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A Sublime Cup of Tea
by Winnie Yu
It is very easy to make a decent cup of tea, but fairly difficult to make a sublime cup. To achieve the next level in the art of tea, an idea called 'Gong Fu' is necessary. Gong Fu means to spend time rigorously towards perfection, and is accomplished somewhere between great skill attained through hard work, patience, and persistence, and great results attained through one's willingness to intuitively and spontaneously stay in the moment. Being in the moment is being completely absorbed in the task at hand, demanding all of our focus and attention. To be in the moment we have to be aligned, mind, body, and spirit. The practice of the art of tea naturally demands this alignment, requiring the use of our spiritual intuition to achieve the next level. It was said that the taste of Zen and tea are one. To me, Gong Fu applied towards our tea with our complete mindful focus is a pathway towards that state of Zen.
In order to apply this practice, we must be connected and attuned to the ever changing conditions. Just like meeting someone for the first time, you would be curious, where is that person from? You might ask what some of their experiences were in their journey here. We achieve a connection with our new friend by asking and listening. Connecting with our tea is the same. Where is the tea grown? What is the quality of the tea leaves, were they harvested by hand, that every leaf is fresh? Is it a new spring crop, too delicate to be mistreated by scalding hot water? Or is from old gnarly bushes, where only the most extreme temperatures can elicit a response? We observe what our tea needs. Is it radiantly green, demanding a smooth white porcelain cup so its vibrancy can be observed? Or has it lived for a whole year, neglected in your cupboard, and require solace of a large quantity for fear of being flat and stale? Taking a moment to do nothing but observe our leaves is very important to connect. Being respectful to its natural condition dictates what steeping action we might take. After a thousand cups of tea made mindfully, the intuitive sense that comes with connecting and understanding the tea will come as second nature.
One of the most outstanding and unique teas in the world is Phoenix Oolong Single Grove teas. It is also one of the most difficult to steep. The leaves are harvested one by one, by hand, and as the trees are tall and old, sometimes the tea pickers must climb on a ladder. The hand motion of the pickers must be light and floating, because the heat of the hands would oxidize the leaves before they fall gently into the basket. The leaves are thin, long, and pointy, like the beak of a phoenix, its namesake. Because the leaves are thin yet packed with flavor, any steeping time longer than 15 seconds will elicit far too much woody notes, masking those floral notes up front. 1 minute steeping might cause the tea to be tearfully bitter. Because the leaves are unrolled, they tend to steep even faster than typical of thin leaf teas. The fact that the leaves are from old trees require a much hotter temperature to elicit any flavor at all. One temperature degree too low, and one second too long, will compromise the taste and deviate from a perfect cup. Moreover, observing perhaps that the leaves were twisted with a lot of surface area, pouring hot water from a taller position to churn the leaves may mean more surface area quickly exposed to being steeped. As for how long to churn the leaves in your gaiwan, or with what speed, requires a measure of intuition. Connect with the tea as it twists and turns, releasing its substance and richness. If perfectly prepared, the liqueur is golden like melted butter, with a lively sparkle, flowing smoothly down your throat and filling your palate with the soothingness of honey and bursts of indescribable flowers. The Gong Fu in the steeping of this tea requires complete attention even with great skill level. I do not as much as look sideways when steeping a Phoenix Oolong, having to employ all of my skill, focus, and most of all, intuition.
How can one make the perfect cup of tea? How can one's Gong Fu improve? The answer lies not just in hard work and training in the right techniques, but also, in that final step of connection, the moment of being completely attuned to the condition of the tea and what it asks for. The leaves will tell us what needs to be done. It requires a sort of sixth sense, but perhaps that is the Zen of tea, that higher spiritual awareness required to achieve perfection. Perhaps Gong Fu and Zen may not be so far apart after all.
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