Tea Accessories

What is “Kung Fu Tea”?

Kung Fu Tea()(also interchangeably called Kung Fu Cha, Gong Fu Tea and Gong Fu Cha) is a tea brewing process. In Chinese, Cha means tea. For Kung Fu, you might be familiar with one of it’s more popular meanings – Chinese martial arts. But it has more meanings in Chinese – hard work, labor, level of achievement, skill, free time, etc. Kung Fu Cha is the Chinese tea brewing process that has a little bit of ALL these meanings – you will find out why when you go through the whole process yourself.

What classes of tea are appropriate for Kung Fu Tea?

Oolong class. Kung Fu Cha uses Yixing teapots that retain a high temperature during brewing. High temperature is what it takes to extract flavor from Oolong. However, tender tea classes like green tea should NOT be brewed with Kung Fu Cha.

Procedures are dead. What do we look for in Kung Fu Cha?

We look for the right combination of amount of tea leave, water temperature, brewing time, etc. to make a good cup of tea. And keep in mind that Kung Fu Cha offers an advantage over other brewing – higher water temperature. The procedure illustrated in the coming up pages are just basic steps. Feel free to modify the steps (e.g. putting the Yixing teapot in a hot water bath to slow down heat loss, etc., etc.) if such steps give you a better cup of tea.

What gadgets do I need?

Kung Fu Tea Tray
  1. Yixing teapot (must) – Yixing teapot is slow in losing heat. Small (personal preference is below 6 oz) and deep teapot is preferable for best result. For convenience, bigger teapots can be used (the trade off is a lesser degree of control over flavor).
  2. Teacups (must) – that is, if you don’t want to drink direct from the teapot. 3-4 cups of about 1 oz each is fine, depending on the size of the teapot.
  3. Kung Fu Tea Tray (not a must) – quite a bit of spill and waste water is produced during the process. The tea tray holds such water so you don’t have to wipe it off the table. It might seem to be just for convenience but it’s BIG convenience.
  4. Tea Tools (optional) – in the tool set, there are tea shuffle, funnel, tongs, digger, tea needle. You won’t get into much trouble though if you brew without the tool set.
  5. Tea (must) – need no expert to tell tea is a must.
  6. Faircup (optional) – transitional container when teacups are full but tea in teapot has to be emptied to avoid overbrewing.
  7. Tea Strainer (optional) – screens out small pieces of tea leaves.
  8. A pair of hands (must), and perhaps your mouth too.
  9. Source of hot water (must) – Sorry, please don’t try to look it up in the PIC above because it’s not there. You can use a variety of source, say, a pot heated on stove, an electronic heating pot, etc. Just make sure whatever you use can give you boiling water.