Gongfu tea brewing
The concept of gongfu comes from China. I've heard through various resources that the term gongfu refers to learning to do anything well, but over time it has become mainly associated with tea brewing. Most of what I know about gongfu brewing has come from watching videos from Mei Leaf on YouTube. For a long time, I thought that a set would be too expensive to realistically buy, but then I started looking on Amazon...
These sets are typically used on a bamboo tray that is made to hold excess water, but those were sold separately. I didn't think it would be too important to have one since other tea ceremony cultures use a bowl to hold leftover water from the brewing process, and place their brewing tools on a towel. I used an inverted bamboo steamer as a stand in for this picture. Now imagine it being rectangle, and sealed at the bottom to hold water. As it turned out, I realized how uneven the height of the slats on the steamer are. I decided to opt for a setup that was a little more flat...
Korean tea ceremonies place a towel under the serving pieces. Unfortunately, I have a little white on white going on here, but you can see the general setup. Just so you know what you are looking at, the tea is brewed in the covered cup (called a gaiwan). The lid of the gaiwan is tilted to the side, and the tea is poured into the small pitcher through a fine screen. Then the tea is drunk from the small cup. A lot of people complain about how tiny the cups are (they hold 1/2 an ounce). Gongfu tea brewing is not about hydration. It is about the sensory enjoyment of tea, and you should be prepared to spend some time when you do a gongfu brewing.
Today we are brewing a Kenyan oolong tea. Oolong tea is popular in Asia, and I contemplated getting a bag of Chinese or Taiwanese oolong when I went to the store that sells fine teas, but I really wanted to try the Kenyan oolong so that's what I got. This is the first whole leaf oolong I've tried. The leaves look a bit different than I anticipated. Bagged oolong tea appears brown, and brews up to look like black tea. Oolong is a partially oxidized tea, so the middle of the leaf is green, and the edges of the leaves are brown (more like a black tea).
Gongfu tea brewing uses a large quantity of tea leaves, and brews for a short period of time. The videos that I watched about gonfu brewing suggested 8 grams of tea for a 200 mL gaiwan. My gaiwan is 50 mL, so I used 2 grams, which is about a teaspoon of leaves.
First, I boiled some water, and poured it into the gaiwan to warm it up. Then I poured the hot water into the pitcher to warm it (and from there, the hot water gets poured into the cups to warm them before being discarded). I placed the tea leaves in the gaiwan, and poured a little water over them for the tea rinse. The tea rinse helps to hydrate and warm the leaves before the brewing process begins. If you go all the way back to my Moroccan Mint post, I experiment with rinsing/not rinsing tea before brewing. From my experience with brewing Kenyan green tea, I know that these whole leaf teas from Kenya do better with a tea rinse than doing the first brew dry.
After discarding the tea rinse, I poured more water over the leaves, and brewed for 15 seconds. Yes, that is a short brew. Brewing a lot of tea for a short time allows for good flavor, but with fewer of the bitter notes coming through.
Here's my first brew. Look at that lovely color. It is definitely lighter in color than black tea.
This is what the leaves look like after brewing. They expand quite a bit in size. As with the Kenyan green tea, I think that the second brewing of the Kenyan oolong tea is the best flavor. That tends to be a trend with fine teas from what I can tell from the videos I watch.
It's hard to tell from the picture alone just how small these cups are. They hold about 2 sips worth of tea. You really need to have some time to devote to just sitting and drinking tea when you do this, but it is a fun way to experience tea.
This video explains the process much better than I can.
These sets are typically used on a bamboo tray that is made to hold excess water, but those were sold separately. I didn't think it would be too important to have one since other tea ceremony cultures use a bowl to hold leftover water from the brewing process, and place their brewing tools on a towel. I used an inverted bamboo steamer as a stand in for this picture. Now imagine it being rectangle, and sealed at the bottom to hold water. As it turned out, I realized how uneven the height of the slats on the steamer are. I decided to opt for a setup that was a little more flat...
Gongfu tea brewing uses a large quantity of tea leaves, and brews for a short period of time. The videos that I watched about gonfu brewing suggested 8 grams of tea for a 200 mL gaiwan. My gaiwan is 50 mL, so I used 2 grams, which is about a teaspoon of leaves.
First, I boiled some water, and poured it into the gaiwan to warm it up. Then I poured the hot water into the pitcher to warm it (and from there, the hot water gets poured into the cups to warm them before being discarded). I placed the tea leaves in the gaiwan, and poured a little water over them for the tea rinse. The tea rinse helps to hydrate and warm the leaves before the brewing process begins. If you go all the way back to my Moroccan Mint post, I experiment with rinsing/not rinsing tea before brewing. From my experience with brewing Kenyan green tea, I know that these whole leaf teas from Kenya do better with a tea rinse than doing the first brew dry.
After discarding the tea rinse, I poured more water over the leaves, and brewed for 15 seconds. Yes, that is a short brew. Brewing a lot of tea for a short time allows for good flavor, but with fewer of the bitter notes coming through.
Here's my first brew. Look at that lovely color. It is definitely lighter in color than black tea.
This is what the leaves look like after brewing. They expand quite a bit in size. As with the Kenyan green tea, I think that the second brewing of the Kenyan oolong tea is the best flavor. That tends to be a trend with fine teas from what I can tell from the videos I watch.
It's hard to tell from the picture alone just how small these cups are. They hold about 2 sips worth of tea. You really need to have some time to devote to just sitting and drinking tea when you do this, but it is a fun way to experience tea.
This video explains the process much better than I can.
Sounds pretty involved.
ReplyDeleteIt is. I have to admit that I'm getting pretty deep into the weeds with my tea drinking, but it's fun! Plus it feeds into the idea that we need to stop and savor what we eat and drink instead of gulping it down as fast as possible.
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