Re: roast/not roast and how big a true gungfu pot [was:Feng Huang Dan Cong notes


Do you have a special way of brewing tea in such a pot?

According to Taiwan style, which as in most things, it's probably closer
to the way it was done here in the past. You add your tea until the
bottom of the vessel is covered and then do a quick wash. After the wash,
add your hot, hot, hot water and brew for about 45-50 seconds; this can be
altered depending on how you like your tea. Sometimes if the tea's "qi"
isn't very strong, the first brewing can be longer than a minute.
Whenever my pal comes over, we do the full shebang with sniffer glasses
and all, so I always follow his directions. He has about 30 years in tea
drinking.

If you get some good full roast, pour directly into peoples' cups instead
of using your gongdaobei. If there is too much tea left over, pour just a
little into the gongdaobei and use the rest to season your other pots.
After about 6 or 7 brewings, your gongdaobei will be quite full of tea;
all the brewings mixed together. You can get some really intense flavors
out of that mix. With my competition grade tea, we could only describe
the residual flavor of the mixed-brew as "gram cracker". Awesome stuff!

Thanks. Good advice. I usually use more tea than described, albeit not much more, and far shorter steeps until the last. My rule of thumb, gotten elsewhere, is to fill the gaiwan with leaf so that unfurled it comes to the lid but does not press the lid upward.
Michael
.