Yixing Gaiwans

I've been using mostly ceramic gaiwans to brew as it's the easiest way to gongfu allowing me to drink puerh even at work.  Recently I smashed a gaiwan lid and needed a replacement.  For variety, I thought I would look for a cheap replaceable yixing gaiwan.   A bit of yixing clay would help diffuse the basement taste on my budget wet-stored pu and I'm not one to waste a precious teapot on such teas.

I spotted this simple $10 zisha clay gaiwan from an ebay vendor who sells the oddest mix of teaware,  cosplay wigs, erotic anime pillows,  Tibetan "babao male enhancer" pills, and quilted doggy tents.  If you are a tea drinking anime addict with a small dog and a potency condition, this might be one of the few one-stop shops to cater to your exact needs.

Despite the suspicious mix of goods, I saw some mica and silica content on the surface closeup of the gaiwan so I pushed buy.  It's most likely low quality yixing clay but I'm willing to give it a go as my plan B is to use it as a tea caddy if brewing doesn't work out.  It will take another week or so to reach me.  At the higher end, there is the Di Cao Qing gaiwan on ebay but for $38 with shipping, this purchase defeats the purpose of having a cheap breakable gaiwan.

The other yixing tea set which did arrive today is this hybrid contraption which is more like a lidless houhin than anything else. I initially didn't want to buy it because the aesthetics is butt ugly and I wanted to maintain some self respect.  But it's functionality appealed to my sense of practicality - side knobs to prevent finger scorching and a slotted lip to keep those wiggly tea leaves back.  But my better judgement was absent as this thing pours much slower than expected and I may ask my husband to drill a few more holes.  He has enlarged holes on ceramic and yixing teapots for me using a special drill bit before and he really owes me after what happened next.

My husband fingered the curve of the attached demi-top quite suggestively and asked me if it was a miniature chamberpot.  You can't see it from this angle but the demi-top curves perfectly as if it was designed to accommodate a seated pair of buns. You can imagine how such a comment will flavor my tea sessions.