TeaChat

Hi! I'm new here... check out my personal introduction on the forum.

So, in the past few days I've read a lot on this forum about Western style and Eastern style methods. What does that mean exactly? Are you simply talking about the differences in teaware or are you also steeping times, temperatures, quantities, tea/water ratios, etc....?

Thanks for the clarification!

I would guess most people mean the more "gong fu cha" approach vs the more "British tea".

In essence most eastern styles use smaller brewing vessels than western, and normally a higher ratio of leaves to water, with shorter infusion time - and having multiple infusions of the same tea.

So, the brewing suggestions that are sometimes provided on tea packages... what would they be?

Generally speaking, the brewing suggestions on most tea packaging are Western style. If is says something like: 2-3 grams per 180 ml for 3-5 minutes, it's Western style.

Kabouterke wrote:So, the brewing suggestions that are sometimes provided on tea packages... what would they be?

They would be exactly that, suggestions. I prefer my teas brewed more dilute and lower temp for more delicate flavor than most package suggestions--western or eastern--would yield. So I use them as only a gauge to suggest where I might want to start my brewing.

... Western ... Eastern ... and on TeaChat these two universes collide to produce what is sometimes referred to as semi gongfu style, a hybrid of east and west.

And then sometimes the lines get blurred anyway, grandpa style has Chinese roots, but soes not fit into the Western nor Eastern formulas.

It becomes apparent that it is not so simple to define, so we do speak in generalities when we say Western or Eastern ... however we do so rather exactly.