How to Brew Tea: Gongfu Brewing
Put 6g of rolled oolong (about 1g per 15-17ml) in a 100ml pot, rinse with 95-100°C (203-212°F) water for 5 seconds, and discard. Steep the first infusion for 10-15 seconds, then add 5-10 seconds to each following steep. One load gives 8-12 infusions of about 90ml each.
Gongfu brewing, from the Chinese gongfu cha (tea made with skill), packs a lot of leaf into a small vessel and pours it off after seconds rather than minutes. A typical load is 5-7g of leaf in 100ml of water, roughly three times the ratio of a Western mug. Each pour is short, so you drink a series of small cups instead of one large one. The method grew up in Chaozhou and southern Fujian in the 18th and 19th centuries, alongside the rolled and roasted oolongs of Anxi, Wuyi and Phoenix Mountain. Small Yixing clay pots, a fairness pitcher and tiny cups are the classic kit, and the same approach is now standard in Taiwan and across the specialty tea trade. The high ratio and short contact time extract aroma and sweetness quickly while leaving less time for the slower bitter compounds to build. Because the leaf opens a little more on every pour, the cups shift in character: floral and light early, fuller in the middle, mineral and sweet at the end. It suits rolled oolongs, roasted Wuyi rock teas, ripe and raw pu'er, aged white tea and many Chinese black teas. Delicate green teas can be brewed this way, but need cooler water and a lighter load.
Recipe
Teaware
- 100-150ml Yixing clay teapot or porcelain pot
- Cha hai (fairness pitcher)
- 3-4 small tasting cups (30-50ml)
- Gooseneck or standard kettle
- Scale accurate to 0.1g
- Tea tray or bowl to catch overflow
- Fine mesh strainer
- Timer
Steps
- 1
Heat water and teaware
Bring water to 95-100°C (203-212°F). Pour it into the empty pot, the pitcher and the cups, then discard it.
A warm pot holds temperature through a 10-second steep; a cold one can drop the water 10°C or more.
- 2
Weigh the leaf
Weigh 6g of leaf for a 100ml pot. Scale to about 1g per 15-17ml for other pot sizes.
Rolled oolong should fill the bottom of the pot about one-quarter deep dry; twisted Wuyi leaf fills it closer to half.
- 3
Rinse the leaf
Fill the pot with hot water, close the lid and pour it straight out within 5 seconds. Discard the rinse.
For compressed pu'er, rinse twice; for green or white tea, skip the rinse or keep it under 3 seconds.
- 4
Smell the warm leaf
Lift the lid and smell the damp leaf before the first steep.
This is where you notice roast, fruit or storage notes most clearly; use it to judge whether to brew hotter or cooler.
- 5
First infusion
Fill the pot to the brim, cap it and steep for 10-15 seconds. Pour all the liquor into the pitcher.
Start the timer when you finish pouring water in, and start decanting 2-3 seconds before the target time because pouring takes time.
- 6
Drain completely
Tip the pot until the last drops fall into the pitcher.
Liquor left in the pot keeps extracting and makes the next infusion bitter.
- 7
Serve from the pitcher
Pour from the pitcher into the cups so every cup gets the same strength.
Pouring directly from the pot into cups gives the last cup the strongest tea.
- 8
Lengthen each steep
For infusions 2-5, add 5-10 seconds per steep (15 s, 20 s, 25 s, 35 s). After infusion 6, extend to 45-90 seconds.
If a cup comes out thin, add 10 seconds next time; if it comes out harsh, cut 5 seconds.
- 9
Finish the session
Stop when the liquor turns thin even at 2-3 minute steeps. Empty the spent leaf and rinse the pot with hot water only.
Never use soap in an unglazed clay pot; the clay absorbs it.
Tips
- Per tea type: rolled oolong 6-7g at 95-100°C; roasted Wuyi oolong 7-8g at 100°C; ripe pu'er 7g at 100°C; green tea 4g at 80°C with 20-30 s steeps.
- Use a 100ml pot to start; under 80ml the water cools too fast and over 150ml it stops behaving like gongfu.
- Soft, low-mineral water (about 50-150 mg/L dissolved solids) gives sweeter, clearer infusions than hard tap water.
- If the first steep is pale but the third is perfect, your pot is losing heat; pour hot water over the closed lid during each steep.
- Write down grams and steep times for teas you like so the next session starts where the last one ended.
Common Mistakes
- Using Western steep times with a gongfu ratio — a 2-minute first steep with 6g in 100ml gives a cup that is too bitter to drink.
- Skipping the scale — eyeballed leaf varies by 2-3g between sessions, which changes the steep times you need.
- Leaving liquor in the pot between pours — the trapped tea over-extracts; drain the pot fully every time.
- Brewing green tea at 100°C — delicate leaf turns bitter and flat; drop to 75-85°C and use less leaf.
- Discarding the leaf after three steeps — rolled oolong and pu'er often have 8 or more good infusions left.