Brew the same leaves two ways and you get two different drinks. One big pot, a few grams of leaf and a three-minute wait gives you a mellow mug. A tiny pot, a heap of leaf and a ten-second steep gives you a small, bright cup, then another, then another. Both are tea. The difference is mostly one number: how much leaf you give each millilitre of water.
"Gongfu" (also written "gong fu") is a Chinese way of brewing that puts a lot of leaf in a small vessel, such as a gaiwan (a lidded bowl) or a small teapot, and pours it off after seconds, not minutes. "Western" brewing is the familiar one: less leaf, more water, one long steep. Sources differ on exact numbers, but they agree on the pattern.
| Western | Gongfu | |
|---|---|---|
| Leaf per 100 ml | about 1 g | about 3–8 g |
| Vessel | mug or big pot | gaiwan or small pot, roughly 100–200 ml |
| Steep | 2–5 minutes | about 5–60 seconds |
| Infusions from the same leaf | 1–2 | a few to many, depending on the tea |
Put in per-100-ml terms, gongfu uses several times more leaf than a mug does, and one source puts it at around six times. That is why the steep has to be so short: more leaf in the water means the water fills up with flavour much faster.
Pick a tea, a style and a vessel size. The planner gives you a starting dose, a water temperature and a steep time for each infusion. The bars show how the time grows. Treat it as a first guess and adjust by taste.
When tea meets hot water, the easiest-to-dissolve parts come out first. Those tend to be the sweeter, fruitier, more fragrant ones. The heavier, drying, bitter parts keep coming out the longer the leaf sits there. A short steep catches the first group and leaves the second behind. Pour off, wait, and you can do it again, because the leaf still has plenty left.
A western steep does the opposite. The leaf sits in the water for minutes, so you collect everything at once, which is why a long steep of delicate tea can taste flat or bitter. It is also why the western method needs so little leaf: there is a lot of time to do the work.
Gongfu swaps time for leaf. You use more leaf so that each steep can be short.
As the leaf opens and gives up its flavour, each infusion needs a little longer to taste as strong as the one before. A common habit is to add about 5 to 20 seconds each time. Many people also find the character shifts: the first cup is the brightest, the middle cups are the fullest, and the last ones are soft and sweet. Rolled oolongs and aged teas such as pu-erh can go on for many rounds; a delicate green may give you three or four.
Take a rolled oolong, put about 5 g in a 100 ml bowl or small pot, pour on hot water and drink the first cup after about 15 seconds. Then add 5 seconds each round. Taste each cup before the next. You will learn more about the tea in five small cups than in one big mug.