TEA BAGS are the SLOWEST!? 

Thank you so much Milton, we’re grateful for your support and very glad that you’re enjoying our channel. Cheers to good tea! 🍵🍵

We agree! Gongfu brewing adds many more layers of enjoyment to tea preparation, beyond just producing the best-tasting cup.

We agree!! In terms of flavor and experience, there's nothing better than gong fu! As for jasmine tea, we actually get awesome results brewing our jasmine teas gong fu style. Are you using whole leaf jasmine teas, or the more standard chopped up kind? The gong fu method can only do so much for a chopped-up or late-harvested tea, but for a premium crop we think it's still the best way to brew jasmine. What problems have you experienced - perhaps we can offer some suggestions?

I used Jasmine Tea Pearls, the first infusion (Gong Fu) was awful. Didnt get the right balance between the jasmine scent and the tea taste. For Gaiwan (big, 300ml) I only take 4-5 pearls. Maybe a wake-up rinse for jasmine gong fu style?

Hi @@gregcyrus3602, we do not recommend rinsing jasmine pearls ⚠️ as this will waste much of their aroma (our video next week is all about when and why to rinse tea, so keep an eye out for that). Based on our recommended brewing style at Red Blossom, you are not using enough tea leaves for the volume of your gaiwan. The core benefit of the Gongfu Method of brewing lies in the ratio of leaves to water - by using a greater amount of tea leaves to a smaller volume of water, you are able to extract concentrated flavor over the course of a very short infusion time, meaning that you get satisfactory flavor extraction before the tea leaves have time to "stew" and turn bitter, resulting in a more balanced taste. The porcelain gaiwans we use (and sell) are only 5 ounces (about 150ml - half the size of yours), but even for these we use between 20-30 pearls (4-5g) of our Dragon Pearl Jasmine teas to brew (about five times the amount of tea you currently use). For most Chinese-style teas, we recommend a ratio of 1g tea leaves : 1oz water. Because jasmine pearls are so aromatic, this ratio can optionally be reduced to around 0.75g : 1oz. So for your 10 ounce gaiwan, we would recommend using between 6 - 10g of tea leaves, or around 1 - 1.5 Tbsp. Of course, at this rate, you'll go through your tea stash pretty quickly, which is why we prefer smaller vessels like our 150ml gaiwans. These allow you to maintain the same 1:1 ratio, while using far fewer tea leaves (you still get to drink a lot of tea this way though, as long as you infuse the leaves multiple times as intended). Five pearls is about one gram of tea, so the ratio you're currently using is only 1g tea : 10oz. (300ml) water -- about half the concentration of a standard 2g tea bag brewed in a typical 10oz mug 😜. With this low ratio of leaves to water volume, it will be nearly impossible to obtain balanced flavor: you'll have to let the tea sit for a long time to get any flavor extraction, but by doing so you also allow the leaves to stew and turn bitter / tannic. This may explain your disappointment with the jasmine pearls in the past. ⏲🍵 We highly recommend the following method: try using 1 Tbsp (6-7g) of tea leaves in your 300ml gaiwan. Using water around 170-180°F (76-82°C), you can steep the leaves many times if they are a quality tea. For the first infusion, brew until the pearls have opened about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way (no more than 2 minutes). For the second infusion, brew until the pearls have opened almost completely (about 1 - 1.5 minutes). Continue by adding 15 - 30 seconds to each subsequent infusion. Premium jasmine pearls should become most flavorful on the second and third infusions. We'd love to hear your results if you try this method! ☺️🍵 If you're ever in the San Francisco area, you're always welcome to stop by our shop to see how we brew our teas, and please feel free to reach out anytime with questions.

Thank You very much for your recommendation. I am going to steep the jasmine according to your advice. For most of my teas I also use a ratio of >=5g/100ml (0.17oz./3.4fl.oz). It would be so great & interesting to visit you in San Francisco (have already visited your site on streetview:)

@@gregcyrus3602 Awesome - let us know how it turns out! We'd love to have you join us for a tasting - we offer two different tasting flights in our shop (you can read more about them here: redblossomtea.com/collections/tasting-flights ). If you have plans to visit in the next few weeks, we recommend booking in advance since the holidays are a popular time for tea tastings. Looking forward to hearing the results of your experiment 😁

Thank you! Yes, you certainly can, however to do so, you would need to increase the amount of tea leaves in the larger size mug to maintain the same brewing ratio as the gaiwan.

Yay!! Infuser cups are still a perfectly acceptable way to brew loose leaf tea, but gaiwans (or competion sets or traditional teapots) are definitely the way to go for the best experience.

We're glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching! :)

Your music is fantastic!! So ethereal & expansive. 🤩😌

@@redblossomtea Thank you so much!!!

@@redblossomtea As we speak, I am enjoying your Formosa collection with the Gaiwan brew :) Your teas are getting me through quarantine :)

That sounds like a wonderful tea ritual! Thanks for watching ☺️🍵

Hi @VaMonarch, great question! In the past, we would simply reboil the water if it cooled off too much. However, we recently started selling the Stagg EKG kettle, which is able to keep water at your target temperature for up to an hour (anywhere from 104 - 212°F). We highly recommend! Check out our video about it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ij6Sh_2c6hM.html

Brew time for any tea is dependent on your leaf:water ratio and your water temperature. For example, if you decrease your water temperature or use less tea leaf, you’ll need to increase the brew time or the tea will taste too weak. Likewise, if you use more tea leaf in the same pot or increase your water temperature, you’ll need to decrease the brew time or the tea will taste too strong. Every tea has a different ideal balance of these three factors, so we recommend experimenting to find what works best for you. You can learn more about how to control your infusions on this page: redblossomtea.com/pages/brewing-guide

@A. D. Thanks! We’re glad you enjoyed ☺️🍵

Hi Kalon, thanks for the feedback! We can appreciate how this video might be off-putting to someone already experienced with traditional tea preparation like yourself. We do admit that this video is fairly reductive to the gongfu process, but that is also our intention with it. The way gongfu cha is commonly presented (with frequent attachment of the term “tea ceremony” and the addition of ceremonial motions & formalities, or as a spiritual practice) creates an impression that this method “takes years to master” or is, at least, a much more time-consuming way to drink tea; it also results in accidental conflation of gongfu cha with the Japanese tea ceremony, furthering confusion and misconceptions. For many newcomers just making the switch from mass-market teas, this can be both mystifying and intimidating, creating a sense of some barrier to entry in enjoying artisanal tea. This video is for them. Gongfu cha’s ancillary functions as a ceremony or spiritual practice can significantly increase the time required to brew this way; at its core, however, gongfu cha is an efficient, methodical, and flavor-oriented preparation technique. We certainly appreciate that the ceremonial and spiritual aspects hold great value for many tea drinkers, but the degree to which gongfu cha is “ceremonialized” is entirely dependent on personal preference and is neither required nor affects the ability of this method to produce an exceptional cup of tea. With this in mind, we present gongfu cha here only in its most essential form as a preparation technique, to demystify it for newcomers, dispel misconceptions that it is time-consuming or difficult, and highlight its advantages compared to other common preparation methods. While both the gongfu and “intermediate” methods presented in the video can produce multiple infusions, the teabag can only produce one, therefore we compare first infusions only. The gongfu method was ready in just over 30 seconds, the intermediate in 2.5 minutes, and the tea bag in 5 minutes. Of course, the gongfu method produced a smaller volume of tea than the other two, but one could solve this difference by using larger volume teaware, without impacting the faster brewing time of the gongfu method (this approach would require more tea leaves). Our gongfu infusion only took 30 seconds, so if we were alternatively to compare multiple gongfu infusions to the single tea bag infusion, we would still be able to produce (conservatively) 4 gongfu infusions - 2 times the volume of brewed tea as the Western mug - in the same amount of time it took to brew the tea bag. In this video, we use our competition brewing set for the gongfu method (3 pieces of ceramic), our glass infuser cup for the intermediate method (3 pieces of glass), and a glass mug for the Western method (1 piece of glass). The difference in wash times between these sets is marginal; one would still be able to produce the first gongfu-style infusion and clean up within the 5-minute recommended infusion time of the teabag. We appreciate your feedback and hopefully this helps to clarify our intentions for this video. Ultimately, comparing these methods is like comparing apples and oranges, and gongfu cha can be as efficient or ceremonial as desired.

@@redblossomtea What a fantastic and thorough reply! I'm just getting into this style of brewing myself, and while I'm still trying to convince myself (or at least fully understand) how the gongfu method can actually produce a better tea, I do appreciate the somewhat ritual aspect of it (even if in a very limited way). But I know that if I just want a quick brew, I can also do that, too. The only drawback is the idea that I'd be wasting leaves if I don't intend to reuse them within a few hours. I've tried drying them overnight for use the following day, as suggested by another channel, but I find the flavour is negatively affected, and not in a small way.

The gong fu style not being done is a pro not a con lol

We agree - the ability to get multiple infusions is just one more reason premium leaves and the gongfu method are so much more enjoyable.

@Daniel Lo Presti thank you! That’s exactly it: gongfu cha is flexible, and the basic steps can be adapted to be as quick or ritualistic as desired. As for brewing your leaves multiple times, we strongly encourage you to finish your tea within the same day. We don’t recommend trying to save/dry the leaves for later use. Not only does this damage flavor, but it also presents the risk of molding. Instead, if you’ve only brewed one infusion, you may try adding the leaves to a glass of cold water to make a cold brew. This can infuse overnight without issue.

We agree on all counts! Hopefully we can reopen for tastings again someday. Until then we’re committed to keeping our community COVID-safe by remaining closed to the public (doorside ordering & pickup still available).

@@redblossomtea Hope Covid ends soon and we can be together with our loved ones one day😅😄🌸 and stores who needed to shut down can reopen😄 (Thank you for the heart and the reply😊)

We like whole leaf tea too 😉