Gongfu Infusion: Chapter 2

Phoenix Oolong with the Gaiwan

In chapter 1, we have discussed the basic steps in preparing tea using the gongfu infusion approach. In this chapter, we shall demonstrate the idea using one particular tea.

Tea selection

• Song Cultivar Huangzhi Xiang
  (a classic style Phoenix oolong, medium-light baked)

Tool

• A 100 ml gaiwan
• A chahai
• 3 gongfu cups
• An infusion table
• An electric kettle

Before we start the demonstration, let’s discuss why I have chosen this tea.

Beyond conventional interpretation

The British tasting standard of 5~6 minutes of infusion only gives you one way of interpreting tea. As I have repeatedly stressed in many other occasions, each tea has a different material nature. As much as we cannot expect preparing bok choi the same way we do lettuce, the same infusion method used towards different tea is never able to allow you to experience the best of a lot of teas. That is one reason some of my fellow tea traders in the West are not understanding the quality of quite a number of teas. I don’t blame them, how would you understand the taste of bok choi when it is eaten raw?

Huangzhi Xiang Dancong, such as this Song Cultivar I am using here, is one of those teas that can never show its best when idled in the pot for 5 minutes. Indeed, most oolongs, particularly those lesser fired ones, are similar in various degrees.

Genuine and properly produced Huangzhi Xiang has a fresh, clean, delicate, and almost effervescent kind of floral aroma and the accents of kumquat in its flavourful, tinkering sweet full body. Like all other Phoenix oolongs of the Shuixian family of cultivars, it can be exceedingly sharp and strong when prepared wrongly. The challenge is to render this well in the infusion and giving an optimal balance and texture.