Chinese tea wares, some may think it is overly complicated and abundant, as the traditions of tea brewing date back to the time of the Tang dynasty, many techniques, and literature related to tea drinking culture have arisen over time. To be able to fully enjoy and experience the cultural essence, and to properly brew tea, tea brewing is not only just putting hot water with tea leaves, drinking tea is as much about the enjoyment of brewing tea as it is about actual drinking tea.
Gongfu Tea is a unique tea brewing style, and it is unique to Oolong tea. Tieguanying is often used in tea brewing technique performance, and Gongfu Tea requires many complicated steps, that is why it is called Gongfu Tea, which Gongfu translates as efforts.
Step 1
Pour hot water into tea wares, including Chahai, teacup, and Aroma cup. Cleanse the tea wares and preheat them at the same time.
Step 2
Clear the water from all the tea wares, and transfer some amount of tea leaves to teapot using a tea scoop ( 茶则Cha Ze), normally around one-fifth to one-fourth of the volume of the teapot. And then pour hot water into the teapot, soft water is preferred which contains fewer minerals.
Step 3
Scrap away the foam at the spout of the teapot, and wait for 15 to 30 seconds depends on whether you want a more intense flavor.
Step 4
Pour the tea and filter it into Chahai and Gongdao cups.
Step 5
Pour the tea into the Aroma cup, and put the inverted teacup on top of the aroma cup, and flip the teacup along with the aroma cup.
Step 6
Slowly flip the aroma cup away from the teacup, and feel the aroma from the residual tea in the aroma cup.
Step 7
Slowly taste the tea soup.
Chahai/Gongdao cup 茶海 公道杯
The main purpose of the Gongdao cup is to hold brewed tea. Sometimes we may not want our tea to have an intense flavor, therefore we can shorten the brewing time, we pour tea out of the teapot instead of leaving them in the teapot with tea leaves, as that will intensify the flavor of tea over time.
Tea holder 茶荷
A tea holder or called tea lotus is used to hold tea leaves, which will be brewed. To let people see and smell the aroma from the dried tea leaves. It is usually made of porcelain.
Tea panel 茶盤
It is important to keep tea brewing clean and elegant, tea panel has a built-in tray for used water to be poured in, it makes cleansing tea wares more convenient.
Teapot 茶壺
Teapots are used to brew tea. Most known in China are teapots from Yixing in Jiangsu Province, it is unique for the raw material. it makes the most special composition and texture. Since Yixing Zisha teapots have a porous structure, it is recommended to only brew one type of tea for each teapot, as the aroma of tea can be absorbed into the teapot.
Gaiwan 蓋碗
Traditionally, people also use Gaiwan to brew tea and pour brewed tea. There are also customs to use Gaiwan to drink tea alone.
Aroma cup 聞香杯
Aroma cup is unique to Oolong tea brewing. It is used to savor the aroma of tea, pairing with the teacup. Usually, a porcelain aroma cup serves better, as the aroma would be trapped in porous tea wares material like purple clay Zisha.
To learn more about different types of tea, visit here.