Best Gongfu Tea Brewing Gear

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Gongfu brewing runs a high leaf to water ratio through many short steeps, so vessel volume is the specification that governs everything else. Somewhere between 100 and 150 milliliters is the working range: at that size five grams of leaf gives a dense cup you can pour off in fifteen seconds and refill six or eight times, while a larger pot pushes you back toward a single long western steep. Two vessel types do the job differently. A lidded bowl is glazed porcelain, adds nothing to the liquor, rinses clean in seconds, and is the honest choice for tasting several teas in an afternoon, though the rim gets hot and takes practice to hold. Unglazed clay is porous, rounds off harsh edges, holds heat longer through a session, and slowly takes on the character of whatever is brewed in it, which is why people keep one pot per category. The slatted tray with a reservoir underneath is not decoration either, because the method involves rinsing leaf and deliberately overfilling, and the tray is what keeps that off the table. Small thick walled cups keep short pours hot. Fermented and tightly rolled leaves reward the format most, since they release in layers rather than all at once.