I have been drinking Chinese tea for a while, but I only really began
to truly know how to appreciate it after I spent much time in the many
teashops here in the Guangdong province. The first person that taught
me gongfu cha was from Chaozhou and there it's seen that tea is
something to be shared with others. I usually drink tea when I invite
someone to my home so I can prepare the tea gongfu style. When it
comes to my wulongs and pu'ers, I always use gongfu with zi sha or a
gaiwan.

As for my greens, I just use the glass cup method. One of my friends
brought me back some excellent zhu ye qing (green from Sichuan) when
she visited recently.

My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

Mydnight wrote:

> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

Usually I use Gongfu for most Puerhs that I know what to expect from. I
will use a gaiwan if I don't know what to expect.

I use a clear thermoplastic travel cup to take some tea to work
everyday. Most often a green puerh.

I use an Adagio Ingenuitea for Reds (blacks to westerners)

I use a kyusu for Japanese greens.

I use a gaiwan for Chinese greens, oolongs, yellows, whites, and most
any other tea.

Mike

"Mydnight" > writes:

> [...]
>
> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

The weekday wakeup black/red is brewed in a Jena glass infuser mug.
Most of the rest of my, uh, solitary drinking in the course of the day
is prepared in a gaiwan and decanted into a tall porcelain cup. When
sharing with others, I might use a gaiwan or, often for oolongs and
Puerhs, a little glazed pot.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

I use a Chatsford right now for my black (red) tea and when I do my greens I
use various and sundry glass jars (jelly, canning jars, whatever is clean
and that I have a measurement on) to brew. I brew 300 ml at a time with the
greens, that way I am not wasting any when I need to do multiple steeps. Any
more at one time would end up being a lotta tea!

I'm doing my shu puers in a yixing right now. It's a big yixing though
and...well...I end up with a lot of tea. Swimming you might say. ::glug::

Melinda

(Oh...sometimes I'll use my gaiwan at my desk for greens and oolongs and
bring along a thermos of hot water. It's ok but...it's still a little messy
for me. My gaiwan is a little dribbly, or it might be me)

Mydnight wrote:

> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

Kyusu for Japanese teas. For all those other, lesser leaves, brewed
in the tiny enameled sauce pan in which the water was heated to
temp, the tea then strained into a cup, a Heath Ceramics open-top
(cream? sauce?) container, or sometimes a Pyrex liquid measurer.

--crymad

I prefer the British approach which is more tea from bigger pots and
more time to gossip with friends.

Jim

Mydnight wrote:
>
> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

I use the larger pots when brewing my slew of common green teas that I
have amassed from being a teacher in China. When the students find you
that you really love tea, they will get you some common green...really
nice sentiment in my opinion!

Had a guy buy me some decent Tie Guan Yin once!!

With blacks, I use my igenuiTEA almost universally. With greens, it depends
on my mood, but more often than not I'll use my gaiwan. Oolongs get the same
treatment, unless they're ti kuan yin, then they're yixinged. Whites always
go in my gaiwan.
Marlene

Before I understood some things about "real" tea, I found a China Black
(Red) that I really liked so I bought a yixing for it...I still use that pot
for that tea. In a like manner I have a pot for TKY and a pot for
DaHongPao. I don't do greens (as a rule) nor Pu'er. Everything else gets
the 1920's Brown Betty my wife bought me for my birthday or a Thrift store
ceramic. If I continue true to form I will need several more yixing for the
oolongs that I am finding irrestible.

Doug
"Mydnight" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have been drinking Chinese tea for a while, but I only really began
> to truly know how to appreciate it after I spent much time in the many
> teashops here in the Guangdong province. The first person that taught
> me gongfu cha was from Chaozhou and there it's seen that tea is
> something to be shared with others. I usually drink tea when I invite
> someone to my home so I can prepare the tea gongfu style. When it
> comes to my wulongs and pu'ers, I always use gongfu with zi sha or a
> gaiwan.
>
> As for my greens, I just use the glass cup method. One of my friends
> brought me back some excellent zhu ye qing (green from Sichuan) when
> she visited recently.
>
> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?
>

Mydnight wrote:
> I have been drinking Chinese tea for a while, but I only really began
> to truly know how to appreciate it after I spent much time in the many
> teashops here in the Guangdong province. The first person that taught
> me gongfu cha was from Chaozhou and there it's seen that tea is
> something to be shared with others. I usually drink tea when I invite
> someone to my home so I can prepare the tea gongfu style. When it
> comes to my wulongs and pu'ers, I always use gongfu with zi sha or a
> gaiwan.
>
> As for my greens, I just use the glass cup method. One of my friends
> brought me back some excellent zhu ye qing (green from Sichuan) when
> she visited recently.
>
> My question to you is how do you most often prepare your teas?

I use gongfu for my pu-erhs, and for pretty much everything else
(Chinese greens, oolongs of every description) I use a gaiwan.

I've got a tetsubin for the occasional Japanese green.

If I ever have a black tea (hong cha, not hei cha) I'll use my gaiwan,
but I rarely drink hong cha anymore.

With the gaiwan, I decant into tasting cups for better teas, but for my
everyday stuff I just sip striaght from the gaiwan

James

writes:

> [...]
>
> With the gaiwan, I decant into tasting cups for better teas, but for my
> everyday stuff I just sip striaght from the gaiwan

At the risk of telling somebody how to live his life, I've never
understood why decanting a gaiwan of ordinary tea is too much trouble.
How much trouble is it, really? I mean, it's one pour and you're done
with it, but sipping from a gaiwan is more trouble than sipping from a
cup, and that's each time you apply your lips. Plus, the liquor gets
less and less tasty with the leaves sitting in it.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html