---
title: 'Tea cups'
url: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/cups'
markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/cups.md'
lang: en
date: '2026-10-23'
description: 'Tea cups for gongfu cha: 30–50 ml volume, rim and shape, porcelain, celadon and clay, the wen xiang bei aroma cup, stands and how to pick a cup.'
---

# Tea cups 品茗杯

 Editors · October 23, 2026, updated October 25, 2026 · 10 min read

A small cup for two or three sips. Volume, rim shape and material determine how hot the liquor is when it reaches your lips, how much aroma the cup keeps and whether you can see the color.

 ![Small tea cups of different shapes and materials in a row](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-0214f1ce.webp) Photo: [Shizuha](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chaju_shizuhaused_21.jpg), [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), cropped 

品茗杯

Cups

pǐn míng bēi

 Chinese name: pin ming bei, “cup for tasting tea”

Volume: 20–50 ml, usually 30–50 ml

In Chaozhou: 25–35 ml, three cups per teapot

Fill: 70–80% of the volume

Material: porcelain, celadon, clay, glass

Pair: wen xiang bei, a tall aroma cup

The tasting cup, pin ming bei (品茗杯), is the small cup used for [gongfu cha](https://howtotea.me/brewing/methods/gongfu-cha). 品 means “to taste, to judge”, and 茗 is a literary word for tea. Each infusion from a [gaiwan](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/gaiwan) is poured into a [fair cup (chahai)](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/chahai) and from there into these cups. Everyone drinks theirs in two or three sips while the liquor is hot.

A cup seems a minor thing, but it comes last in the chain. Whatever happened in the pot, you drink from the cup, and its rim, walls and size shape how the liquor reaches you.

## Volume and number

In Chaozhou, where gongfu cha took shape, there are three cups on the table. The group standard for [Chaozhou gongfu cha](https://howtotea.me/traditions/china/living-traditions/chaozhou-gongfu) sets their volume at 25–35 ml[1](#fn:1). They stand in a triangle, like the character 品, and however many guests come, there are still three cups.

Elsewhere cups usually hold 30–50 ml. A Chinese teaware guide suggests 20–50 ml with a depth of at least 2.5 cm for a small teapot, and 100–150 ml for a large one. The practitioner Leo Kwan recommends starting at 30–40 ml and saving 20 ml cups for very strong infusions. The same guide advises buying cups in even numbers, while Chaozhou custom insists on three. Go by the number of people at your table.

Don't fill a cup to the brim. Pour it eight tenths full, as the saying “茶满欺客” (“a full cup insults the guest”) has it; the guide gives 70–80%. Besides, a full hot cup is hard to pick up and carry without burning your fingers.

To check a set, fill the teapot with water and pour it into the cups. If it divides evenly and nothing spills over, the volumes match.

## Shape: rim, body, foot

Chinese potters describe a cup by three features. The rim (口) may be straight, open, flared like a trumpet or turned in; the body (腹) straight, rounded, pinched at the base or sharply angled; the foot (足) a ring, a tall flaring foot or recessed. Names are built from the top down, so “a cup with a flared rim, a concave body and a recessed foot” is a single word in Chinese.

![Three cup shapes: wide and open, bell-shaped, tall and narrow](https://howtotea.me/images/f/o/r/m/y/formy-0361084c.webp)Illustration

A cup with a flared rim is easier to hold and less likely to burn your lips than one with a straight or incurved rim. You can drain a shallow bowl without lifting your head, a straight rim needs a slight tilt, and an incurved one makes you tip your head back.

The classic small-cup shapes:

- **Bamboo-hat cup** (斗笠杯): like an upturned straw hat, with a wide rim, straight slanting walls and a small foot. The form dates to the Five Dynasties, and in the Song the conical bowl was the dominant shape.
- **Press-hand cup** (压手杯): a flared rim, a wall that is thin at the lip and thicker toward the base, a low center of gravity. It was first made at the imperial kilns of [Jingdezhen](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jingdezhen) in the Yongle reign (1403–1424). The example in the Palace Museum in Beijing is 5.4 cm tall and 9.1 cm across, noticeably bigger than today's gongfu cups.
- **Horse-hoof cup** (马蹄杯): a Ming shape, often painted in doucai enamels during the Qing.
- **Bell cup** (铃铛杯): the horse hoof again, only taller.
- **Straight tumbler** (直筒杯): the oldest shape of all, which in miniature became the [aroma cup](https://howtotea.me/traditions/china/living-traditions/taiwan-chayi).

The word 杯 became the usual name for a tea cup in the Qing, along with strongly brewed [oolong](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong), which needs a small cup. Earlier a tea cup was called 钟, after its bell shape, and was made large, for light [green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green).

In the *Chaozhou Classic of Tea*, Weng Huidong describes a good cup in four words: small, shallow, thin, white. He recommends a flared rim for summer and a straight one for winter. His seasonal names are “ox eye” for spring, “chestnut” for summer, “lotus leaf” for autumn and “inverted bell” for winter.

The rule “the taller and narrower, the more aromatic” is not borne out by research. In a 2021 Taiwanese experiment, ordinary tasters scored aroma highest in the widest cup with a thick rim (6.6 cm across, 4 cm tall, rim 4 mm), and height made no difference. In a 2019 study, experts preferred a tall narrow cup for Taiwanese high-mountain oolong. Xu and Yang (2023) found that tall narrow cups show off [Da Hong Pao](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong/da-hong-pao) better. The answer depends on the tea and the person, so try several.

## Material and thickness

Porcelain is dense, doesn't take on smells and leaves the taste of the liquor as it is. Leo Kwan prefers to drink from a rim thinner than a millimeter. Eggshell porcelain is beautiful but breaks easily. In Kwan's experience porcelain brings out the top notes, while a glazed [Yixing](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/yixing) cup adds body.

Typical pairings:

- green: white porcelain or [celadon](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/qingci). Celadon flatters the yellow-green liquor. Keep the cup small, because a large one holds heat and goes on “cooking” delicate leaf;
- black: an ivory-colored cup, in which the orange-red liquor looks softer;
- aromatic oolongs (Taiwanese high-mountain, light [Tie Guan Yin](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong/tie-guan-yin), dancong): the aroma pair or a narrow tall cup;
- aged and dark teas: a glazed Yixing or thick-walled cup. Dark ware hides the color, but the liquor seems richer.

A white interior is best, since it shows the true color and clarity of the liquor. A pattern on the bottom gets in the way when you compare one infusion with the next.

For glass cups, see [glass teaware](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/glass).

Unglazed, porous ceramic builds up a coating over time, so such a cup is kept for one kind of tea. In Stéphane Erler's tasting, a crackle glaze absorbed the light aroma of a mountain oolong, so test a crackle-glazed cup before using it for teas like that.

### Glaze safety

The mandatory Chinese standard GB 4806.4-2016 limits [lead](https://howtotea.me/teaware/care-and-collecting/teaware-safety) migration from cups to 0.5 mg/L and cadmium to 0.25 mg/L. Flat ware up to 25 mm deep has different limits, in mg/dm²: lead 0.8, cadmium 0.07. That category includes shallow hat cups and stands.

## The aroma cup and the two-cup method

The aroma cup, wen xiang bei (闻香杯), is a tall narrow cup you don't drink from. Paired with the tasting cup, it makes up the “two-cup method” (双杯品茗法). It is a Taiwanese innovation, not an ancient Chaozhou custom.

![Aroma cup and drinking cup on a small saucer](https://howtotea.me/images/d/v/e/-/c/dve-chashki-afe732cc.webp)Illustration

The order:

1. Pour the liquor from the fair cup into the tall cup.
2. Cover it with the inverted low cup, hold both together and flip them.
3. Lift the tall cup and let the liquor run into the low one.
4. Smell the empty warm tall cup: the aroma changes as it cools. Inhale for 20–30 seconds.
5. Drink from the low cup.

The same tea house recommends the aroma cup for the first three infusions only. A Taiwanese aroma cup from Tea Masters holds up to 38 ml.

No one knows for certain who introduced the pair, or when. Cai Rongzhang points to the 1980s and explains it as a matter of hygiene: in old-style gongfu cha the cups were rinsed in a shared bowl at every infusion[2](#fn:2). The chairman of the Taipei Tea Art Promotion Association places the method's heyday in the mid-1980s. Chun Shui Tang tea house recalls that in 1979 people began using two cups each. On a 2013 forum the ceramist Zeng Fengjing said he had seen the practice in Taipei in 1978. No reliable source names an inventor. Shops often credit Cai Rongzhang, but he makes no such claim himself.

You can skip the second cup

Cai Rongzhang points out that you can catch the aroma without it: smell the surface of the liquor before you sip, notice the aroma in your mouth as you drink, then smell the bottom of the empty cup. That is how people drink in Chaozhou.

## Cup stands

According to legend, the daughter of the Sichuan governor Cui Ning invented the cup stand in 780–783: she kept burning her fingers and fixed the cup to a saucer with a wax ring. Archaeological finds show that stands are older. A white porcelain one turned up in a tomb dated 766, and the oldest known come from Southern Dynasties tombs. Silver stands inscribed with the date 860 have been found in Xi'an.

Today a stand for a single cup is round, one for the aroma-and-tasting pair is oblong, and often it is simply a small saucer. A good stand has a rim at least 1.5 cm above the table and a dip in the center for the cup's foot.

Avoid stands that are too smooth: a wet or warm cup base sticks to them, and the stand lifts with the cup and then drops. To avoid drips, pour over the [tea tray](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/tea-tray), and hold the stand by its edge as you lift the cup.

## Using the cups

Warm the cups with boiling water before you start. In the 21-step Chaozhou sequence, a cup is rolled inside another cup of boiling water. Pour in rounds so the strength evens out (the move called “Guan Gong patrols the city”), and share out the last drops between the cups in turn (“Han Xin counts his troops”).

Drink by the Chaozhou formula: first breathe in the aroma, then look at the color, then sip slowly. Once the cup is empty, smell the bottom, where the aroma hidden in the hot liquor lingers.

For washing clay and porcelain ware, see [caring for teaware](https://howtotea.me/teaware/care-and-collecting/care).

## How to choose

- **Rim.** Set the cup upside down on a flat surface and spin it with two fingers. If it rattles, the rim is uneven.
- **Porcelain.** Look at the shape, curvature, bubbles and bare patches in the glaze. Flick the rim lightly, and a crack will give itself away by sound.
- **Set.** The pair, the stands and all the cups should match your teapot in volume.
- **Antiques.** The famous Chenghua “chicken cup” (1465–1487) sold at Sotheby's in 2014 for HK$281 million. It was copied under Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and later, and the best copies are now museum pieces themselves. In the late Ming it was called “the finest wine vessel”, not a tea cup. Tea needs no such luxury: a good white cup will do.

## Common questions

Why are gongfu cha cups so small?

Gongfu cha means many infusions of strong liquor. A 100–200 ml teapot is shared among several people, so each 30–50 ml cup gets two or three sips: you drink it hot while the next infusion is steeping.

What is the tall, narrow cup for?

That is a wen xiang bei, an aroma cup. You pour the liquor into it, flip it over into the drinking cup and raise the empty tall cup to your nose: the aroma changes as it cools. The pair was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s, and you can do without it.

Which cup should I buy first?

A white porcelain cup of 30–50 ml with a thin, even rim and no pattern inside. It shows the color of the liquor, suits any tea and doesn't take on smells. Two or three will do to begin with.

Notes

1. T/CTSS 5-2019, “Technical Regulations for Chaozhou Gongfu Tea”, a group standard of the China Tea Science Society. [↩](#fnref1:1)
2. Cai Rongzhang, “Should tea be drunk from two cups?”, *Contemporary Tea Thought* blog (contemporaryteathinker.com), October 12, 2011. [↩](#fnref1:2)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [Brewing vessels](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels.md)
- Previous: [Fair cup (chahai)](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/chahai.md)
- Next: [Tea tray (cha pan)](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/tea-tray.md)