Why the big deal with YiXing ware???

[tjkoko_off]

For the time being, I'm using Bai Hao from Sensational Teas of Oregon. Using the ABX and others, I appreciate the brewing advice.

Used the Dragon Pot this morning (11.5 fl oz capacity), I did 3 infusions with two heaping tsp of BH. The 2 tsp dry leaves expanded to fill the pot about 3/4 of the way without crowding. The brewing profile is as follows:

3 minutes at 190F...The 3 minute infustion tasted a bit astringent. Too long?

5 minutes at 185F...The 5 minute infusion tasted better after setting in the cup to cool a bit (drank it warm, nonetheless)

7 minutes at 178F...The 7 minute infusion, on its last legs to say the least.

Tomorrow I'll use the plain pot (7.5 fl oz) and brew using the method as ABx advises.

[TIM]

For the time being, I'm using Bai Hao from Sensational Teas of Oregon. Using the ABX and others, I appreciate the brewing advice.

Used the Dragon Pot this morning (11.5 fl oz capacity), I did 3 infusions with two heaping tsp of BH. The 2 tsp dry leaves expanded to fill the pot about 3/4 of the way without crowding. The brewing profile is as follows:

3 minutes at 190F...The 3 minute infustion tasted a bit astringent. Too long?

5 minutes at 185F...The 5 minute infusion tasted better after setting in the cup to cool a bit (drank it warm, nonetheless)

7 minutes at 178F...The 7 minute infusion, on its last legs to say the least.

Tomorrow I'll use the plain pot (7.5 fl oz) and brew using the method as ABx advises.

tjkoko, this might help for understanding yixing and brewing oolong: http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006/04/yixi ... d-new.html

I do think your pot are way too big for brewing oolong, 350 ml pots are for serving 6-8 people. That means less time in brewing since the volume of water is far greater then tea. Translate to the temp. of your brewing water is way higher then a smaller vessel. If you don't mind trying this recommendation for brewing:

1. Using not the dragon pot
2. Preheat your pot with rolling boil water
3. Drop in the TGY to fill 1/5 of your pot
4. Pour the same boiled water into the pot to fill and over float
5. Discard the rinse immediately
6. Let the tea sit for 30 sec. no water
7. Pour in the same boiled water and fill only less than half your pot for the rest of your brewing. Do not fill it up.
8. 1st brew 15 sec. (try to doc. the color of the brews)
9. 2nd brew 20 sec.
10. 3rd brew 40 sec.

Hope this will be an interesting experience for you. But do tell us more about what kind of TGY you are tasting? The harvested year, the color, the roasting and where is it from. Cheers. Toki

[kymidwife]

OK, I've been around here long enough that I should probably understand this concept by now, but this just goes to show I am still a newbie at heart. So, please bear with my lack of knowledge as I ask...

If your pot is larger than the quantity you want to brew, why can't you adjust your water and leaf amounts accordingly, and just not fill the pot to the top? I am clear on why gongfu is good to bring out the intricacies of the tea... I am just not clear on why you can't brew 2 oz. of tea in a 6 oz. pot if you so choose, or how this would negatively influence the taste of the tea.

Sarah

[cheaton]

TJ you may be suprised at how strong the tea is brewed when brewed Gong-Fu style. What the typical western pallette may consider "bitter" or "astringent" might be normal for the chinese pallette. My experience at the tea gallery in NYC taught me I had been looking at tea drinking and the flavors of tea from a very western point of view. My first impression at my first gong-fu session done by someone many would probably consider a "master" was "holy crap this is strong!" but after a few cups I got used to it and started to realize the complexity of flavors created by brewing this way. Flavors you'll never taste brewing western style.

Personally speaking I don't think it's as much about the materials the vessel is made from as it is about quantity of leaf to water. I also think tea is definitely a personal thing. What i enjoy may not be what you enjoy. I'm a person who enjoys being a "connoisseur" of many things. I like examining flavors and materials and methods to the point of being ridiculously overboard about it. You, to me, seem like a person who just enjoys a nice cup of tea. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and perhaps your wallet will be better off for it! When I just want a nice hot cup of flavorful tea I also brew western style. But when I'm in scientist/hobby/obsessive mode there's no substitute for gong-fu methods. I have also found that "greener" Oolongs, for my pallette, do not benefit from gong-fu methods as much as draker, heavily roated Oolongs do. They give up far quicker.

There's nothing convenient about gong-fu tea. I do it because I enjoy piddling with things. It's like a chemistry lab to me. Things boiling, pouring, spilling, smells, colors, timing, temperatures, etc. etc. I can see how for some tea drinkers there's not much attractive about it. I brewed some heavy rost TKY 11 times last night, and I'll continue brewing it tonite (I'm up to like 6 minute infusions and it's still giving me the goods).

[taitea]

1. Using not the dragon pot
2. Preheat your pot with rolling boil water
3. Drop in the TGY to fill 1/5 of your pot
4. Pour the same boiled water into the pot to fill and over float
5. Discard the rinse immediately
6. Let the tea sit for 30 sec. no water
7. Pour in the same boiled water and fill only less than half your pot for the rest of your brewing. Do not fill it up.
8. 1st brew 15 sec. (try to doc. the color of the brews)
9. 2nd brew 20 sec.
10. 3rd brew 40 sec.

I'm wondering about step 6. I think I've read about this before... that the tea needs to "rest". Any explanations as to why this is? When gong fuing I will sometimes do two infusions in row to fill up the faircup so that I don't need to reboil the water, I can't say that I've noticed any difference.

[TIM]

OK, I've been around here long enough that I should probably understand this concept by now, but this just goes to show I am still a newbie at heart. So, please bear with my lack of knowledge as I ask...

If your pot is larger than the quantity you want to brew, why can't you adjust your water and leaf amounts accordingly, and just not fill the pot to the top? I am clear on why gongfu is good to bring out the intricacies of the tea... I am just not clear on why you can't brew 2 oz. of tea in a 6 oz. pot if you so choose, or how this would negatively influence the taste of the tea.

Sarah

Good Question kymidwife. The is the method I recommended to TJ above.
I think the fun part of learning about tea is to try new things... with an open mind.

taitea- Step 6 (resting) is usually for tight pressed tea like TGY and Puerh. I gives the tea a moment to open up and produce a more balance 1-3 brew. It's also a good time to smell the wet leaves from a heated pot to prepare the journey....

You should try two method side by side and let us know the differences?
Cheers- T

[chrl42]

TJ you may be suprised at how strong the tea is brewed when brewed Gong-Fu style. What the typical western pallette may consider "bitter" or "astringent" might be normal for the chinese pallette. My experience at the tea gallery in NYC taught me I had been looking at tea drinking and the flavors of tea from a very western point of view. My first impression at my first gong-fu session done by someone many would probably consider a "master" was "holy crap this is strong!" but after a few cups I got used to it and started to realize the complexity of flavors created by brewing this way. Flavors you'll never taste brewing western style.

that's strange. when I was offered Assam at the first tea shop in US. I said to myself 'holy! C**p' or somethin like that..there was assam expresso in front of me!

[Salsero]

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006/04/yixi ... d-new.html

Please tell me that is not the pot that fell to its death earlier this year.

[cheaton]

OK, I've been around here long enough that I should probably understand this concept by now, but this just goes to show I am still a newbie at heart. So, please bear with my lack of knowledge as I ask...

If your pot is larger than the quantity you want to brew, why can't you adjust your water and leaf amounts accordingly, and just not fill the pot to the top? I am clear on why gongfu is good to bring out the intricacies of the tea... I am just not clear on why you can't brew 2 oz. of tea in a 6 oz. pot if you so choose, or how this would negatively influence the taste of the tea.

Sarah

Sarah, this is a simple matter of physics and heat transfer. 2oz of hot liquid in an 8oz pot will cool much faster because of all of the airspace between the liquid and the top of the pot. When you "heat" your pot and fill it completely the only heat transfer taking place is whatever is transferring into the walls of the pot then out to the open air. Since you've "heated" those walls already the heat transfer takes place much more slowly because the walls of the pot have to cool below the temp of the liquid inside before that heat begins to transfer. Airspace makes all of this happen at a much higher rate and the water you're using cools much faster. Also Yixing clay has properties that allow it to hold heat much better than some other materials..... it's all physics

[cheaton]

TJ you may be suprised at how strong the tea is brewed when brewed Gong-Fu style. What the typical western pallette may consider "bitter" or "astringent" might be normal for the chinese pallette. My experience at the tea gallery in NYC taught me I had been looking at tea drinking and the flavors of tea from a very western point of view. My first impression at my first gong-fu session done by someone many would probably consider a "master" was "holy crap this is strong!" but after a few cups I got used to it and started to realize the complexity of flavors created by brewing this way. Flavors you'll never taste brewing western style.

that's strange. when I was offered Assam at the first tea shop in US. I said to myself 'holy! C**p' or somethin like that..there was assam expresso in front of me!

In my experiance black teas are far harsher when made very strongly.

[TIM]

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006/04/yixi ... d-new.html

Please tell me that is not the pot that fell to its death earlier this year.

No Sal.... This one hit the floor way back in 06 : (

[gingkoseto]

I think OP's question is simple yet worth pondering. In aesthetic aspects, I know little about yixing zi sha, but there are some explanations on "physical" advantages of yixing and why it has been adored by people over hundreds of years.

1. Traditionally the texture and design of yixing (compared with porcelain and other ceramics) largely reduce chance of germs entering the pots and therefore prevent the tea from going bad. Imagine the ancient southern China, without AC, people holding a tea pot all day long, with other kinds of tea ware, tea can go bad easily in summer. In modern days, we have clean enough environment, but still yixing helps make it cleaner by preventing germs getting inside.

2. Like mentioned in above other posts, the porous texture of yixing absorbs "smokey" flavor of tea and let the best flavor standout. This function, I somewhat feel, is not that important for modern day "green" oolong, but is quite important for traditional roast, puerh, and some black tea.

3. As for size of the pot, I guess, it depends on people's different physical conditions. I personally can't finish a gong fu session with a pot larger than 8oz. (with 6-8 infusions that will be 50oz of water to drink). I prefer a pot of 4oz. (would like to try smaller but haven't got one yet). Tea, as good as it is, too much of it may upset one's stomach (depending on one's diet composition and how strong one's stomach is) and it's a waste to dump good tea to the belly in gallons

Besides above geeky explanations, I can totally understand people's aesthetic "addiction" to yixing. Even for porcelain and ceramics, I personally prefer old, gently used things to new ones. But aged yixing has by far more miraculous looking than aged porcelain.

[gingkoseto]

Ginko:

The box that the Dragon came in was made in China and the card, printed in China also, states that the Dragon pot was made with purple YiXing clay in YiXing, China.

As to the simpler pot listed second, I've seen the exact same one used in a Chinese movie with the actor drinking directly from the spout which was placed in his mouth! Some of these pots are made for very personal use!

Some of my (guessed) "Japanese" pots are signed with Chinese names too and I was told they were from Japan. I wonder if they were made in China for exporting to Japan? Since I seldom saw people using such style in China. And a few of my "Japanese" pots have that ball kind of thing on the top and overall more "playful" theme. Like this one:

[Maitre_Tea]

If your pot is larger than the quantity you want to brew, why can't you adjust your water and leaf amounts accordingly, and just not fill the pot to the top? I am clear on why gongfu is good to bring out the intricacies of the tea... I am just not clear on why you can't brew 2 oz. of tea in a 6 oz. pot if you so choose, or how this would negatively influence the taste of the tea.

I think one of the reasons why you wouldn't want to do that is because filling a teapot to the top actually does something. When you pour it to the very top it creates a vacuum which seals in all the hot water; however, there is a way around this. If you don't fill the teapot to the top you can just pour some hot water over the teapot (after you put the lid on) and this will create the vacuum seal.

[tjkoko_off]

TIM wrote:

tjkoko, this might help for understanding yixing and brewing oolong: http://chadao.blogspot.com/200...d-new.html

I do think your pot are way too big for brewing oolong, 350 ml pots are for serving 6-8 people. That means less time in brewing since the volume of water is far greater then tea. Translate to the temp. of your brewing water is way higher then a smaller vessel. If you don't mind trying this recommendation for brewing:

1. Using not the dragon pot
2. Preheat your pot with rolling boil water
3. Drop in the TGY to fill 1/5 of your pot
4. Pour the same boiled water into the pot to fill and over float
5. Discard the rinse immediately
6. Let the tea sit for 30 sec. no water
7. Pour in the same boiled water and fill only less than half your pot for the rest of your brewing. Do not fill it up.
8. 1st brew 15 sec. (try to doc. the color of the brews)
9. 2nd brew 20 sec.
10. 3rd brew 40 sec.

WOW!!!!!! I visited that blogspot. Now, paraphrasing, I see what you mean by "full pot of leaves". I plan to follow your instructions quite soon.

Basically there is an initial rinse #4. Then in #7 the real brewing requires refilling the pot to half-full. This is way different from the instructions I read some years back (url unknown).

It seems that temperature measurement is not a concern.

A question:

Does the method you listed pertain to TKY's as well as the Bai Hao oolongs?