Sunday, December 30, 2007

Less Is More

Ever wonder why gongfu cups are so small? Every time my friend comes over to my house, he's always telling me: "Your cups keep getting smaller and smaller. Don't you have any regular cups in your house?" Or sometimes at tea he will say: "I don't want to drink a dropful, I want to drink a mouthful!"

Other people ask: "How can you drink from such a small cup? Don't you get thirsty?"

Yes, a gongfu tea cup, or tasting cup (pin ming bei), as they're known, are pretty small; with the average gongfu cup holding about 20 mL of fluid.

But they're intentionally made small for several reasons. Chances are, if you're drinking from a big cup, you're gulping down liquid. But with gongfu cups, you can't do that. You need to sip slowly and appreciate the taste of the tea. It's not about quenching thirst; it's about savoring the flavor of the tea. Also, drinking from such a small cup can help you see the color of the tea more clearly. If you pour a large quantity of tea into a cup, you get a darker, murky color. The gongfu cup keeps the color lighter. You can judge the quality of a tea by the color of the infusion. So using a gongfu cup can help with that. As well, if you poured your tea into a big cup, the aromas dissipate, and you can't smell anything. Using a gongfu cup, you can smell the fragrance of the tea more clearly. Basically, you waste the tea by pouring it into a big cup because: you gulp it down without thinking to savor the flavor of the tea; your tea is murky, so you don't notice the true nature of the tea; and you can't get your nose near enough to smell the tea fragrance.

So if you really want to waste your money; and waste your tea, then drink it from a big cup. But you won't do that now, because you know why gongfu teacups are used. Of course, if you're really thirsty, please use a big cup. An iced oolong is nice once in awhile. But when drinking good tea, it's kind of uncouth to use a big cup. It's much better to pour tea into several gongfu cups and share the tea with friends, so you can have shared enjoyment, and a shared experience of tea.

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5 comments:

Proinsias said...

I use small cups because I use small brewing vessels.

I use small brewing vessels because it gives me more control. If I use lots of tea in a tiny pot I can mess up a few brews and it doesn't really matter - I can make loads of infusions with this set up.

I recently made a large (1.5ish l) pot of Russian caravan tea for guests, as it was the closest I could muster to 'normal tea'.
I panicked, I had placed all my chips in one large pot and on one infusion. If I messed this up the leaves were for the bin and I'd have to start again. I also find it very difficult to time things over a minute or so with intuition.
Using the gongfu method I can learn lots of things about the tea over 10+ infusions. With 'English style' I learn very little about the tea. I can think 'this may have been nice if it was brewed lighter' with gongfu I just make my next brew a little shorter or with cooler water. It's a fast track to getting to know the tea and how you like it.

I use cups to match the situation. If I'm myself I will usually use a cup to match the brewing vessel - eg 90ml gaiwan = 90ml cup, if I'm not drinking myself then I pull out my mental calculator and try and see what cups will divide into what brewing vessel nicely.

This does all go down the toilet if I'm drinking certain teas - I have a cup I always use for Da Hong Pao and I get it no matter what the rest of the room is using or if it matches the gaiwan/yixing for example.

But, yeah I see what you're getting at. Tiny cups have a place, especially in the west, as they are good for making people pay attention to what they drink which kind of runs counter to most fluid consumption I observe in people.
People here seem to drink tea to solve problems, quench thirst, warm up, cool down, wake up, not work etc they rarely seem to drink for the sake of it.

Proinsias said...

I use small cups because I use small brewing vessels.

I use small brewing vessels because it gives me more control. If I use lots of tea in a tiny pot I can mess up a few brews and it doesn't really matter - I can make loads of infusions with this set up.

I recently made a large (1.5ish l) pot of Russian caravan tea for guests, as it was the closest I could muster to 'normal tea'.
I panicked, I had placed all my chips in one large pot and on one infusion. If I messed this up the leaves were for the bin and I'd have to start again. I also find it very difficult to time things over a minute or so with intuition.
Using the gongfu method I can learn lots of things about the tea over 10+ infusions. With 'English style' I learn very little about the tea. I can think 'this may have been nice if it was brewed lighter' with gongfu I just make my next brew a little shorter or with cooler water. It's a fast track to getting to know the tea and how you like it.

I use cups to match the situation. If I'm myself I will usually use a cup to match the brewing vessel - eg 90ml gaiwan = 90ml cup, if I'm not drinking myself then I pull out my mental calculator and try and see what cups will divide into what brewing vessel nicely.

This does all go down the toilet if I'm drinking certain teas - I have a cup I always use for Da Hong Pao and I get it no matter what the rest of the room is using or if it matches the gaiwan/yixing for example.

But, yeah I see what you're getting at. Tiny cups have a place, especially in the west, as they are good for making people pay attention to what they drink which kind of runs counter to most fluid consumption I observe in people.
People here seem to drink tea to solve problems, quench thirst, warm up, cool down, wake up, not work etc they rarely seem to drink for the sake of it.

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