Tea "sink" for yixing brewing

I actually like gongfu accessories, but don't like spending a lot for stuff other than the pots. If I found a sink at a price I liked, I'd like to have one.

However, I am already in over my head. I bought a rather basic, good-value

Joe

Are we talking Gung Fu tea or zen ten ?

What's the difference? I've never heard of "zen ten."

Zen Ten is a far more sophisticated method. It takes about 10 additional years to study and you have to sign a special oath to Chinese Government and maintain celibacy. If you are accepted you need to deposit $25,000 into a Swiss bank account, start your Gongfu studies and after first ten years the will call you. If you have not been completely celibate during that time they never call you and your money is gone. I am surprised you never heard of it.

Alex.

Alex Chaihorsky rose quietly and spake the following:

Isn't that the program that's run out of Nigeria?

The idea of perfection in Western societies is repetition so a good mime is all you need. The idea of perfection in Eastern societies is harmony so a gong fu master may never transcend technique and order but he'll die with a smile on his face. Restaurant gongfu service means you have to find Buddha on the road and kill him. I can imagine on a Monday the waiter backing butt first into the dining area through the kitchen door tripping over the Sunday dim sum cart showering the gongfu contents all over the patrons with the unfortunate table by the kitchen because the maitre'd didn't recognize them as regular customers or they didn't tip on the last visit. Tradition and innovation has merits but don't confuse the two. The British tasty cuppa is a good example. You don't need gongfu. Ever once in a while I'm in that place where I pass Einstein in the space-time continuum. Which leads me to my newest adventure this week adding scented flowers to tea. So far: honeysuckle and assam, clove and darjeeling, rose buds and keemun. The funniest is the clove which will just bobble like upside down corks. The honeysuckle needs extended infusion first to open the buds and look like squid. The rose imparts a wonderful blood red hue but will gracefully die with the leaf. I'll have to do some more work adjusting the taste because a little goes a long way. I think the trick is to marinate the two instead of shaking hands in the pot.

Jim

Derek wrote in message news:...

It was. I think it's run out of Crawford, TX now.

Alex.

I'm starting to enjoy Jim's prosody and off-camber stream-of-consciouness.

I need a cup of tea.

Joe

That is, a dead mime, right?

/Lew

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Melinda) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I'd like one of those tea tables too, one day--and all the associated toys. Nifty.

I have ordered from funalliance, not much, just a couple of the three-variety sample packs. I've enjoyed everything I tried, especially the "Lone Bush Snowflake" and "Dragon Well (Before Rain)". Well--I haven't enjoyed the pu-erh so much, but maybe I'll develop a taste for it yet.

I'm still mostly a fan of black teas, but I'm liking the oolongs and greens more and more.

"Alex Chaihorsky" wrote in news:Msk_c.11670$QJ3.5473 @newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:

Oh, my sides.

I lived both in the East and West and can only humbly add that categorical short definitions and generalizing of cultural treats of societies is definitely a Western thing. I think it came from the tradition of seamen who had to answer all the questions in taverns about the lands they travel. Imagine them getting into any depth or lengthy explanations. The beer gets warm so fast!

Alex.

You made me use the dictionary. I'm not everyones cup of tea. Where did I leave off last week ... What I save at shopping Walmart I'll usually stop by my local tea shoppe and spend on tea. Day before yesterday I walk in and the owner has a digital camera taking shots of his pots. He lined up some in home tea parties because the stay at housewives are bored with tupperware. (In our state you need a commercial kitchen to cater. It has sprung up a cottage industry of 'personal chefs' where you use the appliances of the home.) There is a whole generation of soccer moms who don't have a clue about tea. They never learned anything from grandma. I mention this again as another example of ad hominen generational dumbing down let alone serving tea gongfu style in a restaurant. What I see in his tea room is the reason I never started one. I don't have the patience. He is a retired engineer/salesman so this is second nature. He's been pitching teas at several hospitals and is getting customers whose doctors told them to cut down on caffeine. It was also a change of season so I got a cup for the road of Iron Goddess Supreme which is twice as much as the normally not cheap Iron Buddha. He knows I know the teas that are more expensive which he sells at the same price for carry out. A second infusion of the day old leaf tasted like a stale Taiwan oolong with lot of astringency which was barely tolerable. I was going to try the leaf a third time but I'm not that cheap. I mentioned my new endeavor of finding scented flowers. He mentioned he'll be stocking a scented magnolia tea. Yep you guessed it nobody carries the flower. Looks like I have to pay the piper. What weights more an oz of flowers or an oz of tea? Nothing in the flowers is over $1.50/oz. Wish I could say that about non commercial tea prices. I like talking about my local tea shoppe because it is absolutely wonderful to walk into a place and being able to feel at home even though it forces me to shop at Walmart. I haven't forgot about my ethnic markets. Right up the road a new one opened up that is bigger than the Walmart supercenter where I shop. You can buy goat milk at Walmart. It makes a wonderful quiche. It is one of about six across the country opened by a Chinese entrepreneur who is banking Asians have money to spend. I spent half a day there last week and still missed some. It's where I discovered machairi which was first mentioned in the group late 99 as matcha-iri. What was I doing back then that I couldn't go find some? You can never know if a mime is dead. For those who think the world is a complicated place with different historical forces and cultural values think two words smart bomb. Which makes you think why do we need ambassadors?

Jim

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Joseph Kubera) wrote in message news:...

Hi Melinda,

One is spoilt with options in what to get for brewing tea. Very often at the end of the day, one may end up with things that one doesn't need, or seem unncessary.

Main question to ask yourself is whether you want to brew a cup of tea, or just want to doodle with the thought of yourself brewing a cup of tea with all flowery movements.

Gongfu tea style has moved out of its humble origins and evolved into a flowery art form which is so enticing to the westerners, are you one of them?

We are so caught up with the flowery art form of gongfu tea style that we forget sometimes that in the old days, to brew gongfu tea, what one needed was just a good teapot, a bowl to sit the pot in, and small half golfball size teacups. The term 'gongfu' isn't what one sees from old Bruce Lee flicks, but rather, the ability to handle very hot water (washing the cups in the bowl, and lifting the pot from the hot water which it is half submerged in), and drink the tea piping hot and quickly like an espresso. The other part of 'gongfu' indicates the 'length of time' one has to idle away while enjoying tea.

If you find using a bowl a hassle, and buying a chapan pricey, pop into one of the cook's store or asian grocery and hunt for a steel steaming tray which has a rack punctured with draining holes, and which sits perfectly on the tray.

I do not think gong fu in America "evolved" into anything flowery mostly because tea culture does not exist here. Tea houses here are rare, traditional Chinese teahouses are very few (may be 10-20 in the whole US), probably 90% or so of tea is drunk with ice. Europe, Russia and may be Central Asia are different, but US? I follow a very good Russian tea site and thing I hear about tea clubs in Russia are mind-boggling. They evolved into something decadent and extreme pseudo-sophisticated. Which is normal - how else you are going to charge $200 for a teapot of tea? The whole Bay Area with its hundresds and hundreds of Chinese and Japanese restorants has how many traditional Chionese teahouses that offer gong fu? I know one - Imperial Palace. And the gongfu there is very humble and simple, as a matter of fact one has to ask for wenxiangbei, they do not include them by default.

Hey, is there a meaning to your nick "samarkand"? Are you writing to us from Uzbekistan?

Sasha.

I really am not worried about "flowery" but I need something utilitarian because (to me) one of the main reasons I am doing gong fu (because believe me, when I saw how "precious and cute and oh my collectable!!" those Yixing pots were, I thought twice) is because the smell of an oolong in a heated and humid clay Yixing pot is like nothing I have ever experienced before and it got me hooked. That's really the main motive for me. Thanks for the advice on a teasink though. :)

snipped-for-privacy@news.starhub.net.sg9/20/04 15: snipped-for-privacy@uk2.net

snip

That sounds pretty harsh. If by flowery movements you mean the details of actions and processes that force me to pay close attention to what I am doing as part of the experience of paying attention to what I am drinking, then doodle I do.

I'm not Melinda, but I am one of them.

I personally don't like the standard and standardized stuff of Gung-fu. Like the Japanese way at its best, how things fit and work together on the table counts for much. I go with the old bowl and good little teapot idea. So, I hope you are advocating that.

oh, damn.

I guess the three sips thing is part of flowery movement; perhaps also the use of tongs?

I have an entire life to idle away. I'm idling now.

Seriously, Samarkand (which is a pretty neat part of the world), these different Gung-fu perspectives are well worth exploring and I do see your point.

Is it OK to move from Blind Willie Johnson to John Cage while drinking Meng Hai Pu-erh?

Michael

Wow, from Texas Gospel Blues to Sonatas, you didn't strip any gears did you?

Listening to "Fathers and Sons" (awesome blues) while drinking Certified Wild Ancient Tree Puer.

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

The blues are definitely tea music:

Bo-Weavil Blues (Ma Rainey) "I don't want no man to put no sugar in my tea I don't want no man to put no sugar in my tea Some of them's so evil, I'm afraid they might poison me"

Or, if you prefer:

Poverty (Bobby "Blue" Bland) "My pay goes down and my tax goes up I drink my tea from a broken cup Between my woman and Uncle Sam, I can't figure out just what I am"

Just call me,

"Deaf melon Rick".