Gongfu Tea

Gongfu is a Chinese tea brewing methodology that incorporates many infusion cycles and small brewing volumes to explore the many slices of flavors in a single tea.

Sources: /r/tea: An Introduction to Gongfu Tea, Yunnan Sourcing: Brewing Guide for Green, Black, Oolong and Pu-erh Teas, Hugo Tea Company: GONGFU (small-format tea steeping).

Equipment

It is recommended that you purchase each piece separately rather than buying a set to work your way into all the equipment. However, sets are also nice, especially when they are aesthetically consistent and beautiful. I've included links to examples of these equipments.

Must Haves

Loose leaf tea (example) : The tea itself! Although you can brew tea from a bag or with a strainer, one purpose of Gongfu is to let whole tea leaves open up and spread their flavor

Tea cups (example) : Gongfu cups usually hold 50-100 ml. They are usually filled with 50 ml of tea at a time

Gaiwan (example) : A gaiwan is the main brewing vessel where the tea is extracted. The typical volume for a gaiwan is 100-150 ml although much larger ones are available. Small gaiwans around 50-75 ml are available for solo brewing too. Rule of thumb: ~40-50 ml of tea per cup. So for serving 3/4 people at a time, use a 150 ml gaiwan. Larger gaiwans are uncommon, so if serving an even larger crowd, you should accumulate multiple gaiwan brewings in a larger kettle and then pour them into cups all at once.

Filter (example) : A fine mesh filter placed on top of the fairness kettle or tea cups to strain away sediments

Kettle : Some way to boil water (ideally with fine temperature control).

Nice-to-Haves

  • Fairness kettle (example)
    • After brewing tea in the gaiwan, it is poured into this kettle so you can immediately begin brewing the next infusion in the gaiwan
    • A fairness kettle also helps with even distribution of the brewed tea into the tea cups
    • It allows you to combine several brews before serving if you're using a small gaiwan
  • Tea tray (example)
    • Since brews are discarded in the prep for gongfu, a tea tray provides a basin that collects the discarded water
  • Tea scoop (example)
    • A (wood) scoop to measure and transfer tea from storage to the gaiwan
  • Tea tongs (example)
    • It is nice to use tongs to invert tea cups on the tea tray to discard water used for preheating and tea leaf washing

Completing a Set

  • Tea storage (example)
    • A pot to store tea leaves after opening any packaging
  • Tea boat / presentation vessel (example, example)
    • A small open vessel used to show tea leaves to guests and to load the gaiwan with tea
  • Tea pet (example)
    • A clay figurine to pour discarded water and brews over
  • Tea pick/needle (example, example)
    • For picking apart compressed Pu'er tea cakes or for unclogging a teapot spout
  • Even more things:
    • Tea basin for discarding spent tea leaves
    • Digital scale for weighing tea
    • Timer for measuring brew times
    • Aroma cups so guests can smell brewed tea in a tall cup before inverting into a regular teacup
    • Tea brush for spreading tea liquid over the tea tray evenly
    • Tea towel for wiping teacups after preheating and discard
    • Coasters for the teacups

My Tea Set

  • TODO: add photos here

Setting the Environment

To me, it seems that gongfu is best enjoyed in a small room with floor seating. A cool open breeze is ideal. Lighting some incense is also a good idea. Playing some light instrumental music might be good too.

The Flow

Prep

  1. Set the tea tray, tea cups, gaiwan, and fairness kettle in place
  2. Pick the tea and weigh and set aside the correct amount of leaves. Use a presentation vessel to show the leaves to guests. Use a pick to pick apart pu'er cakes.
  • Grams of tea leaves given per 100 ml of water in the gaiwan
  • Green / white / black: 5-6g
  • Oolong: 4-5g
  • Pu'er: 6g
  1. Boil filtered water in a kettle to the temperature for the tea you have chosen
  • Green / white: 85°C
  • Black: 90°C
  • Oolong: 95°C
  • Pu'er: 95-100°C

Preheating

  1. Pour water into the gaiwan, let it sit for 10 seconds, and pour it out into the fairness kettle
  2. Then pour from the fairness kettle into the tea cups and let them heat up briefly
  3. Use tongs to discard the water in the tea cups over the tea pet

Washing

  1. Add tea leaves to the gaiwan
  2. Pour hot water into the gaiwan and let it sit for 10 seconds
  3. Immediately pour from the gaiwan into the kettle (over the filter) and into the cups. Then discard the water in the cups via tongs over the tea pet.
  • Note: make sure the gaiwan is always drained fully after every infusion. After draining the gaiwan, the lid should not be placed on top until the next brew begins.
  1. This 'washing' step is designed to remove debris from the tea leaves. The brew should not be drunk.
  • For pu'er
    • Wash raw pu'er once for 20 seconds
    • Wash ripe pu'er twice for 15 seconds each time

Brewing and Distribution

It's time to extract drinkable tea from the leaves.

  1. Pour hot water into the gaiwan, steep with the lid closed, and pour into the fairness kettle
  • After pouring into the fairness kettle, you can begin the next steep in the gaiwan
  1. Distribute from the fairness kettle into tea cups

  • Pour in round robin fashion into the cups one at a time to evenly distribute the brewed tea (maintain equal tea strength for each cup)

  • For green/white/black/oolong teas: steep 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 1m until the tea flavor has diminished.

  • For pu'er: steep < 20s for the first few infusions, and continue to steep up to 10-20 times, adjusting steeping times upwards as the flavor diminishes.

Stores

Selections

Packs

Green Teas

White Teas

Black Teas

Oolong Teas

Pu'erh Teas

Herbal Teas