Do you karatefy your tea?

[hop_goblin]

How many people brew gongfu style exclusively? I only brew gongfu style as it gives me the best results.

*Gongfu Meaning* YiXing or Gaiwan and teaboat or tray. Excluding the obvious whisk and Chawan for Matcha.

[Vulture]

The most teaware I own is a stove kettle, a gaiwan, and the ingenuitea. I would like to see someone try doing Gongfu with those

[hop_goblin]

The most teaware I own is a stove kettle, a gaiwan, and the ingenuitea. I would like to see someone try doing Gongfu with those

Vulture man, Get with it!

[Vulture]

The most teaware I own is a stove kettle, a gaiwan, and the ingenuitea. I would like to see someone try doing Gongfu with those

Vulture man, Get with it!

Haha I am trying. My next step is to get an electric kettle (with temp adjuster). I can't do greens/whites very well right now because of it. After that I am going to look into gongfu and yixing.

Baby steps man, I have only started drinking teas for about a month and a half!

[olivierco]

If the gong fu definition is a great amount of leaf, small quantity of water and many steeps, I often gong fu.

[stanthegoomba]

If the gong fu definition is a great amount of leaf, small quantity of water and many steeps, I often gong fu.

This!

The rest is just details. (Aroma cups? Pfeh.) Vulture, you've got a gaiwan: go for it. I've gongfu'ed with a pyrex measuring cup and a glass plate before.

[wyardley]

To me, there are only two real ways to think about this term. The first is in the traditional definition of the term, to refer to a specific sequence of brewing, using certain types of equipment, i.e., Chaozhou gong fu (潮州工夫茶艺), which I think most people would agree is the root of a lot of these Southern China brewing styles. There are different variations of this, but there is more structure than in what people typically refer to as 'gong fu' on this board. (I would like to once again voice my displeasure with the use of the term as a verb).

See some further comments on this, as well as a couple specific examples at:
http://teadrunk.org/viewtopic.php?id=19
(which also has pointers to)

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/ … style.html

I have definitely met people who brew multiple infusions of tea with small yixing pots, small cups, a lot of leaf, and similar techniques, who do not refer to this as 'gong fu cha'.

You could also think about the actual meaning of the term, which I guess you could say has to do with skill, care, and practice. In that sense, gong fu is something we can all strive for in our tea brewing, and it doesn't require specific tools or a certain amount of leaf. To me, in my very limited understanding of the term, I think it's fair to say that the skill, attention to detail, and understanding is the part that's important, not the exact equipment or the amount of leaf used.

So for me, it depends how you're defining / using the term. For me, it's not really a term that I feel comfortable throwing around casually. [Edit - that's not to say that I don't prefer the second, looser interpretation of the term, at least in terms of what it means to me.]

[heavydoom]

[heavydoom]

kong fu = a lot of work, a hassle, a drag, a pain....in cantonese.

[hop_goblin]

To me, there are only two real ways to think about this term. The first is in the traditional definition of the term, to refer to a specific sequence of brewing, using certain types of equipment, i.e., Chaozhou gong fu (潮州工夫茶艺), which I think most people would agree is the root of a lot of these Southern China brewing styles. There are different variations of this, but there is more structure than in what people typically refer to as 'gong fu' on this board. (I would like to once again voice my displeasure with the use of the term as a verb).

See some further comments on this, as well as a couple specific examples at:
http://teadrunk.org/viewtopic.php?id=19
(which also has pointers to)

http://chadao.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/ … style.html

I have definitely met people who brew multiple infusions of tea with small yixing pots, small cups, a lot of leaf, and similar techniques, who do not refer to this as 'gong fu cha'.

You could also think about the actual meaning of the term, which I guess you could say has to do with skill, care, and practice. In that sense, gong fu is something we can all strive for in our tea brewing, and it doesn't require specific tools or a certain amount of leaf. To me, in my very limited understanding of the term, I think it's fair to say that the skill, attention to detail, and understanding is the part that's important, not the exact equipment or the amount of leaf used.

So for me, it depends how you're defining / using the term. For me, it's not really a term that I feel comfortable throwing around casually.

You need to lighten up a tad bro.

[gingkoseto]

Do you mean brew gongfu style exclusively for oolong (or plus puerh and black tea)? I don't think there is gonfu style for green tea and white tea. They are too gentle to karate

I do gongfu style almost all the time for oolong (unless I don't have gears at hand). I treat puerh totally carelessly. And black tea, sometimes gongfu, sometimes glass mug, sometimes bigger kettle (400-500ml).

[stanthegoomba]

(I would like to once again voice my displeasure with the use of the term as a verb).

I've only been studying Mandarin for a short time; but I've found Chinese a little lax on this sort of thing. Couldn't you say something like: “你功夫很好！”

Which would mean "gongfu-ing" is in the spirit of the original after all.

[Drax]

Yeah, I picked "other" because I usually use a tea infuser for greens and whites. . .

But for oolongs and pu-erh I've been using only yixing pots in "tea boats" (okay, a big bowl... i did get a tea tray, but it's a bit of effort to keep out and dry when I'm done, so I'll only be using it for special occasions).

[wyardley]

(I would like to once again voice my displeasure with the use of the term as a verb).

I've only been studying Mandarin for a short time; but I've found Chinese a little lax on this sort of thing. Couldn't you say something like: “你功夫很好！”

The grammar doesn't really carry across languages, though... grammar in Mandarin is different than in English, and allows a little more looseness with stuff like that. You could say that, but it doesn't make 功夫 a verb... it would mean something along the lines of "your gong fu is good" - the "is" is implied (there's also an implied ‘的’ after ‘你’). I am neither an expert nor a native speaker, but I think that when a modifier like "很" is used, it's also a little more correct to say something like 你功夫很好的.

both meanings are always nouns AFAIK:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/% ... %AB/101148

(the second meaning, as in "time", is usually written 工夫 now, according to the site)

[orguz]

I am so surprised that only 14% gong fu exclusively, I voted 'only gong fu'. Any tea brewed this way taste much better.

Also any foreign word taken from another language is always bastardised especially in english, for example the word kowtow when used in chinese is a very respectful and humble gesture to one's elders, still practiced at lunar new year celebrations.

In the west this word is vilified and used in a demeaning sense. I think since the term gong fu is widely used in english already I see no harm in continuing bastardising gong fu.