Why is Gong Fu brewing superior?

Hey hey hey, whochacallin' barbies?...I'm from Fuzhou in Fujian, and according to local records, we were the ones who created the best jasmine infused green tea that the northerners paid our forefathers big bucks for...duh...

Danny

...& I forgot to add, it was great fun sparring with you, MarshalN.

Danny, doing the Act V, last scene, on this post.

Reading all the comments above have increased my IQ by 10 points from

1. Thank you everyone for the discussion of history. I have nothing to contribute except to say that it's not superior than the English, the Mongol or the Indian ways. With each tea, I'm always finding myself experimenting with several methods to get the best brew FOR MY OWN TASTE. The equipment I use happen to be gaiwans and Yixings...so I guess it passes as the Chinese gongfu method. If I continue on, the term "gongfu" is just semantics. A Briton brewing his Earl Grey in a large teapot because he doesn't like it brewed in Yixing, gaiwan, pewter, gold and silver...is "gongfu", no?

Gongfu is a lot of work for sure...

samarkand wrote:

You know how it is -- everybody who's not your kind is a barbarian!

MarshalN

That's such a decadent chinese imperialistic notion! We have moved on, we think everybody who not's from the city barbarians...

-exit stage left, pursued by a bear...

Actually, it's anybody who's not from Shanghai who's a barbarian :)

MarshalN

you may be an oyster with a pearl of wisdom

o that is just too goddam pretty

graet it is a deal. more as I find out my schedule. (train in train out and so on)

I actually went to a recreation of the Song tea ceremony by a Japanese scholar of Chinese history here in Los Angeles. He used silver tea implements that he re-created based on implements found at an archaelogical dig at a Chinese buddhist temple (I forget which one). He steamed and compressed his own tea into cakes. When it was time to make the tea I seem to recall that he heated the cakes, then broke off chunks (much like we do with puerh) and ground them in a mortar and pestle into a fine powder. He then added the powder to a huge pot of water (maybe a gallon), boiled the tea, then cooled it and added salt and some spice (orange). He told us that the use of the salt and spice ratio, and the timing of its addition, was just right to curb the bitterness of the tea. He then served the tea he brewed to us (there were 60 people in the crowd). It tasted like a wonderful, round, living, flavorful cup of green tea, no hint of the salt or spices at all. He felt that he had uncovered an extraodinary mystery. What surprised me was how modern and delicious the tea tasted, like a very finely brewed high-quality green, and it had a great energy to it that well-brewed tea does. The amazing thing was that it tasted so good--as if each cup was brewed in a gaiwan--and yet was brewed in such a large quantity for so many people. My big-pot tea never tastes that good!