I thought I'd throw a couple of questions out there:
Question 1: When I make tea gung-fu style, I usually pour from a Yixing teapot into a Yixing pitcher. I have a different teapot for each style of tea I drink. Do people also segregate the pitchers?
Question 2: I like gung-fu style tea but often lack the time to coax a tea thru
8+ steepings. I was wondering who else has this problem & whether anyone has tried a partial gung-fu method, i.e., use somewhat less tea and somewhat longer steeping times in an attempt to yield fewer good steeps?
Thanks
--Tom
-oo- ""\o~
------------------------------------ "Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terrance
Yeah, time and tide wait for no man. I just gungfu until I stop, whether it be 3, 4, 9, 10...steeps. I do however sometimes do a modified gungfu by using my Dutch glass cup with infuser and lots of leaf. The cup is 8ish ounces. I drink right from the cup. Any port in a storm.
I use a glass pitcher, so I don't dedicate pitchers as I do teapots. I have other pitchers, but none of them are unglazed clay. (I just don't like the forms of the unglazed clay pitchers sold for the purpose.)
As to question 1: I'd use at least three different pitchers. One for puer, one for black teas (though I might use the puer pitcher with yunnans), and one for green/oolong/white teas. It would be ideal to have one pitcher for each pot, but fiscal reality and storage issues tend to intrude. Using the same pitcher for dark puer and white tea would probably be a disaster. I just use porcelain now, quite frankly.
And for question 2: I've tried doing a partial gongfu method such as you describe but haven't been able to replicate a pure gongfu experience by adjusting temp (lower) and steep times. The resultant product, when I don't ruin it by leaving it too long, is to real gongfu as an americano is to espresso (some of the same character but greatly attenuated.
Sure; I often brew oolongs with a moderate amount of leaf and get 3 or
4 good longer-than-gongfu steeps. You probably shouldn't call it gong fu, though. I've even had good results sometimes with very little leaf and a single long steep. Maybe that's reverse gong fu?
Bottom line it is always best to use one specific teapot for one tea. However, that is not reality for most, good Yixing teapots can be expensive so having a teapot for every kind of tea is not reasonable or practical. I say by now know what your favorite tea is focus on different size and shape teapots for this tea and use a Gai Wan or a porcelain teapot for less frequent and new arrival teas. They do make small Gung Fu size porcelain teapots for this reason. (I realized just now this was not your questions but I spent the time to write that so I am leaving it LOL)
(Now on to your real question) Most tea distributors in China use a Gay Wan I personally do not care for them because it is easy to burn your fingers and messy. As for a pitcher, are you referring to a Reserve pot? If so porcelain is the way to go IMO. As for me I drink mainly Puerh and Dan Cong so I have a ton of teapots for these type of teas and I use one for the main pot and a slightly larger one for the reserve pot this is a great way to treat two pots at once. Bottom line use porcelain unless you have two pots for the same tea then use one as a reserve pot and the other as the cooking pot.
Question #2:
Ok, this is a good one. What I do when I am in a Rush and just do not have time is, pack a larger teapot full of tea and make one big pot maybe two and then put into a big coffee cup and head out. You see making Gun Fu tea is not about really making it in a small pot. It is all about tasting the teas change in flavor over five or six pots and the stronger flavor in general. There is no way to achieve this if you are in a rush unless you want to walk into work clinching eight coffee cups of tea. This might get you an interview with your company EAP (Employee assistants Program, in other words the shrink). One big pot full of tea and one big coffee cup will work fine.
Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com1/20/04 17: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com
As well you should.
I have often deployed the uf gnog technique by way of practice. Those among you who have found it in your hearts to forgive me for breaking expensive gaiwan lids can only imagine what I have done to tasting and aroma cups as I gracelessly flip them over in the classic manner of Brooklyn. I have been told from other sources however that spills and breakage are more tolerable in uf gnog than gung fu. Others are in a better position to comment.
I'm drinking a Wulong from Big Apple this morning and find it absolutely charming. On another note, I've been brewing my gung fu tea purposely stronger than I usually do, and to good effect. (Maybe that wasn't on another note.)
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