Tasting of darjeeling tea Gongfu method

Dear SMC:

Gonfu style with Darjeeling tea...ummm I agree Gonfu and Gaiwan both
style release different dimension for the same tea. I have also
discovered White and Yellow tea both taste much better with Gonfu. I
hope sub-continent people will accept Gonfu method. I can tell, many
tea drinkers will refuse the Gonfu style because of the traditional of
milk tea. What do you think SMC?

Ripon
Maputo, Mozambique

There is nothing "magic" about gungfu... More tea + less time = less
tea + more time. You don't have to use a gaiwan, just a normal pot
will do. Even espresso coffee is a variation of the same idea. The
method is only valuable when you have a really good tea or coffee which
benefits from having its flavors 'concentrated'. One with layers of
flavor also benefits from multiple infusions. (Little point in doing
multiple infusions if every one tastes the same.) Keep in mind, too, a
bad tea--darjeeling or oolong--will taste bad when done any style, even
more so with gungfu, in fact.

Michael said,
<<We use the words Gung Fu loosely, [...] but it's important to
remember that there is indeed a more formal, ceremonial aspect worth
exploring>>

Not with darjeeling. ;-)

> I probably have the dullest
> taste buds of anyone on this group, and even > I can tell the
difference.
> There's not much linear about tea brewing,
> especially for the first few
> steeps of a rolled or fisted tea.

DM,
Some days it's a "Dog day afternoon"? :-)
I didn't express myself very well when I said "short + more = long +
less". I didn't mean to say the two were equal, but rather, the
essence of gung fu is to use more tea and less time. You are right: it
often doesn't taste the same as a slow brew. (But only when the tea is
complex, many cheap teas taste identifical.) My point is not to make
gung fu more complicated than it is. The art is to get your timings
right to bring out the full flavor from the leaf--this requires optimal
timings and temperatures and number of infusions. Not a science but an
art.