Reading · Buying Guide · 16 October 2026 · updated 16 October 2026 · 9 min read茶志 · 选购指南 · 2026 年 10 月 16 日 · 阅读约 9 分钟

Why Are Chinese Teacups So Small — and What Size You Actually Need中国茶杯为什么这么小——以及你到底该买多大

A 70-millilitre cup looks like a mistake if you drink tea out of a mug. It is not a mistake, and it is not stinginess. It is the unit the whole method was built around — and once you see what one steep is for, the small cup stops feeling small.拿马克杯喝茶的人，第一次看到 70 毫升的杯子，会以为是不是搞错了。它没搞错，也不是抠门。它正是整套泡法赖以成立的那个单位——一旦你看懂「一泡」是干什么的，小杯就不再显得小了。

People ask this right after opening a gift set, or after buying one and wondering whether the shop short-changed them on cups. The confusion is honest, because nothing on the box says what the cup is for. So the answer comes in two parts: why the cups are this size, and what size you should actually buy.会问这个问题的人，多半是刚拆开一套礼物，或者自己买了一套之后，怀疑商家是不是在杯子上偷工减料。这个困惑很真实，因为盒子上从不解释杯子是干什么的。所以答案分两半：杯子为什么是这个尺寸，以及你到底该买多大。

First, what “small” actually means先弄清楚「小」到底有多小

The range matters, because “small” is doing a lot of work in that question. Traditional gongfu tea cups run roughly 25 to 100 ml, with first steeps of only 10 to 15 seconds. A Western teacup is usually 200 to 250 ml, a coffee mug 240 to 350 ml, and a single espresso about 30 ml. So a Chinese tasting cup sits between an espresso and a small glass of wine.先把区间说清楚，因为「小」这个词在这句话里承担了太多含义。传统工夫茶的杯子大约在 25–100 毫升、首泡仅 10–15 秒；西式茶杯通常 200–250 毫升，马克杯 240–350 毫升，一份意式浓缩约 30 毫升。所以中式品茗杯大致落在「一份浓缩」和「一小杯葡萄酒」之间。

Vessel器皿	Typical capacity常见容量
Espresso cup浓缩咖啡杯	about 30 ml约 30 毫升
Chinese tasting cup中式品茗杯	25–100 ml (ours: 70 ml each)25–100 毫升（我们的：每只 70 毫升）
Small glass of wine小杯葡萄酒	120–150 ml120–150 毫升
Western teacup西式茶杯	200–250 ml200–250 毫升
Coffee mug马克杯	240–350 ml240–350 毫升
Our side-handle pot我们的侧把壶	200 ml200 毫升
Our gaiwan我们的盖碗	180 ml180 毫升
Our fairness cup我们的公道杯	220 ml220 毫升

Look at those numbers as a system rather than a list. One steep from a 200 ml pot, brewed at about 4 to 5 g of leaf per 100 ml, fills the 220 ml fairness cup, which then fills three 70 ml cups. Every size in a set is chosen so that one steep divides evenly — nothing is left over, nothing runs short.把这些数字当成一套系统来看，而不是一串清单。200 毫升的壶，按约每 100 毫升水投 4–5 克茶，一泡出来正好注满 220 毫升的公道杯，再匀出三只 70 毫升的杯子。套装里每个尺寸都是按「一泡能匀得开」选的——既不剩、也不缺。

Why gongfu tea is sipped in small cups中国茶为什么用小杯喝

Five reasons, and only the first one is about culture. The rest are practical.五个理由，只有第一条跟文化有关，其余全是实打实的。

• One steep, one cup. Gongfu brewing is the same leaf brewed many times, and each steep tastes different. A small cup is how you taste steep two next to steep five without being full after two of them.一泡一杯。工夫泡法是把同一批茶反复泡很多次，而每一泡味道都不同。小杯的意义就在于：你能把第二泡和第五泡放在一起比较，而不会喝两杯就饱了。
• Hot to the last sip. A 70 ml cup is finished in one or two sips, so it is still hot when it is empty. A 240 ml mug of tea is lukewarm by the time you reach the bottom, and that last third is what people remember.喝到最后一口都还是热的。70 毫升的杯子一口两口就喝完，放下时还是烫的。240 毫升的马克杯喝到底早就温了——而人对最后三分之一的味道记得最牢。
• A small opening holds the aroma. Tasting cups are narrow at the base and often flare at the lip. That shape traps the scent over the tea, so you smell the steep before you drink it. A wide mug lets it all escape.小口聚香。品茗杯多半底窄口微外翻。这个形状把香气聚在茶汤上方，让你在喝之前先闻到这一泡的味。宽口马克杯则让它全跑掉。
• You are tasting, not hydrating. Nobody drinks gongfu tea to quench thirst. Twenty small cups across an afternoon is a tasting session, not a drink; the point is attention, not volume.这是在品，不是在补水。没人靠工夫茶解渴。一下午二十小杯，是一场品鉴，不是喝水；重点在注意力，不在量。
• Small cups are what make sharing work. Four people, one pot, one fairness cup and eight small cups: everyone around the table tastes the same steep at the same moment. You cannot do that with one mug.小杯是「分享」能成立的前提。四个人、一把壶、一只公道杯、八只小杯：围桌的每个人在同一刻喝到同一泡。用一只马克杯做不到这件事。

The piece that makes small cups work: the fairness cup让小杯成立的那一件：公道杯

A small cup on its own would be a problem. If you poured straight from the pot into three 70 ml cups, the first cup would be pale and the third would be dark, because the tea keeps extracting while you pour. That is the exact problem the fairness cup exists to solve.只有小杯其实会出问题。要是直接从壶里往三只 70 毫升杯子里倒，第一杯会淡、第三杯会浓，因为你倒的过程中茶还在不停析出。这正是公道杯存在的理由。

You pour the whole steep into the 220 ml fairness cup first, and only then divide it into the small cups. Because the tea was already fully poured off the leaf, every cup that comes out of it is the same colour and the same taste. It is standard equipment in Chinese tea culture, not an optional extra. The Chinese name literally means “fairness cup”; it is not a poetic label, it is a job description.你把整泡先全部倒进 220 毫升的公道杯，再分到小杯里。因为茶汤已经完全离开叶子，从公道杯里分出去的每一杯，颜色和味道都一样。它是中国茶文化里的标准配置，不是可选配件。它的中文名就叫「公道杯」——不是文雅的说法，是岗位说明书。

This is why the cup size and the fairness cup always appear together in a real set. Our guide to what a gongfu set contains walks through the whole list, and the fairness cup is the piece Western buyers most often miss. If you would rather start with one brewing vessel instead of a whole set, the same logic decides the size — see what size gaiwan to buy for one person.这就是为什么在真正成套的茶具里，杯子的尺寸和公道杯总是同时出现。功夫茶具里有什么这一篇讲了完整清单，公道杯正是西方买家最容易漏掉的一件。如果你不想买整套、只想先入一件冲泡器，那尺寸的逻辑是一样的——见一个人该买多大的盖碗。

How one steep actually works, in numbers一泡茶到底怎么走，用数字说

The cup only makes sense inside the sequence. Here is one steep, start to finish.杯子只有在整个流程里才有意义。下面是一泡茶，从头到尾。

1. Leaf: about 4 to 5 g per 100 ml of water. For a 200 ml pot that is 8 to 10 g — more than you would use in a mug, and that is intentional.投茶：约每 100 毫升水投 4–5 克。200 毫升的壶就是 8–10 克——比泡马克杯多，这是故意的。
2. Water: just off the boil for oolong, pu-erh and black tea; cooler, around 85 °C (185 °F), for green and white.水温：乌龙、普洱、红茶用刚离火的水；绿茶、白茶降一点，约 85 °C。
3. First steep: pour and pour it straight off — around 15 to 20 seconds. If you like it lighter, 10 to 15.第一泡：注水后马上出汤，约 15–20 秒。想喝淡一点就 10–15 秒。
4. Pour it all off: into the fairness cup, every drop. Never let the leaf sit in water between steeps; that is what makes a good tea bitter.出汤要出净：全部倒进公道杯，一滴不留。绝不要让叶子在两泡之间泡在水里——好茶变苦就是这么来的。
5. Then repeat: add about 5 seconds to each following steep, and go as many rounds as the leaf allows — six to eight is normal, ten is not unusual.然后重复：之后每一泡比上一泡多加约 5 秒，能泡几泡泡几泡——六到八泡很正常，十泡也不稀奇。

Now the cup size stops being a puzzle. Eight steeps at roughly 150 ml each is more than a litre of tea across an afternoon — but you never hold more than two sips of it at once.到这里，杯子的尺寸就不难理解了。八泡、每泡约 150 毫升，一下午就是超过一升的茶——但你手上从来不会同时拿着超过两口的量。

The one habit that makes people give up on small cups让人放弃小杯的，只有这一个习惯

It is not the pouring and it is not the heat. It is pace. People drink a 70 ml cup the way they drink a mug — slowly, then stop. Two sips over five minutes, the tea goes cold, the leaf keeps stewing, and the whole thing feels like a fuss that produced a tiny, disappointing drink.不是倒茶的手势，也不是烫手。是节奏。人会用喝马克杯的方式去喝 70 毫升的杯子——慢慢地喝，然后停下。五分钟喝两口，茶凉了，叶子闷着，最后整套流程给的感觉是「折腾半天，就喝到这么点、还不好喝」。

The fix is a rhythm rather than a technique: pour, drink, refill. A steep is not a drink to linger over; it is one step in a run of eight. If the cup is still in your hand when the kettle is ready again, the pace is about right. Once that rhythm clicks, the smallness stops registering — what registers is that every cup is hot, even and different from the last.解药不是手法，是节奏：出汤、喝掉、再注。一泡不是拿来慢慢耗的，它是八步里的其中一步。如果水壶再次烧好时你手里的杯子刚好空，节奏就对了。这个节奏一旦顺了，杯子小这件事就不再被感觉到——你感觉到的只是：每一杯都是热的、均的、和上一杯不一样。

If heat is the part worrying you, that is a separate and solvable problem — it is about the vessel you pour from, not the cup you drink from. We wrote about it in why a gaiwan burns your fingers.如果你担心的是烫手，那是另一个问题，而且能解决——它出在「你拿什么倒」，不在「你用什么喝」。我们写在盖碗为什么会烫手里。

What size cup you actually need你到底该买多大的杯子

Short version: 70 ml covers almost everyone, and the number of cups matters more than the millilitres.短答：70 毫升够几乎所有人用，而且杯子的「只数」比「毫升数」更要紧。

How you drink你的喝法	Cups杯数	Size尺寸
One or two people, daily一两人日常	66 只	70 ml — two cups per steep, three steeps before a refill70 毫升——每泡两杯，三泡一续
Hosting three or four招待三四个人	88 只	70 ml — eight covers a table of four for two rounds70 毫升——八只够四人桌喝两轮
Solo, slow, comparing steeps独自慢品、逐泡比较	2–42–4 只	40–70 ml — smaller cup, more steeps, more to compare40–70 毫升——杯越小，泡数越多，可比的东西越多

Both of our sets land on the same 70 ml cup, for the same reason: it is the size that lets a shared steep divide evenly and a solo steep be finished while it is hot. The Ice Grey Kung Fu Tea Set comes with six or eight of them depending on the tier; the beige Ru-ware set uses eight wider Luohan cups. Either is glazed porcelain, so a rinse is all it takes between teas.我们两套都落在同样的 70 毫升上，理由也一样：这个尺寸既能匀得开、又能趁热喝完。按档位不同，冰灰釉功夫茶具配 6 或 8 只；米黄汝窑套装用的是 8 只更宽的罗汉杯。两者都是上釉的瓷，换茶冲一下就行。

Questions people ask常被问到的几个问题

If you need one number如果你只要一个数字

Buy 70 ml cups and six of them for one or two people. That is the size that lets a steep divide evenly over a table, and be finished while it is still hot. Everything else in the set exists to serve that one cup.买 70 毫升的杯子，一两人用买 6 只。这个尺寸能让一泡在桌上匀得开，也能趁热喝完。套装里其余每一件，都是为了这一只杯子服务的。

And if you are still unsure whether your set is complete, tell me what you drink and how many — I would rather answer one email than have you buy a set with the wrong cup count.如果你还是不确定自己这套齐不齐，告诉我你喝什么、几个人喝就好——我宁愿回一封邮件，也不想让你买错杯数。

Glazed porcelain also takes care of itself: rinse, dry, done. If you would like the longer version of that, there is one in how to live with a crackle glaze.上釉的瓷本身也好打理：冲、擦、收工。想看细一点的版本，写在和开片一起生活里。

← Back to Reading← 返回茶志