Chaozhou style brewing: wet or dry?

[Bok]

Bok, thank you for the clarifications! Helps me tremendously to understand better.

That tea seller in CZ, pouring with a gaiwan without spilling...that’s quite a feat, isn’t it?

I hope one day we can meet. Very much love to learn dry brewing method in detail

You’re welcome! Also to sit down for tea if you ever make it to my neck of the woods.

The most amazing part about that Chaozhou guy was that he used the smallest gaiwan I had ever seen. All his teaware was tiny, cups, pots etc. Nice tea as well!

[tjkdubya]

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@Bok I was admiring this recently in Beijing. Was told that it's a Chaoshan-style gaibei.

[Bok]

@tjkdubya nice one! Looks Republican or later. The one the guy was using, was even smaller that it seems to me!

[tjkdubya]

@Bok If I saw a smaller one I'd probably die. Then promptly come back to life and buy it. This one I was eyeballing at about 50ml max.

For the ultra-small size brewing Chaozhou style, generally speaking, is the heft/thickness of the brewing vessel tending towards heavier side? Or lighter? Or is it of no significant consequence to the techniques/aims of the CZGF?

[Bok]

I would say it has no significance if the brewer is skilled enough.

Traditional CZ pots are thin-medium walled, as far as I have seen. That gaiwan was very thin.

[Chadrinkincat]

@tjkdubya
Nice gaiwan! I like these taller ones. It’s a shame you didn’t buy this one cuz I’d totally talk you into selling it to me. 50ml and thin is a good combo for sampling or brewing $$$$ yancha.

[tjkdubya]

Contemporary Chaoshan practice, from an anthropological perspective... This is the kind of consideration that I find valuable and fascinating when it comes to tea. Tea as an everyday practice within a larger sociocultural fabric. There is definitely a place for tea-as-an-artform. But the lofty heights of artistry are not possible, imho, without the bedrock that is the Practice of Everyday Life.

"Tea Art as Everyday Practice: Gongfu Tea in Chaoshan, Guangdong, Today"

Peter d’Abbs

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2019.1611908

Despite the importance of attention to detail or jiangjiu in gongfu tea as an everyday practice, those who engage in it every day, as already mentioned, do not regard it as a form of tea art. My observations and interviews suggest that its primary roles are social: expressing and nurturing relationships with family, friends and associates, and creating a congenial setting in which to do so.

dAbbs2019Teaartaseverydaypractice.pdf

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[tjkdubya]

tjkdubya
Nice gaiwan! I like these taller ones. It’s a shame you didn’t buy this one cuz I’d totally talk you into selling it to me. 50ml and thin is a good combo for sampling or brewing $$$$ yancha.

Well, if there's a willing buyer...

I skipped this time because the dealer hadn't fully assessed and priced it yet, and I'm actually looking for a matching set of a few which would be great for comparative tasting events.

[Bok]

@tjkdubya nice article thanks! I tend to see it that way as well, it is pretty similar in Taiwan. Most people use tea for socialising and because they like to drink it. Except for the few elitist, arty “茶人” to whom I am acutely allergic... to self important for me, never got why one needs to make a funny face while preparing tea.

[tjkdubya]

Lots of thought-provoking points made in the "Discussion" section of the last couple pages.

The question of whether or not a set of practices should be categorised as ‘art’ presupposes a dichotomy between ‘art’ and ‘everyday life’, between the artistic and the quotidian. Chaoshan gongfu tea, it can be argued, surmounts this dichotomy. Zeng and Ye assert that gongfu tea

lends itself to being a tea art for the most refined room, among the most exclusive literati, and as a custom of ordinary people. In the refined there is the popular, in the popular, refinement. It appeals to both refined and popular tastes. Its combination of refinement and popularity gives to gongfu tea its distinctive charm and vitality.
(Zeng and Ye 2011, 83)7

The claim is perhaps a bold one, but my observations incline me to think it is warranted.

Seen in this light, those people in Chaohan who consciously cultivate a more refined sensibility with respect to one or more of the dimensions of gongfu tea art as itemised above are, in effect, weighting the scales towards ya (elegance, refinement) at the expense of su (common, popular), but their practices, I suggest, can still best be understood within the framework of a distinct regional synthesis of ya and su. That is to say, their practices are still embedded in the local popular gongfu tea culture.

Which is to stay, it's perhaps not a question of everyday life vs. art, but whether certain practices such as Chaoshan gongfu are able to transcend the distinction between the quotidian and the exalted.

[tjkdubya]

Here is the 2017 thesis by d'Abbs which goes into more detail, including descriptions of tea practices of those who adopted Chaoshan gongfu despite not being born into it.

https://rune.une.edu.au/web/bitstream/1 ... URCE03.pdf

[Bok]

@tjkdubya thanks again, I’ve been reading it once more actually, very nice.

[tjkdubya]

@Bok sending these to all my arty 茶人 friends . Wish there were translations of these back into Chinese...

I like that the 2017 work references some of the literary descriptions, like quoting the 21 steps summarized in Chen Xiangbai & Chen Shulin 潮州工夫茶 Chaozhou Gongfu Cha 2005, in addition to presenting the field research.

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[phyllsheng]

LOL @tjkdubya ("Then promptly come back to life and buy it.") Good one!

re: heft and thickness of brewing vessel, the answer is always "depends" on the tea you want to brew with it. High-fired yancha's and rolled oolongs...thicker. Dancong and qingxiang style oolongs, I'd say light(er) and thin(ner). Having said that, thin or thick, light or heavy,...whatever tea is in it you can always adapt by making necessary adjustments. Understanding the tea you are brewing is first and foremost is what I'm trying to say, and everything else is adaptable.

A friend once gifted me a nice dancong that cost some pretty pennies -- something around $25-30/g. His brewing suggestion for me is unforgettable: "It's good tea, don't f**k it up." That's it.

Bok If I saw a smaller one I'd probably die. Then promptly come back to life and buy it. This one I was eyeballing at about 50ml max.

For the ultra-small size brewing Chaozhou style, generally speaking, is the heft/thickness of the brewing vessel tending towards heavier side? Or lighter? Or is it of no significant consequence to the techniques/aims of the CZGF?

[Bok]

"It's good tea, don't f**k it up." That's it.

Best advice ever.