Side Handle Pots

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plamarca000
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Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm

Hi,

I recently got a 500ml global tea hut life meets tea side handle pot and I have to say I am in love with this thing. Makes the water tastier and I like brewing with it. I am still figuring out how to use it but really have been enjoying the results. I like when brewing with it their is a looseness to the approach. Where is gungfu cha is all about sensitivity and a disciplined approach this is more relaxed and just the enjoyment of tea. Anyone else have side handle pots and any advice?
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Bok
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Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:37 pm

plamarca000 wrote:
Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm
Where is gungfu cha is all about sensitivity and a disciplined approach this is more relaxed and just the enjoyment of tea. Anyone else have side handle pots and any advice?
I think gong fu is as relaxed as any other brewing method. All the ritual are just put on top and exaggerated by some (often Westerners following some obscure rules). If you see people gong fu in Taiwan,it is usually a very casual and non-fuzzy affair. It is the way people brew their tea everyday nothing else. The overly mannered and stiff approach some (self-)so called Charen practise, is just that, artificial and in my eyes detrimental to the enjoyment of the tea itself.

A side handle pot is just another kind of pot, has no influence on the brewing itself, I can gong fu or do it Western style, up to personal preference.

What does matter on the other hand is the volume of the pot, which will have a big impact on how you need to brew, due to the higher heat retention and the risk of over-brewing the tea.
Teachronicles
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 am

Bok wrote:
Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:37 pm
plamarca000 wrote:
Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm
Where is gungfu cha is all about sensitivity and a disciplined approach this is more relaxed and just the enjoyment of tea. Anyone else have side handle pots and any advice?
I think gong fu is as relaxed as any other brewing method. All the ritual are just put on top and exaggerated by some (often Westerners following some obscure rules). If you see people gong fu in Taiwan,it is usually a very casual and non-fuzzy affair. It is the way people brew their tea everyday nothing else. The overly mannered and stiff approach some (self-)so called Charen practise, is just that, artificial and in my eyes detrimental to the enjoyment of the tea itself.

A side handle pot is just another kind of pot, has no influence on the brewing itself, I can gong fu or do it Western style, up to personal preference.

What does matter on the other hand is the volume of the pot, which will have a big impact on how you need to brew, due to the higher heat retention and the risk of over-brewing the tea.
You know, I'm very meticulous about timing my infusions and getting it just right. And after reading your comment realize maybe I'm adding extra stress to my tea drinking experience. I've been told and heard no one in the east times their infusions, they just do it by feel, and think I might give that approach a try.
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Bok
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:32 am

Teachronicles wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:14 am
I've been told and heard no one in the east times their infusions, they just do it by feel, and think I might give that approach a try.
Most people indeed do it by gut feeling, or simply do not care. Drinking tea should not be complicated, a general idea of the tea is enough. Like short-ish or long-ish steeps, roughly really hot water or better slightly cooled down. Which kind of pot probably works best. The rest is experience by trial and error.

Most importantly – have fun and enjoy the tea!
swordofmytriumph
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:02 am

I've got to the point where I know around how long a tea needs for a steep at any given time. Like anything, the instinct to just know what it needs comes with practice. I don't have a set formula, by this point I know what I like and instinctively know how long to steep it to get the results that I want. The point is to have tasty tea, as long as my tea is tasty I don't care. :)
plamarca000
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:31 am

I get what you are saying Bok. It shouldn’t be so serious. I just feel I find myself much more into the ritual and focus when I practice gungfu tea then when I prepare bowl tea. With gungfu I am concentrating on how many grams per my vessel, the water temp, infusion time, how to taste it in the small cup. And I love this. I feel the nuance and subtlety of the tea and I like the concentration of it. I kind of tune out the world and just get caught into the moment of the preparation. Especially when you hit that magic synergy of water, vessel, tea. But sometimes I feel that if I am practicing gungfu for too long I catch myself being somewhat pretentious in a way. Meaning that I can’t really enjoy my tea or others tea unless it was prepared to this high standard.

there is a following of bowl tea and side handle pots, especially within the global tea hut communtiy where it is more of just get your water off the boil, put enough tea to fill the bottom of the bowl/pot and do a quick infusion. Pour amongst others and just enjoy the tea for what it is, instead of trying to maximize the returns with the discipline and focus of gungfu. All about intuition and feel instead of calculated methods.

I am really not into the spiritual/namaste aspect of bowl tea. I just like to be able to switch my attitude and balance out the way I enjoy my tea. There are days where I really enjoy the focus and there are days where I enjoy the looseness. My mood dictates which set of tools I will use.

It is just a pot at the end of the day. But there is simplicity of this pot and the way I approach it which balances my perspective. I probably should have prefaced this more in my first post. Anyways that’s what I feel about bowl tea and side handled tea.
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wave_code
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:41 am

I suppose either has the potential to be highly focused/ritualized, but I find your comparison interesting because I always have the impression the Global Tea Hut and related scene as being much more focused on this than gong fu. To me it follows or uses a lot of rhetoric that I find personally super problematic that comes up in a lot of related areas- yoga, "mindfulness", meditation, western Zen/Buddhism, new age spirituality. A lot of their proposed practices seem to have more in common with the Japanese tea ceremony around things like particular movements/gestures, although also with more focus on making good tea than formalizing everything as strictly as a Japanese traditional ceremony. If people want to or use tea as a meditative practice, great, I can see how it lends itself to that nicely and even I use it in some ways to make myself pay attention to what I am doing. Not to go too into it because I don't think their intention is bad - they promote unique styles of brewing and tea and do a lot to help spread tea knowledge that isn't available in English, just as soon as certain spiritual buzzwords come into use I start to run the other direction.

I usually make tea by myself but when I do go to my Taiwanese friend's tea evenings its always a very relaxed affair with everyone sitting around chatting, snacking, some folks sitting out a few rounds or maybe a particular tea if it isn't much to their liking. The Tea Hut scene to me seems more like sitting in a meditation session where as gong fu sessions I have been to are closer to sitting around having beers or maybe doing a wine tasting if things get serious. Paying attention to my brewing doesn't mean timing everything to the second with a stopwatch or aligning my chakras - it can be as simple as one round is over or under brewed so I know what to do to compensate on the next brew rather than just assuming the tea is bad.

Those side handle pots do look like very nice affordable options for boiling pots or as an alternative to a tetsubin.
swordofmytriumph
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:18 am

wave_code wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:41 am
...just as soon as certain spiritual buzzwords come into use I start to run the other direction.

The Tea Hut scene to me seems more like sitting in a meditation session where as gong fu sessions I have been to are closer to sitting around having beers or maybe doing a wine tasting if things get serious. Paying attention to my brewing doesn't mean timing everything to the second with a stopwatch or aligning my chakras - it can be as simple as one round is over or under brewed so I know what to do to compensate on the next brew rather than just assuming the tea is bad.
+1

I typically just count under my breath for the steep time, mainly only to get the flavor I want, as you said. And never following a strict formula for time, just drinking my tea and thinking, "you know, it could use a little bit longer next time, possibly some hotter water too." Honestly I find the whole spiritual "chakra" aspect a bit ... I dunno...silly? Pretentious? Either way, it's way too much effort/ceremony. It would take all the joy out of my sessions. I just want to have some really good tea, dangit! :lol:
.m.
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:50 pm

With this pot I think you should to choose whether you want to use it as a teapot or as a small kettle for heating water. If used as a teapot, one of the interest of it would be to boil tea or to do long steeps above some heat source. Not every tea should be boiled, and some can get pretty bad if boiled. But for example, some aged teas can turn out to be quite rewarding when boiled. I've found that some teas that seems rather underwhelming or short lived in gongfu style brewing may shine when boiled, when the whole thing is compressed into one brew, revealing a different face.
.m.
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:58 pm

A couple days ago, i had a korean ddok-cha (coin tea). While it was good when steeped, sort of spicy green tea, bit of reminiscent of fresh liu an,
when boiled the brew turned slowly dark almost red color revealing an intense fruit compot aroma.
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Bok
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:27 pm

plamarca000 wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:31 am
it is more of just get your water off the boil, put enough tea to fill the bottom of the bowl/pot and do a quick infusion.
Being anal here, isn't that the basic principle of gong fu tea in its most basic expression? Just using bigger bowls, otherwise the same, innit?
Side handle pots tend to be a bit more rude in the Chinese sense of tea brewing, as it is considered impolite to show the bottom of the teapot to the guests. :mrgreen:
Not that I agree or care about where my pot is pointing at...
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steanze
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Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:52 pm

I personally enjoy side handle pots as much as back-handle pots. Side handle pots come in all sizes, from very small (even ~80ml) to very large. They can be used for several different brewing styles, so the style you choose is not really dependent on where the handle is...

I only weight the amount of tea if I am evaluating a tea for bulk purchase. If I am doing a session for my own enjoyment or to host friends I eyeball the amount and I don't use a timer, even if I am using a tiny pot packed with leaves. Amounts and times are too dependent on the type of tea and on the results I want to get on that particular day to be useful.

Sometimes I am more relaxed when I gongfu, because I only do it if I have enough time, if I'm busy I brew more casually.

I like teapot bottoms :) collectors spend a lot of time inspecting them carefully to understand the period and craftsmanship of a pot. If I see one during a tea session I won't be shocked ;)
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Baisao
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Thu Jan 24, 2019 12:32 am

plamarca000 wrote:
Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:42 pm
Hi,

I recently got a 500ml global tea hut life meets tea side handle pot and I have to say I am in love with this thing. Makes the water tastier and I like brewing with it. I am still figuring out how to use it but really have been enjoying the results. I like when brewing with it their is a looseness to the approach. Where is gungfu cha is all about sensitivity and a disciplined approach this is more relaxed and just the enjoyment of tea. Anyone else have side handle pots and any advice?
I’m almost positive this is a bofura which is intended for heating water. You can make tea with it though I think it is rather on the large size. A Brown Betty would prepare tea was well or better. My only reason to mention this is because many people look for water kettles made from safe clays, and this appears to be a fine example of that.

Cheers!
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