5 oz cups? That is a gong fu for the giants!
I use 4 oz yixing teapot and 3/4 oz cups when I do it for on-two people. 6
oz yixing chahu and same cups for 4-6 people.
Second - that "pourng the water out into the sink" does not sound right at
all. Everything is done on the table, there should not be any trips to the
kitchen sink. When I have 2 people I use bamboo tongs to take two cps at a
time (3/4 oz cups) and put them into hot water and take them out. When I
serve 4 - i use two pair of bamboo tongs and do it with 4 cups at the same
time. In and out - no sink, no hassle. But certainly one cannot do that with
5 oz mugs.

Sasha.

"Melinda" > wrote in message
om...
> My steps to gung fu have been (and I make no claim to purity here, I
> am still putting things together from various instruction webpages
> I've read and messages from various tea lists):
>
> 1-heat the water, set out the equipment (yixing pot, fair cup,
> drinking and/or smelling cup)
>
> 2-pour boiling water into and over the pot and the cups (and yes I had
> been pouring it over the handle, I was more careful last night and the
> handle was better. Cups were still hot, no way to get around that)
>
> 3-let sit for a few seconds to heat up the teawares, then pour out
> boiling water from everything (here's the first and worst place
> usually that I get my fingers burned)
>
> 4-put leaves in teapot, put lid on, let sit for around 10-15 seconds.
> Open lid, smell, enjoy. repeat as liked a few times (can reheat pot by
> pouring a little water over the outside)
>
> 5-pour a little water into leaves or the whole amount of water onto
> leaves. I have not been rinsing my leaves this batch as it seems like
> it might waste flavor and all I have is the one sample right now. I do
> rinse puer if I am brewing that though. Put on lid. Steep tea, pour a
> little water over the outside. I have heard of people filling the
> steeping water til it overflows the outside of the pot a little, I
> would do that if this oolong weren't in such short supply for me.
>
> 6-Steep for however long your first steep in going to be. Pour out
> (decant). This Yixing pot I'm using now (my first) has a tiny little
> hole in it's spout, pours rather slowly. I'll remember that for the
> next one I get.
>
> 7-Drink how you're going to, repeat steeps as desired, etc.
>
> The worst part of burning fingers, as I said, is when I'm dealing with
> the boiling water when rinsing the pot and the cups especially, when
> pouring out the water into the "sink". Maybe my cups are a little too
> big or something...the one holds about 5 OZ. Can't really use
> chopsticks with it because of the weight. (As a secondary comment, I'm
> going to be more careful about the second yixing I buy...the handle on
> this one is really rather delicate when I've got the pot filled with
> water. I'm not afraid it will break, it just feels too small for the
> weight of the pot).
>
> The towel suggestion might be the best at this point. My husband
> recommended rubber kitchen gloves. Both kind of take away from the
> artistry of it so I'll have to maybe adjust my times or something, not
> sure yet. Any more comments? Thanks for the advice so far
> though...I've never seen anyone actually do this so I'm learning by
> reading and by doing as it were. Thanks again
>
> Melinda