This rules

Thanks so much for watching! We're so glad you've found the videos helpful!

Thanks for watching!

so great new season is possible ? I do also gongfu cha thank you for sharing yours technique 😀😀😀

We appreciate you for watching!

Thanks for watching! So glad you're liking the show!

After watching some more videos now I know it is a "chapan". Good stuff, I'm looking for my first Gaiwan. Maybe il get to get one from an artisan in China one day.

Sorry to hear you've been feeling sick! Hope you're feeling better!!

Tea House Ghost茶館鬼 hey that's very kind of you, thank you. Slowly but steadily getting better. One tea question: you said water needs to wake up first. Others say the water quality gets worse when first boiling (better raise just to the desired temperature) while yet others say its best to boil first and add cold water later to lower the temperature to the desired degree.. Can you please elaborate more on that matter?

qhodave I always like to wake up the water by bringing it to a boil - not a rolling boil, mind you, but like crab eye boiling - and let it cool off (if I need to cool it) by letting it sit in the gong dao Bei. I feel this gives me the most control over my tools and the process of monitoring. Mixing cold water makes it much harder to determine exactly how much cooler the water will get.

Please do! Let us know what you think and if you have any questions let us know! =)

Kim Jansen yes. You're absolutely correct! That totally works. 👍

Argon Wheatbelly that's a great idea for a video! Would love to get it built into season 3! (We've actually already got season 2 all set with 15 episodes)

What do you mean by "tea cupping" ?

I've always just assumed that was the right name for it, but the process of assessing the quality and taste of a new tea in a similar way that a sommelier would assess a wine.

Ah I see! It may be a while yet before we get to anything that specific on this show, since it's mostly an educational series about gong fu cha and chinese tea culture and we have a lot to cover, but perhaps we'll find some room for diving deep into specific teas on the channel in the future!

And a superb educational series it is. Really enjoyable show to watch, well made, produced and presented. Hope you and your team continue to find fun in making it.

Sounds delightful!

@@TeaHouseGhost Finally managed to follow along with some Doom Roy!! Man, those sweet notes taste so good with the robust, savory notes!!

You can get Gong Fu sets from West China Tea - we can ship to Belgium I believe. www.westchinatea.com

I'll take it! Bring the tea fans!

This is an unglazed Dai clay gaiwan! This one's a little larger than a standard size gaiwan. You can find some others like it on the west china Tea website. www.westchinatea.com

I think So Han can get them from China! You can email him at teamaster(at)westchinateacompany(dot)com

@@TeaHouseGhost thank you :) I wanted to add, the video really helped. I've always followed the guidelines for brewing times/temperatures, but you kind of gave me the confidence to try adjusting them, and as it turns out the tea I've been trying to figure out (how to brew), tastes better now 'with some adjustments' :) I haven't figured it out completely yet (Oolong Dong Ding), but now it gets better with every try :)

@@AuroraClair this is great to hear that you've been experimenting and seeing some positive results!!

in the beginning, using tools like scales, timers, glass kettles, thermometers, and measuring cups are basically tea training wheels. the more familiar you become with a certain tea and your own teaware you will begin to develop a feeling for how the tea likes to be brewed in your teaware, or if it likes to be brewed in specific teaware. Its important to experiment and learn, which those tools can be good for. but eventually you wont need them anymore as it will be intuitive. for example knowing when to take the kettle off the fire can be deduced by listening to the kettle. if you know how it sounds when it gets to the right size bubbles, you dont need a glass kettle to be able to see or have to open it to look inside. nor do you need a thermometer as you can recognise what size bubbles form at what temperatures. same thing with how much leaf to use and how long to steep. its good in the beginning to focus mostly on one type of tea and become familiar with how to brew that tea. and you will then find once you are more adept at brewing said tea, brewing another type of tea will present a different challenge, but you can take what you learned from the first type and apply and adjust to the next type. hopefully this helps.

@@donotseemecricket Thanks for the reply! I sort of just jumped in after writing with a young sheng I’ve already had a few bings of. Overall it went better than expected. In the Gaiwan I was able to pay more attention to pouring technique and other aspects which was nice. I also noticed I was very fidgety while waiting for the longer steeps which gave me the opportunity to just relax into the moment a little more. I found I was so worried about wanting the tea experience to be something that I wasn’t allowing it to just be what it was. I’m sure when spring comes and I start getting some gyokuro and shincha that will be a whole new technique to learn as far as feeling the timing. Those I used to control a lot. I have a variable temp kettle from my coffee brewing days, but perhaps one day will try an on/off kettle!

@@songforkatie No problem! As far as longer steepings go, when you get further into your session, if you are alone or having a more meditative session with guests, I find it nice to just take that time take a deep breath, relax and really listen to your body and notice how the tea is effecting you. With Kettles, while electric kettles are convenient, they do damage the make up of the water by sending a current through it. If possible, I would advice getting a stoneware kettle, or stainless steel one that you can use on the stovetop. Idealy you want to use charcoal but this is the ideal and only ideal outside these days. Gas flame would be the second best. Otherwise infared electric top would be better than an induction sort of electric kettle with an on off button. I personally use a stoneware kettle which I heat over a gas stove and then transfer to a small brazier with an alcohol flame that is safe to use indoors to keep the kettle at the desired temperature. When I first started getting into tea I used a borosilicate glass kettle that I used soas to learn how the size of the bubbles looked at different temperatures. If you are interested in learning more about kettles, I highly recommend Global Tea Hut's video on Kettles. They also did videos on the other often overlooked elements of tea; water, and fire.

@@donotseemecricket Thanks for showing me a clear path forward. I’ll have more research to do, and the resources to do that research with! I appreciate your time coming up with your replies. I used to work in the brewing industry, and now I work in a kitchen, so I definitely understand how each small choice can drastically change the outcome. Now I’ll keep kettles in mind. When I used to make coffee I would use RO water that I doctored with a blend of minerals, so I should probably have considered something similar for tea!

I don't see it causing too much harm so long as you don't leave it out too long.

The water will cool some in the kettle as we go through the process, yes - depending on which tea we're making - sometimes reheating is necessary, but since that can take time and makes a loud sound, we often forgo reheating when making the show (sometimes we'll reheat between takes if we find a stopping point - but a lot of these episodes are single-take). I wanna say the kettles are either Elementi or Bona Vita? We have several different ones at the teahouse.

It is not a temperature regulating kettle - it just goes up to boiling and then stops. So Han at points has talked about cha qi in the show, but we're saving the deep dives on that until season 3! Gotta make it through the rest of the types of tea first!

Sweet! Looking forward to coming down to Austin. Are you connected to the vegetarian restaurant by the same name? My wife and I eat whole food plant based (no animal products no oils no processed food) and we saw that. That would be really nice if you guys have some dim sum we can eat :) @@TeaHouseGhost

With exception to green tea, some fresh white teas, some delicate red teas, and some yellow teas, I generally start with a full boiling hot and fast steep to learn a new tea. Then adjust from there based on what I find. The ones I mentioned above I may start with something like 200-205F as a starting point and cool further if necessary. Experimentation is encouraged!

@@rookas6274 Yes, this is still the predominant technique taught by So-Han and used by most of the staff at West China Tea.

Howdy! So due to its rolled form, we can say it's likely from either Taiwan or Anxi in Fujian or around those parts. That's the style there. Though there may be folks doing rolled oolongs in other places, so not a guarantee. The light greenish/yellow liquor lets you know that it is only lightly oxidized, and probably not roasted. This style is called qing xiang 清香 ("clear fragrance" - though qing can also have translations closer to "blue green" rather than "clear"), and it's very popular both in Taiwan and Anxi. I have not heard of the specific tea Sweet Dew High Mountain, but I do know that calling teas "gao shan 高山" or "high mountain" is very very typical of Taiwan. Sweet Dew is a name I've only heard in the context of a western (Sichuanese) green tea called Sweet Dew (Mengding Gan Lu, Mabian Gan Lu). It's totally possible that someone in Taiwan named an oolong Sweet Dew though. Hope this helps!

Your English is perfectly understandable! Yes I too will use 100C for Pu'er! Will long steep Shu Pu'er, or just use a lot of tea, but Sheng needs to be quick steeped for it not to get bitter

Thanks for your response! I think that the difference is the amount of tea I use and the fact that I usually drink shu pu'er. The owners of my local tea shop taught me to put less tea but steep it more, as you said, so that explain the difference. I love your videos, by the way. I recently discovered your channel due to your collaboration with the guys from The Modern Rogue and I'm looking forward to keep watching them (the videos) when I have more time and keep learning about Gong Fu Cha

I believe in this video we are typically using boiling hot water, but water temperature is something that you can play around with in this practice!

@@TeaHouseGhost thank you bro 👍

Sheng Pu'er can ferment naturally over time as it ages. Shu Pu'er undergoes a process to speed-age it.

The teahouse is next to a highway - late at night is the quietest time for filming 🤷

@@TeaHouseGhost that’s a good reason

Nope. American. He grew up in Houston. His dad was born in China, but has lived in the US for most of his life.

@@TeaHouseGhost I am curious about his ethnic background - the name is definitely trisyllabic chinese but the face (has hints of Caucasian blood) - from Xinjiang? Or maybe his mom is white?

@@KB1.1 his mom is white, yeah