How To Hold A Tea Cup

In this video, I'm going to show you how to hold a teacup. Now, there are two different kinds of teacup - Chinese teacups. The first one is a really tiny one made for tasting.

The other teacup is more like what we're used to, a cup and a saucer, but this one has a lid to it. Now, to hold a tasting cup, you hold the teacup using your thumb and your index finger, and if you can, support the bottom of the cup with your middle finger. When you drink tea, use your middle finger to tilt the cup so that the tea can be delivered into your mouth.

So, that's the way to hold a Chinese teacup. So, to drink tea, I'm going to show you how. This is the way you hold your teacup, bring to your mouth, tilt the teacup so that the tea is delivered to your mouth, okay? The second way of holding a Chinese teacup is where you hold a gaiwan.

A gaiwan simply means a bowl with a lid. I'm right-handed so I'm holding the saucer like this with my left hand. Using my right hand, I'm taking the lid of the gaiwan teacup and simply stir away any tea leaves or flowers in the teapot and bring it to my mouth for drinking like this.

If you are a lady, and you like to show how you smell the tea in the tea cup, simply do the same thing like this, stirring the tea, and then you can smell the lid instead, like this manner. If you are a gentleman, you don't need to smell tea; you can drink it straight away. And this is how you hold a teacup. .