Keeping the water hot

thermos works great if you pre warm it before filling with water at a dragon boil.

Buy a good thermal carafe and that should keep your water reasonably hot. Chinese have an obsession of only drinking boiled water. So many families store their boiled water in thermal carafes. Then, they can have hot drinking water on hand whenever they need it.

The trains here all have a water boiler in each car. And each compartment has a thermal carafe for handy storage of hot water. Except the water temp. varies depending on which train you take! The train from Guangzhou to Beijing has rather mild temp water - and unsuitable for oolongs. Good for greens and scented teas though. The train from Fuzhou to Shenzhen has really hot water - good for any oolong.

You know, it's pretty hot here in Fujian in the summer. And on hot days, we expect to buy ice cold beverages from the beverage fridge at any store. Not so here. They store their beverages in those fridges at room temperature!! So here, on a hot day, you only have a choice of warm, or hot beverage. Never ice cold. The only thing they keep iced is beer. Strange country.

I have a stainless steel thermos that I use ONLY for water and it does a perfect job of keeping water reasonably hot (too hot at first in fact) for greens at my desk. If you go the thermos route I'd recommend getting a new one and never putting anything but water in it, and no milk or milk tea either...they (thermoses) are (in my experience) nearly impossible to get entirely clean once you do. I also can use the water in this thermos for greener oolongs when it's first hot. I do shui Xians with it too but it may be at a lower temp than ideal. That's the trade-off for the convenience for me though. Mostly I use it for greens and whites.

Get a good thermos though, not one of the cheap plastic things with the vacuum glass bottle inside.

Also, my method of steeping doesn't require me to open and close the lid a lot (I tend to brew a larger amount, say 8-10 Oz, at a time) so that may be a factor in your decision.

Melinda

P.S. I've never heard the term zhong for a gaiwan before, is that regional or...? What is it's literal translation? I'm happy to learn a new tea term!