Giving Tea a Try
- ポン太 (Ponta)
- Jun 30, 2020
- 3 min read
At the time of writing, it's early May, and quarantine restrictions are in place around the world. In Tokyo too, many people are spending their days at home due to a voluntary quarantine referred to as “self-imposed restraint.” I notice people struggling to somehow make this time better by doing this or that. It’s not too bad for people like me, who spent time at home drinking tea from the beginning, which I suppose is quite fortunate. Because the amount of time spent drinking and the quantity of tea have inevitably increased, I have tried various set-ups and methods in order to drink delicious tea more easily. In this article, I will present my thoughts. I hope it will be useful for people considering getting into tea during this situation.
In order to drink delicious tea, what sort of tools are necessary? If you search on Amazon for tools, for example, the below introductory set is being sold.
Suica White Porcelain tea utensils - Standard Chinese tea tools - 15 piece set
This kind of set might be necessary to enjoy tea as part of Sado (tea ceremony), but sets this large are not needed when drinking tea casually. As long as you have suitably heated water and tea leaves, you can make perfectly delicious tea. Tidying up becomes difficult if there are many tools, so I tried to reduce them as much as possible, and ended up with this.
I prepared three things: a deep dish, gaiwan, and cup. And if you happen to have an electric kettle, keeping it nearby is convenient. Let’s try using these and brewing some tea. This time, I will make a Da Wu Ye Phoenix Dan Cong oolong.
First, I boil the water. I use a lot of water, so I make sure to boil plenty. I preheat the gaiwan with the hot water, making sure to properly warm the lid as well. After disposing of the water from the gaiwan, I add the tea leaves. In order to warm the leaves, I fill the gaiwan with hot water and then quickly pour it out. After adding water a second time and waiting for an appropriate amount of time, I pour it into the cup, and it’s complete.
As I wrote previously, water temperature is important in order to brew delicious tea. With oolongs, for example, the aroma is important, so they are often brewed quickly with freshly-boiled water. So, I warm up the gaiwan using plenty of hot water, and then fill it entirely to brew the tea.
In order to brew tasty tea in this way, I do things like persistently warm the utensils and leaves, and fill the gaiwan to the very brim. Having a deep dish for discarding unnecessary water and to catch water that overflows from the gaiwan is convenient. As long as the dish can collect water to some extent, even a pot, bowl, or anything else is fine. So I think for people starting to get into tea, buying only a gaiwan is fine. They are sold on Amazon from about $10.
For people who feel that preparing a gaiwan and deep dish is too much effort, this following style is also fine to begin with.
With this method, the only necessary thing is a cup. However, you will need to choose tea leaves of a size that won’t get into your mouth as you drink it, and that won’t become too bitter even if they are left to soak, so please be aware of that. The tea in the picture is a green tea from Yunnan. However, at the end of the day, as long as you have tea leaves, you can have plenty of fun with tea.
During this period, people can’t live solely on politics, economics, or medical rationality. I feel that culture had an immeasurably practical influence in our daily lives. There are probably many people who feel that “superfluous” things, and trivial hobbies and habits, held unintentionally significant meanings. How about trying out gongfu tea to enrich your time during this period?
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