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GongFu Tea is
a tea ceremony in Fujian Province and TaiWan. It later
on became popular all over China in the recent years.
Many tea houses in the city offer peaceful and neat
rooms for the customers to practice the GongFu Tea
ceremony. It is more relaxed and less religon-bonded
than the Japanese chanoyu tea ceremony, so that people
can chat freely in the ceremony and use the tea house as
a communication place.
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Gongfu Tea requires a whole set
of exquisite equipment. Usually it has four basic
components:
- A small owen about 15-20cm (5-8 inches) high called
ShanTou FengLu (sometimes also called Yu Zhu Lu). It
was designed by the tea saint Lu Yu in Tang Dynasty.
People can adjust the heat by moving the air valve.
Nowadays electronic owens are manufactured instead of
the conventional ones. While keeping its traditional
appearance the electronic owens are cleaner and more
effective and welcome in many families.
- A bigger kettle about 400 cc capacity called Yu Shu
Wei. Yu Shu Wei is usually made of china, used as the
container for the water. People put the kettle on the
top of the owen and boil the water.
- A smaller tea pot about 200cc capacity called Meng
Chen Guan. It is said this tea container was originally
finalized by the famous tea pot craftman Hui Meng Chen
in the Ming Dynasty. MengChen Guan is the real tea pot
used in the tea ceremony. When practicing GongFu Tea,
people put about 100cc tea leaves in the pot, then the
space for tea soup is only about 100cc left. Meng Chen
pot can be made of china, but more usually, it is made
of the Chinese special material called "Zi Sha" (purple
sand pottery).
- Tiny tea cups as the size of half walnuts, usually 4
pieces in one set. The capacity of the tea cup is about
25cc. These tiny tea cups are called Ruo Chen Ou, They
can also be made either of white china or Zi Sha
material.
Other equipment may be required for the ceremony. For
example, a slender, deep aroma cup for the smelling of
tea soup; tea spoon to transfer tea into the MengChen
tea pot, usually made from horn, silver or china; and a
double-layer tea tray to hold the tea pot and cups on
the top. The upper lower tray is chased so that the
water can pass through to the lower tray served as a
container for the extra water. The lower tray is also
called "tea boat".
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When preparing for the tea, the
water will be boiled in the Yu Shu Wei on the owen. The
water should be just boiled for the tea. The owen is
seven steps away from the tea tray. When people take the
water from the owen to the tea tray, the walking time
allows another cooling time for the boiling water so
that the temperature can be just perfect for the tea
(96-98 degrees Celsius).
People mostly use WuLong tea for the Gongfu Tea
ceremony. Usually lots of tea is required for the tea
ceremony, about 1/3-2/3 (60-120cc) of the capacity of
the MengChen tea pot. The practioner pours boiling water
into the tea pot, makes the water overflow a little out,
the put on the lid of the tea pot. The water on the
outer wall of tea pot will be evaporated by its own
heat, this procedure takes about 1-3 minutes, then the
tea soup will be well ready for the ceremony.
Usually the first brew is used to wash the tea cup
because it is too strong for drink. people will pour the
tea soup into one of the tea cups, then dip the edge of
other tea cups in the hot soup, by rotating the tea cup
it will be ceremonially cleaned. A little skill will be
needed here otherwise the practioner will burn himself
by touching the hot water. The extra soup of the first
brew will be filled into the special aroma cup, then the
cup will be emptied. The drinker can then smell the
aroma of the tea by bringing the aroma cup up to the
nose and not risk spilling any tea on themselves. |
 When
drinking the tea, the drinker puts the four tea cups
together like a square, the circle the tea pot on top of
them to pour the tea soup into the cups in a consecutive
motion. This is called "Guan Gong Xun Cheng" (General
Guan patrol the city, General Guan is a famous general
in the Han Dynasty, he was later worshiped by the
Chinese people as the god of war and wealth). The last
drops left in the tea pot is the strongest part of the
tea soup, the drinker will drop them in the each cups
one by one, so that all the four cups will have the same
concentration of tea soup. This final droping procedure
is called "Han Xin Dian Bing" (HanXin counted his
soldiers, Han Xin is another general in Han Dynasty).
The WuLong tea can usually serve for 4-8 brewings. The
drinker not only drink the tea, but will also pay
attention to its taste, smell, color and shape of leaves
to tell whether this is a good tea for the ceremony. The
good tea has a mellow but strong taste with bright clear
brown color of the soup. The tea leaves in the tea pot
should be soft, bright yellow to brown, with its famous
"green leaves with brown edges" outlooking.
Gongfu tea can be also accompanied by other desserts.
Today's tea ceremony has been simplified greatly by the
modern people. However, the free spirit of the tea
ceremony is still to offer us a chance to sit together
to enjoy the life, and bring us the happiness and peace
in our soul. |
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