Arggh! Gung fu burning fingers

I'm not a regular gung fuer, but...

The times I've seen someone gung fu tea, he used a dry towel to handle the pot. And when it got wet, he replaced it.

Never had that problem. When you pouring hot water over yixing pot, why pouring it over the handle? Cups are never hot - are you using small ones? They have plenty of time to cool down between steeps, especially if you pour out all the tea from yixing pot to chahai first and then pour to the cups from chahai. BTW, water for oolongs should not be THAT hot, especially for greener oolongs.

Sasha.

Hi Melinda,

This has been asked before, though on a separate group...

I always wonder how can the handle of the pot be hot - did you pour hot water over the handle as well? If you do, avoid that. You should be able to lift the pot by the handle with steam coming off the body of the pot but not the handle.

Another way not to get burnt is to tie a thread around the lid and the handle - like you see in many Chinese teapots. Then while pouring, you press your 2nd finger on the thread to avoid direct contact on the lid.

Another way is not to lay your finger on the lid, but on the side of the knob on the lid, that way the heat is not so burning hot, but take care not to cover the ventilation hole.

Another way is to get a tea tong (bamboo, you see it quite often in Chinese tea ceremony) to handle the lid - grip it by the knob - when you pour hot water and replace the lid, etc. If you don't have the tong, a small sugar cube tong will do, or a pair of chopsticks if you are comfortable using it with ease.

Samar

It's unusual to have the teapot handle be hot, and I second the above suggestion to avoid pouring hot water over the handle. As for cups and such, it's a good idea to rinse the cups in-between steeps. Good gongfu brewers are maniacal where cleanliness is concerned. Also, heating the cups between steeps keeps the tea hot longer and, for the aroma cup, evaporates the tea faster making the fragrance more pronounced.

The simplest answer to your question is that as time passes you'll become inured to the heat. I've never seen an experienced gongfu brewer resort to towels or threads.

Cheers,

Cameron

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/9/04

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Melinda,

Yes, it is a secret, and if I told it to you, it wouldn't be a secret any more would it? I'll tell you what I can, though: First, in my experience some pots pose this problem more hurtfully than others. Second, you can leave out any step that bothers you. Try not pouring so much water over the pot after the water is poured over the leaves, for example. You can use a bamboo tweezer thing instead of your hands to manipulate the cups. Seriously, I think people do get used to a certain amount of heat. I'm just advocating flexibility. Hope you solve it. BTW, when it comes to those overheatable pots of which you speak, I've found it helpful to hold the handle carefully without touching the body of pot. I have a couple like that. I'm sure there is much more to say.

Michael

Alex ChaihorskyXxekd.19659$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com11/9/04

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Sasha,

Respectfully differ with you here. Cups, properly prepared for Gung-fu, are quite hot. They filled with hot water which is then disgarded, then filled with hot tea which is likewise disgarded. I speak of course of the correct way to prepare Gung-fu tea as taught to me by my master.

Michael

I think we are talking about different things here. I was describing the tea tasting ceremony, and you - tea discarding. I must admit, for now, this is too deep for me. May be in the future... :) :)

Sasha.

Alex ChaihorskykLmkd.6865$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com11/10/04

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Sasha,

The preparation of the tea things (chai-inka) is an intrinsic part of Chinese Gung-fu tea, both before drinking and between steeps. (You were speaking earlier of respecting traditions and knowing them before deviating from them. It is from that perspective I speak here.)

Michael

Frustration justifies deviation. Poor girl has her fingers burned, you, purist! :) :) :)

BTW 'chainka" is a tiny black tea particle escaped into the glass when zavarka was poured into it. That is why purists use tea sieves. I, on the other hand, enjoy some chainki in my tea. They add movement and 3d dimension.

Sasha.

Alex ChaihorskyY5nkd.19748$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com11/10/04

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Sasha, what's the word for the collective things you'd have on the table when serving tea, including the samavar, cups, spoons, etc?

Alex ChaihorskyY5nkd.19748$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com11/10/04

06: snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com

Burnt fingers are not a problem. Mentioning it to the disassembled body leads to immediate excommunication. Don't believe me? Ask Dog Ma.

Michael

I do not think we have such a term. We would say that "tea table" is served. Tea table would be "chainyj stol". But it would only be used to the reference for the things served. One wouldn't say "I need to buy "chainyj stol".

Russian is a very complex language. We never had people like Chaucer and other "simplifiers" and Russian remain complex, crazy and untidy since middle ages. Like us. :)

Sasha.

Most of the xixing teapots in my local tea merchant's inventory have iron handles. One would not necessarily have to pour water directly over the handle for it to become too hot to comfortably touch.

Derek199pr6gsc9w9g$. snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us/10/04 08: snipped-for-privacy@gwinn.us

hehehe. Somebody actually reads my .sig! :)

You know what? Ignore me. I'm not even sure if I'm sure what I'm sure about anymore.

In the first place, and in hindsight, it's not "most" of the teapots. At best, it might be a few. And, I'm not sure at this point if they're yixing or not. It's quit likely that they're Japanese.

That said, given the appearance of many of the yixing pots I've just found online (I did try to find a picture), the handles are small and close to the pot. One would not have to pour water directly on the handle for it to heat up.

After all, I have teacups that, while being quite lovely works, are uncomfortable to use because the handle gets too hot to hold.

Interesting! Chai-inka, Chai-inki, and Chaiinyj stol...Sasha, can you tell me how to pronounce them?

Samar

Yah, me too! I've seen wrought iron Japanese types, and yixing with wooden handles, but iron? That seems to create an imbalance, doesn't it?

Samar

My steps to gung fu have been (and I make no claim to purity here, I am still putting things together from various instruction webpages I've read and messages from various tea lists):

1-heat the water, set out the equipment (yixing pot, fair cup, drinking and/or smelling cup)

2-pour boiling water into and over the pot and the cups (and yes I had been pouring it over the handle, I was more careful last night and the handle was better. Cups were still hot, no way to get around that)

3-let sit for a few seconds to heat up the teawares, then pour out boiling water from everything (here's the first and worst place usually that I get my fingers burned)

4-put leaves in teapot, put lid on, let sit for around 10-15 seconds. Open lid, smell, enjoy. repeat as liked a few times (can reheat pot by pouring a little water over the outside)

5-pour a little water into leaves or the whole amount of water onto leaves. I have not been rinsing my leaves this batch as it seems like it might waste flavor and all I have is the one sample right now. I do rinse puer if I am brewing that though. Put on lid. Steep tea, pour a little water over the outside. I have heard of people filling the steeping water til it overflows the outside of the pot a little, I would do that if this oolong weren't in such short supply for me.

6-Steep for however long your first steep in going to be. Pour out (decant). This Yixing pot I'm using now (my first) has a tiny little hole in it's spout, pours rather slowly. I'll remember that for the next one I get.

7-Drink how you're going to, repeat steeps as desired, etc.

The worst part of burning fingers, as I said, is when I'm dealing with the boiling water when rinsing the pot and the cups especially, when pouring out the water into the "sink". Maybe my cups are a little too big or something...the one holds about 5 OZ. Can't really use chopsticks with it because of the weight. (As a secondary comment, I'm going to be more careful about the second yixing I buy...the handle on this one is really rather delicate when I've got the pot filled with water. I'm not afraid it will break, it just feels too small for the weight of the pot).

The towel suggestion might be the best at this point. My husband recommended rubber kitchen gloves. Both kind of take away from the artistry of it so I'll have to maybe adjust my times or something, not sure yet. Any more comments? Thanks for the advice so far though...I've never seen anyone actually do this so I'm learning by reading and by doing as it were. Thanks again

Melinda

Well, while rubber kitchen gloves, or even asbestos gloves, would definitely take away from the artistry...

... an ornately decorated towel might add something. ;)