Gong Fu Cha: Setting Up

While Gong Fu style tea brewing is very flexible, there are a few things you're going to want to have to get started. Gong Fu Cha is traditionally brewed in small vessels, with small drinking cups, all set up on a tea board. So that is where we will get started.

First, we will want to consider how many people are drinking tea. Are you brewing for just yourself? Sharing with a partner? Or maybe enjoying tea with a few friends? For the purpose of this page, let's assume it's you and a partner, so we will need two tea cups, and other equipment that is sized accordingly. 

Now that we know who's drinking, we can start getting our teawares out and getting our session set up. We always start with the tea board, since everything else will be arranged on it. The tea board in our Gongfu Starter Box is sized for two people to drink, so let's pull that out to start. Of course, if you have another tea board, feel free to use that as well! If you're brewing tea for many more people, or have more teawares you like on your board, a larger board could be very helpful, and we have a photo of a larger board setup included below as well. 

Onto our board we will place a couple critical components and a few optional ones. You really can't brew Gongfu tea without a brewing vessel and cups. For now, let's use a glass gaiwan and two tea cups, both of which are included in our Starter Box. Where you place these on your board is really personal preference. I'm right-handed, and prefer to use my right hand to hold my brewing vessel, so I will place my brewing vessel on the right and the cups on the left.

Once we have our vessel and cups, we get into the optional components. Many tea drinkers brew in slightly larger vessels than the capacity of their cups, or may be drinking tea by themselves. In these cases, you may want to include a small jug or pitcher on your board. Similarly, strainers or filters are commonly used to remove any small pieces of leaves that may escape your brewing vessel while you're pouring your tea. Strainers can be placed either alone or over a pitcher, and may be handheld or designed to rest on the pitcher or tea cup. Last, you may want to add a tea pet! Traditional Gong Fu Cha includes a tea pet, which is a small figurine, frequently unglazed clay or ceramic, that sits on your tea board and 'drinks' any tea that you do not! If you have a wash, this will get poured over your tea pet, as will any last ends of each steep that don't make it into your tea cups.

Now the last thing to do is put your tea into your brewing vessel! This will vary by tea and tea drinker. Some may want to warm up their teawares with hot water before adding any tea at all, while others may skip this step. It's up to you, but at this point, you should be all ready to go - just add tea and hot water!