are neutral. Unglazed clay cups absorb aroma like an yixing pot and carry the same one-tea rule.
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.
- Pouring into a fairness pitcher vs pouring straight into cups — The first liquor out of a vessel is weaker than the last, so pouring a single infusion into several cups in sequence gives everyone a different drink. The pitcher exists to solve exactly that, and its Chinese name — gong dao bei, ‘fairness cup’ — says so.
- Yunomi vs gongfu tasting cup — Two handleless cups from two traditions, sized by two different ideas of what a serving is. The yunomi is taller than it is wide and holds a drink; the tasting cup holds one infusion of a session, which is a smaller and more frequent thing.