Chinese Tea Culture and Kung Fu Tea Ceremony
I’m writing this blog today to talk a little bit about Chinese Tea Culture and what we need to know about the Kung Fu Tea Ceremony. At the end of this post, I’ve included a video of myself preparing Chinese Dark Tea in a Kung Fu Tea Performance. Of course, if you find this post too long, you could always skip ahead to the video.
The kung fu tea ceremony（Chinese: 功夫茶） involves the ritualized preparation and presentation of Chinese. The term ‘Kung Fu Tea’ literally means “making tea with skills”. Today, the approach is used popularly by teashops carrying Chinese Tea, and by tea connoisseurs to optimise the taste of tea and the experiencing of consuming tea.
Before the start of a Tea Ceremony, the tea master will first determine what is the appropriate temperature for the specific types of tea being used. An optimal temperature must be reached and maintained. The temperature would depend on the type of tea used. For example:
- 95 °C for Oolong tea
- 100 °C (boiling) for compressed teas, such as Pu-erh tea, White Tea and Anhua Dark Tea.
1.brewing vessel, it can be a tea pot or a covered bowl called Gaiwan.
2.tea pitcher (Chahai), which is used to ensure the consistency of the flavor and colour of the tea (Chinese: 公道杯, Pinyin: gōng dào bēi)
3.hot water kettle, e.g. an electric kettle
4. brewing tray （Chachuan）used to hold spills
5. tea towel or tea cloth （Chajin）, usually dark-colored
6. tea spoon／tea pick，（Chashi）for dispensing the amount of tea leaves required (Chinese: Chashi, Pinyin: chá shí) for clearing the teapot spout, clearing tea leaves etc.
7. tea cups (traditionally 3 cups are used in most instances), matching size. Also named Pinming Cup (品茗杯）).
After we have gotten everything ready, we can get straight into the actual tea preparation, below is the full video of myself preparing Chinese Tea, hope you guys enjoy watching and leave me a comment if you have any questions. 🙂
