How do you peel your pu'er tea?

Personally, I do this with my bare clean hands because the sensitivity in our fingers would allow us to properly pry apart any pu'er cake breaking as few leaves as possible.
The trick lies in:
 1) keeping the leaves as intact as possible while you peel away. What was the problem with the leaves I peeled below (bottom right)? Yes it seems intact but not separated finely enough. Leaves that are not peeled sufficiently often result in a bitter, sappy brew.
2) Investing a little bit more effort into making sure that your leaves look as evenly peeled as those in the top photo. Shake it apart if you have to try to obtain finer bits, but be gentle in your ways. Ensure that no lumpy parts are left behind and your plate of precious tea leaves will seem more plentiful and harmonious.

Try this at home and notice how much sweeter your pu'er tea actually is.

Teaparker's lecture series: Taiwan Cha, Gongfu brew

[Article source: translated from Teaparker's blog] At the Taipei Story House last Sunday, Teaparker touched on topic of Taiwan tea brewed gongfu style. My role there was to demonstrate gongfu tea brewing on a chaxi.

What is gongfu style brewing? The first person to counter such long standing association between gongfu tea and the elderly was Teaparker himself. He is also happy to report that in recent years, the concept of gongfu brew not being old man’s tea has deeply rooted itself in the hearts of Taiwanese tea enthusiasts.

According to him, the gongfu aspect in tea brewing includes the choice of tea, teaware. Additionally, gongfu brewing also involves a balance between the elements of rationality and emotions. Besides our senses, a gongfu tea practitioner should also apply logic and sound judgement when preparing tea.

Source: Teaparker

With a few pieces of stones, flowers and fallen leaves from the garden, I replicated a sense of nature on my chaxi. This chaxi guides our imagination into a picturesque landscape as we brewed and tasted the gift of spring – this year’s Alishan light oolong.   

The audience was then invited to examine the same tea poured into various cups made from different materials. For our brief understanding, Teaparker highlighted three points: material, glaze and firing temperature that influence the performance of each cup i.e. how different cups influence the taste of tea. I attended a similar event in Brussels two years ago.

A simplified style of brewing using a porcelain gaiwan and three cups paired with fundamental yet crucial tea appreciation knowledge, that afternoon’s tea lecture brought about another intellectual twist to our understanding of tea. 

Brewing a good cup of pu'er tea

Storing pu'er after some time will most likely increase its worth, but more importantly, how do we get the best brew out of your pu'er tea collection? Choosing the right tea leaves is a matter of your own judgement. However, let me share a few tips with you to get the best brew from your pot.

1. Flaking the pu'er tea cake and getting the right quantity. Make a small horizontal incision on the side of your cake. Tear the tea cake apart slowly and allow some parts to flake off. As much as possible, do not break individual leaves. This is also why I recommend flaking by hand and avoiding sharp tools.

2. The teapot should be wide enough to accomodate your tea leaves and their expansion during infusion. A pot with a narrow base will only intensify and accumulate bitterness of the tea at the bottom of the pot.

3. Pu'er is best enjoyed in big cups, those that roughly fit the size of our palms. Unglazed ceramic cups are more befitting for this tea and certainly add to the taste, flavour and ambience of your brewing experience.

Article adapted from Teaparker.

The many facets of water

It may seem commonplace at first to fill your kettle with water and bring it to the boil before infusing your tea leaves.

Upon closer observation, the boiling vessel's material largely affects the taste of the resulting boiled water. Our taste buds are tingled by the silkiness of boiled water and once it comes into contact with the tea leaves, yet another dimension of the tea-licious brew unfolds. The same water source when boiled in different vessels, under different heating conditions, results in the law of interaction between tea and water. A sort of hidden order behind the rhythm of the tea. Weak at times, overpowering the next minute.

Starting at a common water source, one should experiment with different boiling vessels. Making use of the concept of relative objectivity in one's experiences, water should be allowed to interact freely with those different materials that make up boiling vessels. The essence of a seemingly ordinary activity such as boiling water resides in the diverse experiences inherent to the combination of water, fire and earth.

Adapted from TeaParker

Revisiting my first lesson in tea - Water

Water is the main pillar of preparing tea. When using a good water source in combination with quality tea leaves, one is almost always guaranteed a better tea tasting experience. In other words, good water should be a highly dynamic entity, overflowing with vitality. Water of this nature never disappoints in terms of the qualities of the final tea infusion: clarity of brew, fragrance, sweetness. A multidimensional experience for our senses of smell and taste.

Being in between solids and gases, the largely dynamic nature of water as a liquid extends into a blinding myriad of varying tastes and flavours which certainly add to the fun of tea appreciation keeping it uniquely charming, and by no means lesser than a class of its own in the field of taste exploration.

 A long term observation of tea aficionados is this: Consistently, the same water source and vessels for boiling water are used. A wealth of tea tasting notes and experiences are accumulated through the passing of time and more importantly by recognising the hallmarks of suitable vessels used for boiling water.

Adapted from TeaParker