Sometimes a full gongfu cha ceremony is beyond the scope of time or practicality or attention span. One method that I use at times like this employs two gaiwans. I use the first one to brew the tea. Then after the requisite steeping time, which is dependent on how many infusions I have already brewed, I pour the liquor into the second gaiwan to drink from. The obvious advantage to moving the tea into the other gaiwan is to prevent over-steeping of the leaf. It also eliminates the possibility of a mouthful of tea leaves. A secondary benefit to this method is that pouring into a second receptacle helps hasten the cooling process. The slightly challenging stage in the process is pouring from one into the other without either burning your hand or spilling. Different gaiwans are better or worse at this, and development of an experienced gaiwan-pouring hand will serve you well.

The two gaiwans pictured are uncoated yixing (zisha clay). They are ideal for pu-er and darker oolong varieties. Greener (lightly oxidized) oolongs or Chinese green teas are much better suited to porcelain-lined, solid porcelain or glass gaiwans. Brewing in zisha vessels will imbue green oolongs and green teas with a very unpleasant undertone.

The nice thing about this method is that it is very portable. It can be used without a great deal of extra equipment or fuss just about anywhere.

Black Tea, Blends and Flavored Teas, China, Green Tea, Local Establishments, Oolong Tea, Paraphernalia, Pu'erh Tea | 4 Comments »

Organic Rou Kuei Oolong from auraTea is a wonderful and unusual tea. It is a darker oolong with pretty long red leaves. The dry leaves emit a nice woodsy scent, foreshadowing a nice tea liquor. The brewed tea has a rich flavor that tastes almost like it has been roasted, like mesquite coated in molasses. Its slightly bitter floral undertone was quite pleasant and it held up admirably to at least five infusions. Rou Kuei means “cinnamon” in Chinese, which is a fitting analogy. It is one of the varieties of Wuyi Rock Teas grown in Fujian Province.

For the initial tasting of this tea I brewed it gongfu style in a yixing pot. It’s a tea well-suited to the warmth and darkness of clay and slow, small servings.

I have had other Wuyi oolongs that I found exceedingly dull, but I enjoyed this tea very much. It’s a tea to give full attention to, not one to drink in the background while performing some other task.

China, Oolong Tea, Reviews, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound region are in the midst of some atypically harsh winter weather. The mix of steep hills and icy streets has severely restricted transportation. This has had a pretty dramatic impact on most people and businesses here.

One of the ways that this strange weather has affected me is that I have not been able to get any more spring water from the grocery store for brewing tea. There are many, many varieties of tea in this house, but no good water. This is not a monumental hardship, but it led to some improvisation.

A few days ago I had the idea that melted snow would be a good source of pure water for tea. So, taking up a couple of large containers, I gathered up as much snow as I could, skimming just the surface off of the freshly fallen snow blankets. It’s quite startling to realize just how much snow it takes to get just a little water. After finally melting enough snow, I brewed some Silver Needle White tea with it. The tea tasted quite nice, although brighter than I expected. It did taste good, and did not taste like it had been made with tap water.

The following day I melted another batch of snow and used this water to brew a pot of genmaicha in a cast iron teapot. This time the tea tasted quite harsh and metallic. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything I’d do again. I do not know exactly what the chemical breakdown of our particular snow is, but the water did not react well with iron. It did not taste toxic or dangerous, just brash, without the smooth warmth that the genmaicha exhibits when made with spring water.

The experiment lost its charm after that. The tap water here isn’t that bad, and melting snow is a lot of effort for little reward. It was a good experience in any case.

Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

My first exposure to a tea mascot was at New Century Tea Gallery. As the owner prepared and served tea gongfu style, I noticed an inexplicable yixing sculpture hanging out on the table and accepting a wash of tea and water every so often during the course of the tea service. I was told that this was a “five-kind animal” and that he brought good luck. In most Chinese teashops and tea houses you will find one of these objects on the table where they serve gongfu cha. I have found little reliable information in English about them and can not determine what the Chinese call them as a group, so in the absence of a traditional Chinese term I have taken to calling them “tea mascots.”

During the course of the tea ceremony, tea and hot water are poured over the tea mascot. Over time this helps to create a nice patina. The sculptures are generally representations of traditional Chinese symbols and are incorporated in order to bring good luck and/or accumulation of wealth.

The tea sculptures assume many different forms, from human babies to the animals of the Chinese zodiac to mythical creatures. The most common type is probably the three-legged money frog with gold coins on ropes leading from his mouth. An explanation of the origins and uses of the money frog (or toad) can be read here.

Some of the types of tea mascots have additional aspects to them like clay balls that roll between lion paws when liquids are poured over them or streams of liquid coming out of naked little boy figures onto the tea table.

The figures are sometimes made from the same zisha clay used in yixing teapots and sometimes from a coarser, more mottled-looking clay. The two examples that I have are very different from each other. One is a rounded, somewhat stylized foot with two spider-like insects on it. I do not know what the symbolism of this object is. The other one is a rat sitting on a bag of money. He meant to be a bearer of prosperity, as he will open up his bag to give money. I just like the way he looks.

There are tea shops where these sculptures can be purchased. Both of mine came from New Century Tea Gallery. There are also shops on eBay that sell them, but they can be tricky to find using search terms. The three shops below all have a decent selection of them:

Yunnan Colorful
Yunnan Sourcing
Silk Road Trade

China, Gongfu Cha, Paraphernalia | 2 Comments »

As of today, our site has taken on a new look. We hope that you find the new design functional and easy to read. Let us know if you have any comments or other feedback.

Administrativia | 3 Comments »

I hardly ever drink Ceylon tea, so when I received the sample of Broken Orange Pekoe from Plucker’s Pick, I was a little concerned that I would dislike it due to its type, regardless of its quality. I was delighted to find that my concern was completely unfounded.

As most tea drinkers know, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) has a long-standing and enormously productive tea growing tradition. But as many tea drinkers also know, a lot of the tea coming out of Sri Lanka and called “orange pekoe” is poor quality and blended from leaf grown in a number of different locations. Unlike these lower quality teas, Plucker’s Pick’s teas are unblended and grown on single tea plantations. So rather than a mixed up jumble of mediocre tea leaves, this tea has a distinct and precise flavor.

To my surprise I really enjoyed the taste of this tea. Its character is a lot different from the Chinese black teas I generally drink when I drink black teas, but it has a lovely rich taste that I can say unreservedly is the best Ceylon tea I have ever tasted. The look of the dry leaf is a little jarring, as I am accustomed to whole-leaf teas, but the finely broken up, very brown leaf pieces produce a lovely tasting liquor. The brew is also quite a pretty, rich shade of red.

Black Tea, Reviews, Sri Lanka, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

The cicada is quite a fascinating little creature, appearing as a symbol of longevity or immortality throughout the arts of China and Japan over the past several centuries. The accompanying photographs are of a yixing teaset that we sometimes use for brewing and serving pu-er. The tea pouring down over the pot was the initial rinsing infusion, used in this case to help season the teapot.

“Some anthropologists and archaeologists have known for years that the ancient Chinese regarded cicadas as symbols of rebirth or immortality in much the same way as the early Egyptians thought of the sacred scarab. Unlike the latter case, however, few western entomologists are aware of cicada symbolism used by the early Chinese. It is not mentioned in any English language entomology textbook of which I am aware. It is noted in Lucy Clausen’s remarkable little book, Insect Fact and Folklore.

Writing in Japan, the colorful and prolific Lafcadio Hearn in his charming essay on cicadas (”Sémi”), reported: “In view of many complaints of Japanese poets about the noisiness of sémi, the reader may be surprised to learn that out of sémi-skins there used to be made in both China and Japan-perhaps upon homeopathic principles-a medicine for the cure of ear-ache!”

“Cicadas are fascinating insects. They are large, conspicuous, and attract attention with their interesting “songs.” No wonder the ancient Chinese accorded them such a high position in their folklore and in their art. Watching cicadas can engender awe in the observer. One student remarked that he had always considered cicadas rather magical, and could easily see how they came to have spiritual significance in old China.”

Excerpts are from Cicada in Chinese Folklore on the Cultural Entomology site.

China, Paraphernalia, Pu'erh Tea, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

This being the time of year when everyone starts getting all stressed out and panicky about buying stuff for other people, I thought it would be a good time to offer you three hopefully useful recommendations for the tea lovers on your lists. Or, even better, you can talk other people into buying these things for you instead.

1. Terrorist Teapot and Tea Cosy: The only thing I dislike more intensely than tacky kitsch novelty teapots are decorative objects that look like teapots but do not perform the function of brewing or serving tea. This item is completely serviceable, so it avoids the second category, but it could in all fairness be considered a novelty. Contrary to my own personal rules about tradition and suitability, I find this set charmingly clever. I might even buy one of these myself, to use the next time I feel the need to serve British style tea to people with a perverse sense of humor, which is really not as often as it ought to be.

The Terrorist Teapot Set certainly appears to be quite functional and well-designed. Unlike those really goofy, loud, floral-printed fully teapot-smothering tea cosies, this nice little balaclava appears to keep the pot toasty without having to be removed for pouring. The teapot itself, seen in the second photograph in its bare state, brews 1.5 liters of tea, enough for you and four or five fellow miscreants to each have a large cuppa’ as you sit around the table plotting the disruption of polite society. You can order this wonderful set from Suck UK.

2. The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas by Edward Gorey: I love Edward Gorey, and this great little book is particularly appropriate for those with a dark sensibility or a cynical apprehension of Christmas, plus it’s tea-related and inexpensive. Here’s a quote:

“Waiting for the week’s teabag to steep, he wrote by hand several letters to the newspapers anent the price of a typewriter ribbon having risen the day of the winter solstice.

The tea-cosy suddenly twitched and from beneath it leapt a creature many times the size of the space within, even if it had not already held the teapot.”

Note: the word “anent” is archaic, but is a real word. I had to look it up. It means “in regard to” or “about.” You can order the book from the link above, which goes to Amazon.com, or from a myriad of other booksellers. It’s not hard to find.

3. “Tea is the new black.” travel mug. This ceramic travel mug can be purchased from our new Cafe Press store, along with similarly themed mugs in different sizes. They have the saying in bold, easy-to-read-across-the-room type, with “gongfugirl.com” very small below. The standard mugs would be particularly nice to bring to the office. The travel mug would be good for sipping tea during the commute in the office vanpool. You, or the lucky person whose stocking you stuff this into, would be the envy of all co-workers. You could even buy one of the mugs for that annoying, company-wide, mandatory-participation “secret Santa” nonsense. Our shop also offers stylish black tee-shirts with the same declaration in white, a rather plain tote bag and a tile coaster.

England, Paraphernalia | No Comments »

This is a wonderful and convenient travel set for gongfu cha. Using it requires some improvisation of some kind of a draining table/tray at the destination, but the set takes up very little room in a carry-on bag. (The gaiwan in front of the case in the photograph fits into the case inside of the pouring pitcher for travel.) In the past few days it flew on four different plane rides without a scratch.

Unfortunately, I was never able to find a good time with relatives to actually serve some of the jade oolong that had also accompanied me on the flights, so the set, as convenient as it is, sat sadly neglected the whole time. I really like being able to take the experience of gongfu cha to other people, especially when they are unfamiliar with it and do not know it’s coming. I need to be better about scheduling it into the socializing next time.

Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Like many people immersing themselves in aspects of tea cultures and traditions I go through a process of learning better ways of brewing particular teas and learning about the traditional best types of teaware to use with them. My pattern has often been to make smallish initial investments into one specific type of teaware and then, after refining my processes and honing in on what is acknowledged by experts to work better, investing in higher quality, more appropriate teaware. When it came time to purchase a teapot for brewing higher grades of Japanese green teas I skipped over the compromised cheapware stage and went straight to purchasing a mogake-glazed tokoname yokode kyuusu from Artistic Nippon. I looked at mass-produced and mid-range kyuusu online and in person and knew that I would not be satisfied by purchasing one of them. In this case I substituted experience with a lot of reading. Before I go any further, a clarification of terms:

• mogake = A glaze produced by application of seaweed prior to the firing of the clay. The oxidation of salt results in interesting raised patterns on the surface. I have not found references to this glaze technique used for items other than teaware.
• tokoname = One of the six famous ceramic-producing regions in Japan. Tokoname kilns dating back several centuries are still in production and the ceramics produced in the region range from mass-produced factory ceramics to individually crafted artisan pieces.
• kyuusu (sometimes spelled kyusu) = teapot (used most often to refer to ceramic teapots)
• yokode kyusu = side-handle teapot. Designed to insure smooth and complete pouring, with hand around the handle and the thumb on the lid. (Left-handed models are sometimes made, but rare.)
• ushirode kyusu = back-handle teapot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Japan, Paraphernalia | 12 Comments »