Monday, February 27, 2006

8 keys to an excellent cup of gongfu cha

In his latest book, Teaparker summarizes the gongfu cha technique in 8 key points, 8 things you need pay attention to:
1. Select good quality tea.
2. Use good water.
3. Choose the corresponding teaware to prepare your leaves.
4. Choose a cup where the tea will look good and have a pleasant feel on your lips.
5. Use the right quantity of tea leaves.
6. Bring the water shortly to boil. This is necessary to 'open' the water.
7. Pouring the hot water at the right speed in the teaware.
8. Brewing the tea for the right amount of time.

For those who have only recently started to read my blog and who would like to know more about the gongfu cha technique, I'd like to remind you to visit my classroom page and go through the first 6 lessons to learn gongfu cha in detail.

My blog is trying its best to give you all the keys for a perfect cup:

1. In my selection page, you'll find the list of the good teas I drink and that you can order from me,

2. Here, I explain what is a good water. In addition, I give away active bamboo charcoal to improve the taste of your water with your first order,

3. I've explained how to choose your teaware depending on the tea. For each teapot I'm using for a certain type of tea, I always explain why it matches that particular tea. I even test the same tea in different teapots for final confirmation.

4. I've shown why celadon matches green tea well. This Qing dynasty white and blue cup will be great for oolong and the antique black Tianmu bowls are making old tea more mellow.

5. Here, I explain the principles to select the right quantity of leaves. The 3 next points are all shown in video or explained on that same page.

Always striving to help you make better tea.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!
Your classroom page is very useful for my TEA life!!
I'll sometimes refer to them.

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I'm interested in hearing your opinions on bringing water to a complete boil before infusing your teas. Is this necessary for white and green teas or can we simply bring the temperature up to say 80 celcius and infuse our tea? I appreciate your comments.

Best, Rob

TeaMasters said...

There is a difference. When water has boiled, the Chinese say it has opened (kai). It has different properties than unboiled water (closed). If there is one rule that Teaparker always repeats it's to use only use water that has first boiled.

Besides, water looses temperature very quickly. Just pouring it from the kettle to a cup will reduce it by several degrees, so that if you measure 80 degrees on your thermometer, you are actually only using 75 maybe.