pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

I think for that style of brewing the type of pot is not important. Use what you have. I also find that ripe puerh comes out good with western steeps myself. Similar to the method above. As I recall I used 8g for a 500ml pot in a western steep of anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes depending on your tastes. In this method you are not doing a lot of steeps though. The nice thing about gongfu is that I can do twelve steeps on average. Some teas will change a lot over that period, some not so much.

Sorry everyone for coloring outside the lines in this post. I should have kept my responses inline with the original tasting note.

This is the pot I use for green and black tea: Northern Vietnamese porcelain.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BItfixtA2je/?taken-by=tealifehk

For shu I tend to use a 500ml Factory 1 Yixing pot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BImSZGwgXjI/?taken-by=tealifehk

That was actually a blend of HK traditional storage 10-15 year old shu and sheng (7542 and 7572).

If you use more leaf, you get more infusions with shorter infusion time, but shu isn’t really something most people drink for complexity. Sheng works wonderfully brewed this way too, as do most teas. I believe in Yunnan, most local people drink maocha and pu erh in big pots this way.

The only tea I never brew this way is high fire oolong, but a lot of people in Hong Kong, Chaozhou and Fujian drink high fire oolongs in big pots every day, so that’s merely personal preference. We even get Coca-Cola bottled cold dahongpao at 7-11 and supermarkets here (and it’s surprisingly good DHP). They brew it in one long infusion before bottling.

I add hot water as the level in the pot goes down or if the tea gets too strong. If you used too much leaf, you can even dilute right in your cup. Here in HK, when you drink tea with a Chinese meal, there are two pots on the table: one for tea and one full of boiling water, which you add to the pot as needed (and the cup, if you let your tea get too strong).

Gongfu prep is fun and all, but kicking back with a big pot is a heck of a lot easier and sometimes gives you better results than gongfu, since you get a full extraction from the leaves rather than bit by bit.

I drank most of the way down in my porcelain pot and had my housekeeper top it up. It’s going to be very light tea to finish with as I had her fill it all the way up to the top, but that keeps me hydrated and I will get everything out of the leaves before I toss em.

EDIT: wasn’t light at all. Sweet and flavorful all the way down!

Thanks for all of the information regarding tea types and brewing. The larger vessel method appeals to me as well. I generally drink tea while at my desk and this method would make it much easier to drink excellent tea while staying on task. I know there are times when it is wonderful to just sit and focus on brewing tea just for the pleasure of tea.

Glad to help! I only brewed gongfu style at home for years until I realized almost everyone in Vietnam was using big pots and getting excellent results with their green tea. Gongfu is still my primary method, but if you’re busy with other stuff, big pot style is what most of Asia’s loose tea drinkers do every day (aside from South Asia).

When I bought the porcelain pot, I was trying to buy a porcelain gongfu table and the lady at the store misunderstood me and poured me a cup of tea from a pot that must’ve held three quarts. It was beautifully painted and stored in a padded bamboo/rattan cosy to keep it warm. Not what I wanted but I accepted the cup graciously. :D

Many Chinese people just carry plastic bottles around with leaves and hot water in em. I’ve even seen an elementary/primary school kid drinking tea that way here in HK, which surprised me greatly since the kid was around 7 (I used to teach elementary here). Teaching Hong Kong school kids was interesting to say the least. I remember kids sharing a cup of stewed pig intestines in the classroom. I was a bit grossed out at the time, but now I eat tripe and intestine all the time!

Grandpa/big pot brewing is much more forgiving, too, since you can dilute as needed if you forget you have a pot of tea brewing or if you screw up and add too much leaf.

I agree with the sentiment that shou gangnam style is opa. Works great in a thermos, the presurized cap really gets into the leaves even better than a teapot, can ensure a better quality buzz. As one patient reported, I felt I was on a mild narcotic all day. All I could say was “Opa gangnam style.”

Grandpa style it is then for tomorrow. I will choose a different tea and post the results. I have a 2007 7581 that should fit the bill.

7581 is the business. Anyone who takes issue with that is lookin’ for a fight. I did notice a guy in the back, however, expressing some doubts about storage. But do you really need to cow to such minions? It’s 7581 after all.

Yang-chu: what have you been drinking tonight? Lol

;-)

@BulangBest We were all learners at one time and we still are learning.

Yup, it’s a lot less work drinking from a big pot and you get a much fuller flavor profile. You may never want to gongfu shu again. :D