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Hi everyone! As an absolute beginner, I am interested in gong fu teamaking. This wonderful site has given me much information already, but there are some questions which I’d like to ask.
For one: I am a bit confused about the gong fu approach concerning the timing of the steeps. Take needle style green tea for instance. Some sites cite 20-30 seconds for the first steep whereas this guide says 4 minutes. Or am I missing something?And secondly: Is it possible to set aside the tealeaves for a longer time (say 6 hours) inbetween the steeps? Or does it spoil them? Say, I want to steep 5 grams of Qimen Mao Feng black tea 4 times. Is it okay to steep it twice in the morning, and twice in the evening? If it is, how to store the leaves? Are there any special steps to be considered before the second steep?Thanks for any advice! -
These are actually questions asked not only by beginners, but could not be properly answered by many veterans!
That’s one reason why you would see in many other sources saying that various green teas can be infused for less than half a minute. There are many reasons for such parroted myths. I’ll deal with this question for now and come back for the second one when I have a bit more time:Gongfu infusion was considered a bourgeoisie activity and disappeared in Mainland China during cultural revolution, which spanned over two decades in the 60’s and 70’s. It took place quite immediately after the devastating movement, the Great Leap Forward, which triggered wide-spreading starvation and general deprivation of material resources. It happened in the 50’s and killed tens of million.The need for gongfu tea infusion, began in the 80’s when people needed it to taste the tea before buying. It took place in the areas of Anxi and Phoenix, and nearby bigger cities, where oolong teas are consumed and sold. Any places north of that, they used mugs or even lid-less glasses, many still do today. The gaiwan, which is a standard vessel in the two southernly regions prevailed. Because of the nature of oolongs, and the idea of the old time saying of a lot of leaves for filling the gaiwan, so the habit of short infusion time began to form. This was good for the seller, coz with short infusion time, the first couple of rounds of infusion of almost all tea can be pleasing. A small sip of plain water from the gongfu teacup can be as pleasing too. The seller is then able to sell almost anything basing on customer service techniques, rather than the quality of the tea.This habit quickly spread as people were allowed to open their own private companies, or operate independently as a commercial entity. Naturally the showy style of gongfu infusion became a marketing gimmick and spread across the country. Salesladies spend a lot more time on the eyeliner than on learning about the nature of tea. With a market largely of low tea knowledge but eager to show off, this development is understandable.Consequently, when selling oolong tea is not enough, they began selling puer and green teas. Since any tea to them is the same — products to push to the customer so they can earn the quick buck — these self-learned merchants treat all teas the same way. It works for them anyway.The myths of short infusion under the umbrella of “gongfu tea” thus got parroted and prevail through China. In the beginning of this century, tea pilgrims from other countries thus learn from the students of these tea merchants and parroted the same myth in their local markets.Similar disastrous re-appropriation of the tradition happens not only to tea, but many other aspects of human heritage. Cooking style, Confucianism, Buddhism, and even the Chinese language and history itself have all been greatly distorted.If, however, all that you are concerned with is not the form, but the content of whether 30 sec or 4 minutes deliver the best result, try it out. Compare. A good tea stands a good process and delivers its optimum quality. -
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Some tealeaves can be put away for a number of hours for second runs. Green teas, greener style oolongs, white teas that are actually green, very young types of “raw” puer (ie shengcha) are NOT very good for this. Try to finish these types of teas in a half day.
For other types of teas, do not disturb the tealeaves, and do not open the lid of the infusion vessel after the last round of infusion before putting away. There is no need to put the whole thing into the fridge unless the room temperature is beyond the high 20’s (°C). In any case, always blanch the leaves once again before infusing again.I feel safer with a smaller vessel with a tighter lid, such as a gaiwan or a small porcelain teapot. An infuser mug, which infuser has to be lifted and left in the open while the tea being drunk, is obviously not suitable for doing this.The Yixing teapot is especially good in protecting the leaves between infusions. In the case of matured teas, I am comfortable in using leftover leaves even from yesterday, with the pot left on the infusion table all night, even in summer. Just follow the protocol above and it seems just like a continuation in the last session. -
I did leave a pot of sheng cha puer (very expensive one) tealeaves till the next afternoon once and try brewing them again. Common sense told me that I should wash the leaves again with hot water first before brewing. The result was exactly like what Leo described: like a continuation of the last infusion session! I did not use a good Yixing teapot but a fine clay kyushu. A tea friend said he could do the same after the tea was left in the Yixing pot for three days!
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The pleasure in tea is to research the perfect infusion for each teas.
The first step could be to follow the tea seller guide linethe second step will be to try differents steeping methods playing with
time, temperature and amount of tea leaves while keeping track of
everything to be able to reproduce the process.
The final step
problably is to forget about the process we have learned and just be
100% into making tea and sometimes be suprise by an execptional cup of
tea…The Tea Garage
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