tasting of darjeeling tea Gongfu method

Tasting our own Darjeeling gardens( Gopaldhara, Avongrove,& Rohini)tea by Gongfu method has given new dimensions to the flavor to our teas. Thanks to Mr Lew for making me learn " how to brew Darjeeling tea- Gongfu Style). I would like to share the experience of fellow members of Rfdt, in this regard. Thanks in advance. SMC, Gopaldhara tea co Pvt Ltd, INDIA

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gopaldhara
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Please post detailed instruction here or on your web site. I drink Darjeeling tea almost exclusively, but brewed traditional style (heated pot,

3 min steeping etc..).
Reply to
Aloke Prasad

I hope SMC will respond, but let me jump in now. The way we brewed those first manufacture Darjeelings was with about 1 gram per fluid ounce of water and extremely short steeps, starting with 3 long breaths and gradually increasing the steep length. We used boiling water in principle, though in practice the water was sometimes less than a full boil.

By the way, I've tried this with some non-first flush tea: some Nagri

2004 autumn flush which hadn't been stored too well. I think that tea benefited from the approach, too.

But this is not a science (yet?), and I think rigidity about the exact instructions would be premature at best. Since I got back from India, I've been playing with the brewing parameters on these 2 teas (Rohini and Avongrove.) I think the Avongrove, which is more aggressive than the Rohini, actually benefits from a slightly lower temperature and even shorter steeps. How short? Pouring off the first steep immediately, that's how short.

As I type this, I'm sadly doing the last steeps of the last 2 grams of the Avongrove. The Rohini's already gone.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Thanks.

How much water makes up one serving? and how many steepings would be appropriate for a high quality Darjeeling (Makaibari 1st flush)?

I want a rough idea.. Are we talking about 5 servings, 10 servings? What would be the timing range (the last serving was for how long?

Once I have an estimate of the # of servings and the longest steep times, I can interpolate to get a good starting plan for this...

I'm afraid that I would have consumed 1 gallon of tea by the time this is done :-)

Reply to
Aloke Prasad

How much would you like? (As you can see by my answering a question with another question, I'm probably misunderstanding you.)

I've been doing this with gaiwans with a capacity of 4 or 6 ounces. If I'm brewing it for friends (as has almost always been the case with the precious first manufacture teas), the liquor goes into a reserve pot and then gets doled out into little tasting cups. If I'm drinking solitarily, the gaiwan gets emptied into a "normal" cup.

I've always been happy with the quality of at least six.

Maybe I've answered this already, and maybe I don't understand you here.

With the Darjeeling teas, I don't think I've tried a steep longer than

2 minutes as the last one.

At one point last month, SMC and I calculated that you actually get a larger amount of drinkable tea liquor by this method than by the traditional method. But honestly, I can't reconstruct the computation now.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Dear SMC:

Gonfu style with Darjeeling tea...ummm I agree Gonfu and Gaiwan both style release different dimension for the same tea. I have also discovered White and Yellow tea both taste much better with Gonfu. I hope sub-continent people will accept Gonfu method. I can tell, many tea drinkers will refuse the Gonfu style because of the traditional of milk tea. What do you think SMC?

Ripon Maputo, Mozambique

Reply to
Ripon

This will never catch-on in India. Tea is very utilitarian item there. In less affluent households, they don't have the time to go through this elaborate preparation. It's "boil the CTC in a mixture of milk+water and add lots of sugar".

In wealthier families, tea is prepared by the servants who are too dumb to be trained to do this elaborate ritual, standing next to the sahibs for all the time it takes to go through 5-6 steepings ....

Reply to
Aloke Prasad

Thanks. I'll try this sometime. The problem is, It will be just me (others in my family like tea, but are content with Lipton Green and Red labels).

If I take a large coffee mug water and split it into 6 parts, each steeping is pretty small in volume.

Would you recommend that I prepare the 6 servings first and then taste them at my leisure?

Reply to
Aloke Prasad

Hi Aloke,

I think you will find that with a little prctice this method is quite simple. There is no need for it to be elaborate, while it can be, it is not necesary. I drink virtually all of my tea using some variation of the Gongfu method. The results are so superior that it is worth the effort. While some, particularly the Asian community, can get rather elaborate and consider it a ceremony, I have found that you can apply utilitatrian thinking and reduce it to a rather simple process. All you need is some basic inexpensive equipment and a little practice, the rewards are tremendous.

I have posted a lot of information about Gongfu and links to different variations on my webste at

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I personaly tried the Avondale and Rohini estate teas gongfu style, thanks Lew, and there were excellant this way.

Mike

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Reply to
Mike Petro

Aloke Prasadzxl2e.29$ snipped-for-privacy@fe1.columbus.rr.com3/29/05

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Aloke,

I've also been drinking the teas of which Lew speaks. I'd say probably five steeps give or take. I use small amounts at a time -- let's say a four ounce gaiwan or YiXing pot -- and I either serve in a five ounce cup or in one ounce Chinese tasting cups. Timing is instantaneous for the first two or so steeps and increases thereafter, the final steep being pushed to several minutes at least.

I think the larger, and perhaps less helpful, answer to your question is that you need to play around yourself to decide what approach yields the best taste. The idea here is one gram of tea per one ounce of water, water off the boil, and extremely short steeps, at least at first. Lew and I did this together and it worked splendidly. But, he experimented a lot to get to this perfection.

On a similar note, I have traditionally used somewhere between one half and one gram of tea per ounce of water at around 195F degrees, and brewed in a

12 ounce glass mason jar, using my nose to tell me when the steep is ready to pour. Opening steeps tended to be upwards of about half a minute give or take. This worked well also.

Hope my post isn't more an intrusion than a help.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

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I have a sneaking suspicion, and *please* correct me if I'm wrong, that other Indian teas are milked, but Darjeeling is drunk straight. I like to think this is true. Anyone?

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

Aloke PrasadJmp2e.280$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com3/29/05

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Well, that is the same all over the world. Gung Fu is not for the many, and I must say there is something to be said for causually and easily preparing a cup of tea just the way you like it, milk, sugar, and all, if such be the case.

I was in India long enough to come to realize that the servants are anything but dumb and they would be quite capable of preparing Gung Fu tea were this required. It is more in the nature of Gung Fu tea, however, that the Sahib prepare it for the servants. (Lest somebody think I'm trying to be humorous, rest assured I'm not.)

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

Aloke PrasadOqp2e.281$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com3/29/05

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No.

Reply to
Michael Plant

There is nothing "magic" about gungfu... More tea + less time = less tea + more time. You don't have to use a gaiwan, just a normal pot will do. Even espresso coffee is a variation of the same idea. The method is only valuable when you have a really good tea or coffee which benefits from having its flavors 'concentrated'. One with layers of flavor also benefits from multiple infusions. (Little point in doing multiple infusions if every one tastes the same.) Keep in mind, too, a bad tea--darjeeling or oolong--will taste bad when done any style, even more so with gungfu, in fact.

Reply to
jkandell

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Yes, while all this is true enough, there are other views: Gung Fu can be a fairly complex series of codified steps, changing through each of the classical five steeps. We use the words Gung Fu loosely, which to my mind is not at all a bad thing, but it's important to remember that there is indeed a more formal, ceremonial aspect worth exploring.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

Why not drink a steep as soon as it's done? I have the feeling this seems daunting to you, but trust me, it's pretty simple, as Mike Petro indicated. I find it natural to do multiple steeps as part of whatever sedentary activity I might be engaged in.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Thanks Michael and Lewis for the information and the web site.

For now, I will skip the ceremonial aspects and use the GF method to mean :"many short time steepings".

Here's what I plan to do:

Measure the tea leaves and put in a pre-heated pot. Pour in the measured boiling water in the pot, stir once, pour out completely into the tea cups. Drink. Repeat with the same amount of boiling water poured into the same pot (with partly steeped leaves in it). Steep a little longer. Drink.

Repeat 3-4 times.

Reply to
Aloke Prasad

Michael said,

Reply to
jkandell

I find this comment astonishing in the face of huge amounts of countervailing evidence. Have you ever actually tried diluting a concentrated brew to match a dilute one? Or doing the fast/lots'o'leaf-slow/sparse leaf comparison? Or done the same with temperature variations to normalize steep times? I probably have the dullest taste buds of anyone on this group, and even I can tell the difference. There's not much linear about tea brewing, especially for the first few steeps of a rolled or fisted tea.

Of course you don't _have_ to. It's all preferences. Espresso isn't just a way of going faster and more concentrated. The whole extraction process and results are notably different from what can be achieved by other methods. The high pressure permits operation very near 100C, and also allows very short contact time for extensive extraction from most of the fine grind. I used to make drip coffee espresso-strength, and never got (or wanted) anything like the same effect.

I couldn't agree less. I use a gaiwan for almost all tasting and some sharing, mainly for the excellent mixing control it offers. And I usually make very dilute steeps, typically 8-12 at 45 ml from a couple of grams of tea.

Guess we've all got strong opinions here, eh?

-DM

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Dog Ma 1

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Reply to
Michael Plant

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