Gong Fu is the traditional Chinese way of making tea and usually involves a teapot a gong dao bei and several smaller cups. The preparation technique most familiar to those in the West European brewing involves making a larger amount of tea at once typically served alongside cakes and other baked goods as a means of entertaining guests.
Western Style Brewing Lets run through a standard description of both for comparison based on my own preference more than a standard definition.
Western style tea brewing. The Western style of brewing tea denotes using a large teapot or infuser and steeping tea leaves for an extended period of time usually a one-time process. Because the tea is steeped for a longer period of time a smaller amount of tea is typically needed and the leaves are usually discarded after one or two steepings. How To Brew Tea Western Style Prepare a teapot or any brewing vessel of choice.
Place the appropriate amount of tea leaves inside. Brew the tea using the perfect water temperature. Western style is making tea as most people in the Western world make tea.
They use a strainer full of tea in a large cup or mug. Gong Fu is the traditional Chinese way of making tea and usually involves a teapot a gong dao bei and several smaller cups. This post is about Western style brewing and will give you all the information you need to start making tea.
There is nothing easier than brewing loose leaf tea in the Western style. Western tea brewing requires just one big teapot unlike the many small tea utensils of Gong Fu Cha brewing. By brewing loose leaf tea this way as opposed to using tea bags we can enjoy more fragrant and flavorful steeps.
How to brew loose leaf tea. Western style tea brewing This style of tea brewing involves a low leaf to water ratio and long steeping times. Let me give you an example about Western steeping instructions for sencha that I found online.
1 tbsp of sencha 16 oz 480 ml of water at 176 F 80 C and an infusion time of 2 minutes. The Western method of brewing tea evolved from the fact that initially tea was rare expensive and reserved for the upper classes. There was a scarcity of tea in the west compared to China which lead to using a reduced amount of tea with a larger volume of water for an extended period of steeping.
While multiple infusions can be made western style you can generally only get 2-3 infusions. The amount of tea used is dependent on the style of tea brewing Eastern vs Western you select. Warm the teapot and cups first.
Pour hot water in swirl around and pour it off. This aids in keeping the finished brew. Western Brewing is a method of leaf brewing that uses a small amount of leaf with a large amount of water and long steeping times.
The steeping times for teas are typically 2 minutes but they can be adjusted based on personal preference. The steep time is one of the most significant variables in Western style brewing. How do you usually brew your tea.
Take a tea bag and dip it into a big mug with boiling water for a few minutes right. Well we neither want to go into the details of tea bag brewing nor talk too much about the usually quite poor results that you get from using them. What we want to talk about today is the difference between tea brewing as it is usually done in the West and the.
Western Style Brewing Lets run through a standard description of both for comparison based on my own preference more than a standard definition. Western brewing is most often described as using about 2 grams of dry tea per 250 ml infused at varying temperatures per tea type often for two rounds at about 4 and then 5 minutes. For here I.
Western-style tea brewing therefore uses much less leaf and much more water while brewing-times are much longer to extract as much of the flavor as possible at once. I use both Gongfu and Western Style brewing methods. For normal tea sessions I do Gongfu Brewing.
You simply cant go wrong with it and it always produces a great cup of tea. However I use the Western-style brewing method when Im watching a movie on my laptop or playing Dungeons Dragons with friends to minimize any interruptions. I noticed that the taste of the teas when I use both.
Western brewing is most often described as using about 2 grams of dry tea per 250 ml infused at varying temperatures per tea type often for two rounds at about 4 and then 5 minutes. For here Ill shift that to considering use of 3 grams per that 250 ml 84 ounces infused for 2 12 and then 3 ½ minutes. The preparation technique most familiar to those in the West European brewing involves making a larger amount of tea at once typically served alongside cakes and other baked goods as a means of entertaining guests.
Teapot sizes designs and materials can vary widely though are generally larger than Chinese-style brewing. Unlike our friends from the East we Westerners use a much lower quantity of tea 1-2g to a higher water ration 250ml and therefore have to significantly increase the brewing time 2-3min. Western Style The biggest difference between the traditional Gaiwan and the Western brewing styles is the ratio of tea leaves and water.
There are no set rules for this but in the Gong Fu method the tea brewing ratio ranges from 3 to 6 grams of tea leaves per 100 ml of water while Western brewing methods follow 05 to 2 grams of tea per 100 ml of water. Take note though that the amount of water will determine how concentrated your tea will be. I use the term western style tea pot to refer to a teapot style that many people in western countries grew up with whether something like a Brown Betty or a decorative white porcelain teapot.
When England brought tea from China to India they brought their teapots with them.