Friday, March 21, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 10:25 PM |
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Tea Related
Today’s entry is a continuation of the previous one on Kungfu tea:
Wūlóng rùgōng 烏龍入宮：
“The black dragon enters the palace.” The literal translation of oolong is “black dragon”. This simply describes the filling of the heated teapot with tea leaves. If tiěguānyīn 鐵觀音 is used, then the expression used is Guānyīn rùgōng 觀音入宮 “The Goddess of Mercy enters the palace”.
The amount of oolong tea required is usually around a third of the pot. The actual amount used will depend on how tightly rolled the leaves are and how fragrant the tea is to begin with. A pot will typically only be filled a quarter-full if the leaves are extremely tightly rolled, but half or even three-quarters full if the leaves are quite loose. Learning to judge how much leaf to put in is itself a skill.
Xuánhú gāochōng 懸壺高衝:
“The teapot is poured from a height.” The teapot is filled from a kettle held high above the pot. The idea is that the falling water is thus aerated (improving the flavour) and the sudden surge of water thoroughly mixes the leaves in the pot.
Chūnfēng fúmiàn 春風拂面:
“A spring breeze brushes the face.” The lid of the pot if brushed across the surface of the water to remove froth or impurities. The lid is then replaced and the teapot sealed.
Chóngxǐ xiānyán 重洗仙顏
“Washing the face of the immortal again”
Hot water is then poured over the covered pot. This further increases the temperature of the pot and also seals the pot so that it becomes airtight. The leaves are then left to steep.
Tea that is steeped too long becomes bitter and astringent, but tea that is steeped for too short a time is weak and will not achieve its full potential. Tea leaves from the same plantation will vary from batch to batch, from season to season, and the optimal temperature of water required and the optimal duration of steeping may both vary, but the true tea master is immediately able to determine from inspection of the tea what the optimal water temperature and steeping time are.
Although oolong teas may be used for more than one infusion, the same steeping time and water temperature cannot be used for each infusion of the same leaves. Typically, the first infusion is very hot, so as to open the leaves. The second infusion is then very cool, but the subsequent infusions are hotter and hotter, and the steeping times become longer and longer, as more heat and time are required to extract the remaining flavour from the leaves. The tea master will aim to achieve infusions of similar colour and flavour each time.
Guāngōng xúnchéng 關公巡城
“General Guan patrols the city”
The teacups are arranged in a circle and the tea is poured out continuously from the teapot, the pot being moved from cup to cup around the circle.
Guān Yǔ 關羽 was a famous general at the start of the Three Kingdoms period in China. The expression Guānyīn chūhǎi 觀音出海 “The Goddess of Mercy emerges from the sea” is used when tieguanyin tea is used instead.
Hán Xìn diǎnbīng 韓信點兵
“Han Xin appoints his troops”
As the amount of tea remaining in the pot decreases, the flow from the spout of the teapot breaks up into drops (which in Chinese is diǎn 點, which also means “to appoint”).
Pouring tea is also an art. The tea that comes out of the pot last is thicker than the tea that first comes out. If one pours the teacups incorrectly, then one cup will be darker than the other. The ideal is to shake off the final drops from the spout into each cup in as equitable a manner as possible, so that each cup is of equal colour and fragrance. This is also sometimes called qīngtíng diǎnshuǐ 蜻蜓點水 “the dragonfly flits over the water”.
