Tea 101 - About Tea

I've put this video together mainly for our customers who have seen me serve tea using our Yixing tea pots and bought the pots to try at home. I have tried to keep it simple - just showing you the basic steps for multiple steeping of tea, a style known as Gong Fu cha in China and Taiwan. The term "Gong Fu" - same as Kung Fu, which many of us are familiar with - means anything that is coducted with great effort or skill. "Cha" is tea in Chinese.
Oolongs and puerh teas are best brewed in this method. However, we have also tried Darjeeling with fairly pleasing results. Actually,  if you have the patience you might be able to brew any kind of tea using this method! Remember this is a matter of "great effort".

When I first began seriously pursuing tea, one thing odd that I had to learn was to stick my nose into the infused leaves. I had grown up amidst tea gardens of Darjeeling, and drank tea all my life, but until I entered the tasting room of a tea garden professionally 10 years ago, I never had thought of participating in the ritual of tea physically with my nose.

After the tea leaf itself, water is the second most important element in making a good cup of tea. The fact hardly needs to be stated, but then sometimes it is helpful to state the obvious. Especially when we often...