Gong Fu or Western style?
Im actually rather curious how most people brew their tea.
I found an adorable little 110ml gaiwan on amazon that I do 95% of my brewing in. At least till I get a little more teaware, I do have a mug basket infuser as well, for the few times I do western style , and usually that’s chai teas.
For most teas, I go about 5gram of leaf and 15-30 second steep. Then pour it into a tiny little glass teapot to bleed off the heat so I dont burn my mouth.. lol…its also got a little strainer basket so in case I slip and let leaf get through it gets caught in the basket, I dont have the experience to do it without a net..
I also find this method convenient since most tea is sold in 10gram size variations, 5,10, 20, 50, 100 gram. So using 5 grams means you dont have a little orphan tea left at the end.
So Im curious, how does everyone else brew?
I brew gongfu for puerh teas when I have time and the occasional oolong. If I don’t have time or am brewing an herbal tea I brew western style. I don’t think gongfu works well for peppermint for instance.
I go with gongfu. I don’t think any other method compares in terms of giving you control. Like exactly how much you want to pour, pour strength, etc. There is a definite difference in taste, which makes it worth it.
There are times when I just want a some quick tea, nothing fancy. I use infuser mugs for that.
Gongfu for almost everything. I steep western/grandpa style in my tumbler when I’m on the go. There are a handful of teas that actually are well suited for this method…dragonwell, wuyi oolongs, and bao zhong.
100% gongfu. i leaf anywhere from 1g/15mL to 1g/10mL depending on the leaf and my current mood. im also 95% puerh only. just a random oolong, green, or black tea to change things up.
I gong-fu puerh. Everything else is western style. Around Christmas I broke my favorite glass tea pot so until the slow boat from China delivered the new pot, I used gong-fu for black, oolong, etc. I thought it was a hassle and didn’t add much to the tea.
I do a semi-gong-fu for oolong: 3 grams in 6 oz of water for 1 minute steeps.
And just ordered my first Yixing from amazon, its an inexpensive one, but its fairly well reviewed and seems a good starter one till I can get a better one from Yunnan sourcing or some other place.
I gongfu Chinese teas and brew Japanese teas in Japanese way. Don’t use Western brewing.
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