Three Essential Things About Chinese Gongfu Tea Brewing

There are three essential things about Chinese Gongfu Tea brewing, which are tea-water ratio, the temperature of water and steeping time.

First of all, the tea-water ration should be appropriate, it helps the tea to present its best taste. Generally speaking, when you brew green tea or yellow tea, the combination of 1 gram tea with 50-gram water may be the best. For black tea, Pu-erh tea and white tea, the combination should be 1:20 to 1: 30(g). For dark tea, it’s 1:15 to 1:20(g).

Secondly, there’s a principle about the water temperature while brewing tea, the tenderer the tea leaves are, the lower the water temperature is. The stronger the tea leaves are, the higher the water temperature is. Oolong tea and dark tea’s leaves are too coarse, it’s better to use boiling water to brew it to have the best flavor. While brewing white tea or black tea, the temperature should be around 90C°- 95C°, It depends on the age and tenderness of the tea leaves. For green tea and yellow tea, the temperature should be between 80C°- 90C°。

Thirdly, the steeping time is of vital importance. It has obvious impact on the flavor. So, I suggest that for green tea and yellow tea, the steeping time is 15-30(s), for white tea, it’s 5-15(s), for oolong tea, it’s 8-10(s). For black tea, because it is fully fermented, it’ll become bitter and sour if you steep it for too long, so just steep it for 5-8(s), for dark tea, it’s 8-10(s). Steeping tea with Chinese Gongfu Method is actually simple if you follow these three things. But this is just a general situation, and you should treat the steeping case by case.

So, have you got it?