The most ceremonial Chinese tea drinking - Gong Fu cha. Part III
The second Chinese trick implies tea pairs and the manner of tea-drinking from them.Tea pairs consist not only of usual cup and saucer, but of the small oblong cups, large enough to hold about two small swallows of tea, and tea bowl ( with the volume about 20- 30 ml). This oblong cup and tea bowl are standing on the special saucer and represent a quite artistic composition. Moreover it is believed that in this composition the oblong cup symbolizes the machismo - Yang, and the tea bowl denotes woman - Yin.
So the tea is first poured into the oblong tea-cups of all participants of the tea ceremony and then these cups are covered with the tea bowls, thus composition represents amusing agarics, which can be interpreted as Yang and Yin joining. This agaric should be turned upside-down so that the tea bowl was in the bottom. Experienced people make it with one hand but you can do it with two hands in order not to burn yourself.
After the construction is turned over, carefully raise the cup (the tea pours into the tea bowl) and smell it. The point is that the form of the cup allows to keep the concentrated odour of the drink - and it is easier to taste and to feel it. The cup will be keeping the flavour until it gets cold.
Thus from the oblong cup you scent the tea and from the tea bowl you drink the tea. Such separate perception of the tea allows to appreciate the combination of the flavour and taste at their true value.
After the tea-pot is emptied, it should be filled in again with boiling water (usually water with the constant temperature is kept in a thermos), again poured over with the hot water and again shaken a bit and the tea from it is poured out into the pitcher. This procedure can be repeated as many times as you wish until you stop feeling its taste and smell. From brewing to brewing it takes longer and longer to infuse the tea properly.
Different sorts of Oolong tea are good for different number of brewings. The first two pourings are to discover the flavour of the tea, starting from the third pouring the taste of the tea begins dominating and the flavor wanes. Usually Gong Fu cha takes about 6- 7 circles, not more, as there is no sense to drink the tea, offering only the trace of its real taste and flavour.
When the tea is drunk out and smelled out you can extract soft tea leaves from the tea-pot, they should fully occupy the inner space in the tea-pot. These leaves are pleasant to look at, they are wet, glitter and smell very attractively.
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