Monday TeaDay 4/26/20 Gong fu and possible gender bias?

[geeber1]

I wonder if more men gong fu because they are so impatient???

[Chip]

I wonder if more men gong fu because they are so impatient???

Then I guess I am semi impatient?
Began the TD with the same prototype Yutaka Midori Shincha. At a gram per ounce water, this is crearly not Western brewing, nor is it Gongfu brewing. Semi Gongfu! SweeTea was front and center for the YM while Pyrit and Fuji were visitors to the TeaTable this morning.

[Geekgirl]

I'm female and **bats eyelashes** I need someone to teach me more about Gong Fu brewing.

Nilgiri Blue at home this morning.

Geeber, sometime you need to come to town and we'll have ourselves a TEA PARTY! (with real tea, not the sign waving kind )

[artmom]

Does anyone/everyone agree with most of the sources I discovered online when I Googled gong fu tea that green tea is NOT usually used for this way of brewing/steeping?

I understand that this is the preferred way for oolong and to a lesser degree, black tea. Is this correct?

[Chip]

Does anyone/everyone agree with most of the sources I discovered online when I Googled gong fu tea that green tea is NOT usually used for this way of brewing/steeping?

I understand that this is the preferred way for oolong and to a lesser degree, black tea. Is this correct?

Yes, and Pu-erh is often brewed in a gong fu style.

I see no benefit to practicing gongfu brewing with greens. Though arguments could be made for some Japanese teas that are brewed much with much more leaf, though not gongfu.

Currently, year old 2009 shincha "carefully stored under the car seat in rather suspect packaging since May 2009." All things considered, it is better than I would expect. But far from stellar ...

[geeber1]

I'm female and **bats eyelashes** I need someone to teach me more about Gong Fu brewing.

Nilgiri Blue at home this morning.

Geeber, sometime you need to come to town and we'll have ourselves a TEA PARTY! (with real tea, not the sign waving kind )

Definitely. We could have an Oregon or Pacific NW TeaChat meet-up - that would be awesome! But could we still wave some signs?

[debunix]

Does anyone/everyone agree with most of the sources I discovered online when I Googled gong fu tea that green tea is NOT usually used for this way of brewing/steeping?

This is where it gets tricky: I have definitely done multiple steeps with mao feng, long jing/dragon well, senchas, and other green teas, with relatively high leaf to water ratios, and noted some differences between infusions that weren't simply the leaf running out of gas at the end. Are those considered gong fu, or not?

But I do the same with virtually all of my green and white teas, and although I don't expect to get as many infusions out of them as the oolongs and puerhs, I have gotten up to 6 or 8 from a really nice long jing.

BTW, the one tea I don't do even that with is black tea. AFAIK, they're designed to give it all up directly, so I only steep the yunnan gold once.

[Victoria]

Yeah for back tea to perform well you really need a fuller leaf. Even then you are not going to get the steeps you do from an oolong. Geeber, that handmade Nilgiri would be a good candidate. Artmom, you could give it a try with the dragon pearls.

[artmom]

Thanks for the answers. Ya'll don't make me feel dumb, even if I am!

GD Alex coming over w/her mom (they clean my house for me); I'll serve them MF Marco Polo, as Alex has fallen in love with it. I am blessed with a wonderful family.

[geeber1]

Yeah for back tea to perform well you really need a fuller leaf. Even then you are not going to get the steeps you do from an oolong. Geeber, that handmade Nilgiri would be a good candidate. Artmom, you could give it a try with the dragon pearls.

I think one of the reasons I haven't tried to gong fu is that I usually make a larger amount of tea all at once (16 oz.), because I don't have time to do multiple shorter ones in the morning or at work. I guess I could on the weekends, though!

I'll work on it this weekend with the Nilgiri handmade, although I have lots of Oolong from the box pass to practice with, too.

[debunix]

I often do my quarts of tea 'semi-gong fu' with several steeps of a LOT of leaf filling my small kamjove or gaiwan.

I then mix all the different infusions, so some of the point is definitely lost.

[Victoria]

Geeber I totally understand, I usually make a 16oz pot of black in the AM too, I don't have time, nor the presence of mind in the early AM for anything else. I am NOT a morning person. But on the weekends it's nice, and at work, if there is quiet time.

[Geekgirl]

But could we still wave some signs?

As long as they say things like "TEA TEA TEA - YUM YUM YUM" and "Gong Fu it's for YOU!"

[Geekgirl]

Perhaps the mistake is being made in assuming that any tea brewed in lesser amounts with multiple small steeps as "gong fu." I think those of us who occassionally drink gyokuro steep this way, but would not call it gongfu brewing.

[Victoria]

Little PINK SHINO arrived today.
Just happens to have my initial.



Filled with Adagio Maestro TKY - perfection!