Amount of PuErh: With gongfu brewing you steep smaller but more portions, this is why Gaiwans and Yixing teapots are the most suitable tools. We recommend 5-8 grams (heaping tsp) of tea steeped 120 ml of water.
Rinsing: In a gongfu session, your tea vessel should be pre-heated, and the leaves should be ‘awakened’ through a quick ‘rinse. To do this you add the tea leaves with 120 ml of water in your steeping vessel (mug or gongfu tea pot). Then you wait for 5-30 seconds and discard the first infusion. The rinsing time can be short for loose leaf PuErh. Note that the tea leaves don’t have to be completely unfurled. Generally, a 30 second rinse is adequate.
Steeping: After rinsing, you can infuse the tea leaves again with 120 ml of water and cover your gaiwan or teapot with a lid. When you’re using a Yixing teapot, you can optionally pour hot water over it, to further lock in the heat inside of the teapot. Wait for 10 seconds and pour out. The steeping time for gongfu sessions is much shorter because we’re using a large amount of leaves relative to the amount of water (120 ml).
Generally, we recommend applying a 10 second steep for the first 3 infusions, followed by adding 5 more seconds for every subsequent infusion. However, feel free to adjust this depending on how you like the intensity of the previous steep. You can reuse the PuErh tea leaves until the flavour has become too light. We recommend doing a final 2-minute brew to draw out all the flavour. Enjoy your tea!
Storage: Sealed light proof jar/tin in a cool cupboard. Keep away from heat and light sources.
Best Before: 6-9 months depending on storage. Optimum freshness in the first 6 months after opening
