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Today I discovered this:
http://www.marshaln.com/whats-grandpa-style/
I’ve read a few of his articles previous, and he doesn’t appear to drink all his tea this way. Typically it appears he uses traditional or gongfu, depending on the circumstance.
I may take his advice and use this to “finish off” teas that aren’t up for another round of gongfu. He mentioned in an article on a puerh that a 4th or 5th brewing produced a bitter and somewhat metallic taste, which disappeared on the next brewing done “grandpa style”.
M.
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“This is really the way that most Chinese drink their tea, most of the
time, in most places. Relatively few people actually know how to brew
tea gongfu style, much less practice it on a daily basis.”This is what I also saw for myself. In Zhejiang, for example, Longjing was often served in a tall glass, the same way as described in the article. Sometimes if I would visit the local temple as well, I would drink some green tea with the monks, using paper cups in a similar manner. However, at other times they would break out the formal tea set, and some small snacks, and then they would use black tea instead.
In the West these days, there are some pu’er enthusiasts who think the gongfu method is the only true way to drink pu’er. However, I read once that in the region of Pu’er itself, the people actually use this “grandpa method,” with a relatively small amount of tea leaves in a cup, and refilled until the tea leaves are spent.
Neither way is really right or wrong, but clay pots and tiny cups are not very practical around the office. Just as we endeavor to appreciate tea, it’s good to find ways for tea drinking to fit naturally into daily life. Otherwise, if it is confined only to ceremonial use, tea cannot really become part of the culture.
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I think utilizing a multitude of methods is important to really appreciate tea (or more specifically the other methods). I use sub-optimal stuff myself (ceramic tea pot with a ceramic filter insert for “traditional” brew; a mug and a tea ball for broken leaf “fodder” tea for nipping out the door in the morning). That said, I endevor to acquire the things I need for good Gongfu tea making, because I’d like to try it.
As a kid, we used to drink tonnes of tea. Our way of making tea was simple – a gallon plastic jug, 6-8 “Shurfine Brand Orange Peakoe” bags and hot tap water. Our tapwater was heated by an oil furnace. When we first moved in, there were times when just running the “hot” all the way got you some water and a bunch of steam – being around boiling point, no joke – but we managed to throttle it back to about 90c or so. Brew it for 20 mins or so. Then we’d dump about 1-2 cups of sugar in it (more early on). I don’t think anyone bothered to remove the bags most of the time.
That was tea for me in … Rural(?) Suburban(?) America. East Coast and whatnot. Now I put more effort into it. Back then I didn’t even know full leaf tea was a thing. I thought it had always come in bags, and was always dust.
As for tea at the office, all the tea drinkers use tea-dust-bags. Slowly endevoring to change that; will be more free once I have a better set-up. Planning on keeping a few cups, a gaiwan a chahai, scale, thermometer and a boiler at my desk. Gotta start the influence somehow! I’ve got a lot of space desk space, not much to take it up with. Maybe I should take up bonsai or install a rock garden. Of course, a mug and a tea ball with broken leaf “fodder” will be around for when I’m more mobile around the office.
Pancakes, did you tour that region of China or are you in the PRC?
M.
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I have begun my traveling in China since teenage when tea was not as common a daily drink in that country as it is now. You may wonder why I said this since most people think tea has been there forever. The decades of destruction and turmoils that Chairman Mao and his Communist Party had brought to China had once made tea unaffordable by many in the country. So was most common sense about tea. Most traditions of China were once overthrown in the Mainland. Some have slowly come back, most are “re-constructed”. So have been many memories of history.
I won’t let myself astray in this topic however. The practice of soaking tealeaves in the mug throughout the day is indeed very common. That was how it was in my earliest experience with tea: tea brewed throughout the day in the thermo.Artifacts from as way back as the 18th century reflect the practice of keeping a large pot of tea warm as an important household set up in different parts of China.In fact, I do agree to certain degree that some teas are good when made in a large pot and soaked in there for a long time. However, I think as our knowledge of our world develops we continue to change our behaviour as human beings. For example, we normally do not drink ashes of temple incense for cure of disease as people did in the past. Or many other common practices that would be considered today as totally out of place or even insane.Leaves soaked for an extended amount of time in warm water would release a lot more than what we know as salutary substance in tea. I shall write more about them later, but what I can say now is that they deliver some uncertainty about the total goodness of tea as a healthy and delicious drink. Try to minimize the “soaking” to less than one hour. Drain the teapot, or mug, or whatever as frequently as you feel the tea is strong enough. Change the tealeaves in the mug at least two times in your 8 hour work day.
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