I can confidently say that I now consume more tea than water. Most of the time I brew up a variety of Japanese and Chinese green teas to suit my mood, but every now and then I crave something a little different. On those occasions I break out my gong fu teapot and brew a few pots of tiguanyin.
It is recommended that you use the small, traditional, porous Yixing teapot for gong fu tea. According to folklore, if you use one of these teapots for 20 years, you will be able to brew tea just by pouring in hot water! The folks over at Ya-Ya’s Tea-Board describe how to create your own gong fu tea ceremony:
1. Heat fresh water to the desired temperature (~85°C/185°F for most oolongs, boiling for most pu-erhs) and display the dry leaves (optional)2. Place cups and brewing vessel on your tea-tray or a shallow bowl. Preheat the gaiwan or Yixing pot and cups with hot water from the inside and pour some hot water over the outside as well.
3. Empty all and fill brewing vessel with a lot of tea leaves (generally about 1/3 to 3/4 full!).
4. Washing/waking up the leaves: Fill brewing vessel with hot water, close lid and pour hot water over the top (this helps to keep the temperature just right). Empty after 5-15 seconds. Pour away this first infusion, it isn’t for drinking. It’s intended to rinse dust off the leaves and helps to re-hydrate the leaves (waking up).
5. First infusion: Fill brewing vessel with hot water again to the brim, replace lid and pour hot water on top. Steep for 10-30 seconds (depending on tea and personal preferences). Pour infusion into the cups in a circular fashion, each one a bit at a time; DO NOT fill them one at a time since you’ll end up with different strength tea in each one. Alternatively, pour all tea into a serving pitcher and fill cups with this pitcher (Taiwanese method). OPTIONAL: Fill smelling cups first, empty them into the drinking cups and smell the empty smelling cup (this step is there to separate the smell of the infusion from the taste that inevitably involves our sense of smell).
6. Repeat step 5 as long as you enjoy the flavour of the tea. You will have to adjust the water temperature and steeping time for later infusions (a slight increase from steeping to steeping).
When brewing tiguanyin at work, I use a slightly larger teapot with a 7 ounce capacity. I heat the water to 85°C/185°F and infuse about 2 tablespoons of loose tea for 1 minute. I can usually get 4-6 infusions out of the tea before it starts to lose the full-bodied, floral taste that lingers on the tongue and down the back of the throat.
Thumbnail image from The Fragrant Leaf.
Hi there,
I saw that you came by our blog and got curious. Nice post and a gorgeous blog.
Although 4-6 infusions out of a Ti Guan Yin is about average for average quality leaf, good quality TGY will easily brew 10 infusions. The secret is to keep (especially the first 3-4) infusions very short (i.e. 5-10 sec). You might have to use slightly hotter water than your 85°C, TGY can take near boiling.
Jo
Ya-Ya Teahouse
BTW, judging by your last.fm panel at the bottom, we have a very similar taste in music
Thanks for the brewing tip, Jo! I’ll try short infusions and hotter temps this morning.
I have been drinking green teas for so long that I recently decided to expand my palate and have just started experimenting with oolongs and puers. My local tea house suggested trying Bao Zhong oolong because it’s so lightly
fermentedoxidized. I think I prefer the bold taste of Tiguanyin to Bao Zhong’s subtleties, but I admit that I have a long way to go on developing my palate. Thanks for your guidance and suggestions! I think I can easily spend the rest of my life exploring tea and the cultures surrounding it.Yeah, spending the rest of your life exploring tea and its culture won’t be a problem, I agree.
I guess the recommendation of Bao Zhong (sometimes called Pouchong) is based on your experience with green teas. For bold taste, try some Yan Cha (Wuyi oolongs), their higher oxidized and roasted. Although their closer in flavor to a black tea than to a green, they’re very special.
I noticed you’ve used the term fermented in your comment above. Only pu-erh is fermented, all other teas go through oxidation but not fermentation. It’s a such a common misnomer, it’s hard to change it. Robert J. Heiss just wrote a pretty authoritative article on this subject that you might enjoy reading.
Jo
Ya-Ya Teahouse
Wow! The Leaf is a wonderful wealth of information! Thanks to your kind nudge, I now know that oxidation and fermentation are not terms to be used interchangeably.