>I'm sure this question has been answered many times but I'm to lazy to
>google it. Whats "gungfu"?
>

*clears his throat* Step in boys and girls if I miss anything. heh.

Gongfu cha is a tea preparation method involving the small pots (made
from a special clay material called yi xing) that you've undoubtedly
seen in most tea specialty shops. The material is very porous and is
said to soak up some of the flavor of the tea to improve the taste of
the tea the more you use it for that certain type of tea.

The other method of doing 'gongfu' cha (translates to what we would
colloquially know as 'kung-fu tea') is by using a gaiwan, which is a
small cup with a lid.

The reasons for using such utensils as the small pots and the small
cups is to try to have control factors such as the water temperature,
the tea amount, and the length of time each brewing steeps.

Before going into too much detail, check out my friend Kam's excellent
website that tells much about tea and the gongfu brewing method:

http://chineseteas101.com/

I hope I was able to answer some of your befuddlement. heh.

By the way, our understanding of the words Kung-Fu may provide a
misnomer in the understanding of why it's called gongfu cha. In
Chinese, gongfu (kung fu is the Cantonese, Gongfu is the mandarian) is
often attached to anything that someone shows high skill, profiency,
and control over. You don't actually throw any cups around or
anything that would resemble gongfu, although some shops in China
feature some interesting variants on how they serve the tea.


Mydnight

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thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.