Forgive my ignorance, but what is gong fu style?

[ndw76]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is the gong fu style of brewing tea? I've seen a number of references to this method of brewing tea but I have no idea what it actually is.

[debunix]

Literally, it means 'with skill'.

But in practice what most people here are referring to is using a larger leaf to water ratio, steeping the tea for a very short time, and repeating the short steeps several to many times.

Different components of the tea flavor diffuse out of the leaf at different rates, so in one of the first infusions you might taste more sweetness, another more vegetal flavors, another something nuttier. So gong fu style allows you to appreciate these different flavors that might be more melded and obscured in an all-at-once 'western style' low-leaf-to-water-ratio brewing.

[chrl42]

There's China Light Industry Publication's Gong Fu Cha, pretty good book, it says,

"Gong Fu Cha, Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan people love drinking Oolong, 'specially Southern Fujian and Guangdong Chaoxian, they developed the best way to drink Oolong, they discovered in doing this, it requires times and efforts, so they named it "Gong Fu Cha". In these areas, Gong Fu Cha is on a daily basis, almost every houses were equipped with Gong Fu teawares........."

Located in the gate to west, these areas traditionally had those economically stable, so able to perform tea ceremony in the best way they wanted. There's no doubt Gong Fu Cha is known in west by them, who made up most in overseas population. Even those who were economically higher in overseas Chinese communities, many were ones related with teas or doing tea business.

There was a quote as 3 things for Gong Fu Cha, "Wuyi/Ruoshen/Mengchen", Ruoshen is thimble cup and Mengchen meaning Zhuni. Less than 160ml Zhuni Shuiping was very popular in performing Gong Fu Cha or they have made it with local clay (Chaozhou), some rich tea drinkers would pre order directly to Yixing in person, co-direct shape of pot, famously Pan Ji Cheng to studios like Qing Shui Tang, Qing De Tang, Chang Ji, Fu Ji etc..

[Chatsworth]

Plenty of videos about it on youtube.com, here is just an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIpYOjMn70U

[cindyt]

Also great information from wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongfu_tea_ceremony

[northerncalifornia]

Coming from Southern Fujian, I grew up drinking Oolong tea in Gong Fu style without knowing that was Gong Fu style. As a child, I knew I had to serve tea using very small cups whenever there was a guest visiting. I was taught to serve tea with both hands to be considered good demeanor. I knew I had to throw away tea I was brewing whenever a guest is visiting and brew tea from first brewing otherwise people may feel offended.

I later learned that that was called Gong Fu style, or one of the Gong Fu styles. It is a style that exists in people’s daily life in Southern Fujian. That style uses Gaiwan tea set like this one: http://www.obibi.com/photos/pic/14050701.jpg.

Now living in US, I have Gong Fu tea set at home. Occasionally I will serve tea in Gong Fu style to a small group of good friends. Even though the style doesn't have its traditional root here, it often creates a very warm and cozy environment for conversations. Some people fell in love with it immediately and others don't really care much about it. At home we call it “茶缘”or “Tea Destiny”.