Gongfu Brewing
工夫茶
Tea BrewingDefinition
A Chinese brewing approach that packs a small vessel with a high ratio of leaf to water and draws many short, successive infusions from it, rather than one long soak. The point is not strength but change: the drinker follows how aroma, body and aftertaste shift from the first steep to the eighth. It developed around the Minnan and Chaozhou regions and is now the default style in most specialty tea service.
Etymology
From the Chinese 工夫 (gōngfu), meaning skill or effort spent on a task — unrelated to the martial art 功夫, which shares a sound in Mandarin but not a character.
In use
Brewers say a tea is being made gongfu-style when the leaf load is heavy, the pours are seconds long, and the pot is refilled repeatedly.