Kungfu Tea
Gongfu Tea is not a name for tea or a certain tea category, but a method of tea making. It is so called because the way of tea brewing is very particular and somewhat painstaking. The Gongfu here means the knowledge of tea making and tasting.
As a local produce in Chaozhou and Shantou areas, Gongfu tea is listed top of the Eighteen Peculiarities of Chaozhou and Shantou Area. The treat sounds of please or have your tea are famous here, making it a folk custom to drink Gongfu tea everywhere in the region. The tea is famous for its rich taste. When you first taste it, it might seem a little bitter, while later you may feel other teas lack of flavor. Oolong tea is adopted for steeping Gongfu tea, such as Tie Guan Yin, narcissus and phoenix tea, which is semi-fermented tea intervenient between brown and green tea. Only this type of tea can offer the color, fragrance and flavor required by Gongfu tea.
Raw Material of Kungfu Tea:
Anxi Tikuanyin
Tikuanyin” is a famous species of tea trees, with the leaves being common raw material for Oolong. As a place of origin of Tikuanyin, Anxi region in China is also the main production region of Tikuanyin. The leaves are low-yield owning to delicate nature of this species, yet are of extremely excellent quality.
Anxi Tikuanyin is a kind of semifermented tea, the fabrication of which is featured by both fermentation of black tea and non-fermentation of green tea. The processing technique is highly exquisite, comprising over ten working procedures. The finished tea is featured by sturdiness and heaviness, with red spots scattering on the green leaves and hoarfrosts attaching to the surface. It is, after being brewed in hot water, characterized by intense fragrance, golden liquor, sweet aftertaste, and faint scent of orchid, peanut kernel or coconut. Tikuanyin is brewing-tolerant and can retain faint aroma after being brewed for seven times.
Being a natural and tasty drink, Tikuanyin is endowed with comparatively high healthcare value. Other than having healthcare functions similar to those of general species of tea, it provides efficacies of antiaging, anticancer, anti-arteriosclerosis, diabetes prevention and cure, weight loss, body building, decayed tooth prevention and cure, clearing heat, purging evil fire, reliefing smoking-induced detriment and removing or dispelling the effects of alcohol, etc.
Wuyi rock-essence tea
Wuyi rock-essence tea, a famous kind of oolong in China, grows in the Wuyi Mountain of Fujian Province. The tea gets its name for that the tea plants grow on the rocks of the Wuyi Mountain. Since the Tang Dynasty, tea leaves of Wuyi Mountain became a precious kind of tea offered to the upper class; and an imperial tea garden was set in the Wuyi Mountain to specially gather and produce tea for the imperial family. Since the Ming Dynasty, people began to develop oolong, to which Wuyi rock-essence tea belongs.
There are many kinds of Wuyi rock-essence tea, with famous teas of several dozens. Among these kinds, the “famous plants (Mingcong)” called “the king of rock-essence tea” is the most famous and rarest. The “four most famous plants” refer to bright red gown (Da-hong-pao), ferric arhat (Tie-luo-han), white cock (Bei-gong-ji) and watery goldfish (Shui-jin-yu). The bright red gown tea, the best kind among oolong and which grows on the crag of the Tianxin Rock, is clear and smells sweet after being brewed in boiled water. Besides the mellow, faint scent, the ferric arhat tea, the earliest tea in the Wuyi Mountain, has the function of fever cure. There is some other famous tea like Wuyi cinnamon.
Tea leaves from the heartland of Wuyi Mountain, called “Zhengyan Tea”, are the most excellent among all kinds of Wuyi rock-essence tea. As these tea leaves are brewed in the water, they smell sweet and mellow for a long time and taste without bitter or acerbity. This unique sweet smell is called “Yanyun (Lasting Appeal of Rock)”.
phoenix tea
Tea Brewing
Water
It is a critical factor in brewing of Gongfu tea, among which dew is the best, then comes the fountain water, rain water, well water and lastly, tap water.
Teapot
The earthen pot or Zisha pot (sand-fired pot) is the best. The pots for making Gongfu tea are made in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, which is the smallest type among all Zisha pots made in Yixing.
Brewing of Tea
1. The cups need to be warmed and flushed repeatedly in order to warm it and bring out the theine.
2. When brewing tea, boiled water shall be poured in along the inner teapot mouth. The process shall be done in the way of handwriting at temperate speed without any letup. The water jug and the teapot shall be kept from a certain distance so that the means of high infusion is realized. It is said that in this way, the power of heat will reach directly to the bottom of teapot and upturn the tea foams, realizing an artistic visual effect and more fragrant taste.
3. The tea shall be poured in turn into each cup, repeating for twice or three circles to fill the cups. It is called General Guan Patrolling the City, which can make each cup of tea in uniform color.
Tea Tasting
Traditionally only three cups are provided for tasting the Gongfu tea in Chaozhou and Shantou area, no matter how many guests there are. The first cup of tea must be treated to the first guest sitting on the left hand of the host, regardless of identity, age or gender. The cup should be rinsed with hot tea water after a guest is treated and saved for the next guest. It is said that this custom is peoples way to extend the fine moral characters of solidarity, friendship and generosity.
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