Friday, January 18, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 08:44 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

The Japanese tea ceremony is famous for its formality and strong emphasis on symbolism and aesthetics. From the tea set to the surrounding ornamentation to the movements of the tea master and tea drinkers, every detail is prescribed by tradition.

The Chinese tea ceremony is very different, even though it is a much older tradition. The emphasis for the tea ceremony is the experience and enjoyment of tea drinking. There are no rules set in stone for Chinese tea ceremonies, usually known as gongfu cha (功夫茶), although there are many guidelines, some of which I have explained in earlier entries. There are five “goods” for making tea: good tea, good water, good teapot, good tea leaves and good skills. What is considered “good” of course, is a matter of personal judgment and opinion. But here’s a quick and simple description of how gongfu cha is usually done:

Ready the teapot, cups, sharing cup, and kettle. Use fresh water and bring to a boil in the kettle. Once boiling, fill the teapot and cups to warm and disinfect them. Put the kettle back on to boil (refilling as necessary), and empty the teapot and cups. Fill the teapot with sufficient tea leaves. Here’s a little trick to impress your friends. Once you’ve deposited the tea leaves into the teapot, put the lid on, and making sure you have a good grip on both teapot and lid, give the teapot a good shake; you should feel the tea leaves being rattling inside. When you take off the lid, hand the teapot around for your friends to sniff. The heat and moisture inside the teapot will have cause the tea leaves to give off their fragrance strongly.

Once the water is at the right temperature, pour enough water into the teapot to cover the tea leaves, then quickly put the lid on and pour out the water. This first infusion is to wash the leaves and also to help the tea leaves release their fragrance and taste more easily in later infusions. Fill the pot to the brim this second time, and after replacing the lid, pour a little more water over the teapot. This will help seal the teapot, if you have a good earthenware one that has a well-fitting lid. One way of checking when the tea is ready is to watch the spout. When the teapot is sealed, the spout will have a water bubble sticking up from it. When the bubble is re-absorbed into the teapot, you can pour the tea out.

Another way to make gongfu tea is using the lidded cup, which is harder for novices. The edges of the cup heats up quickly and makes holding the cup steady when pouring a little difficult. If you have good heat tolerance, especially in your fingers, making tea from a lidded cup, or gaiwan (盖碗) can be very satisfying, as the cup’s broad and round shape allows the tea leaves to expand freely, so the tea made can be just as, or even more fragrant than tea made from a teapot.

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