Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot)

How it works

A pot of 80 to 200 ml is filled a fifth to a third with leaf and each infusion poured off completely after seconds rather than minutes. The clay differs from porcelain in two ways that matter: it holds heat markedly better, which suits roasted oolong and dark tea that need sustained temperature to open, and it is porous, so it absorbs a trace of every session and gradually contributes it back. That second property is why a pot is kept for one tea and washed with water alone.

Why choose it

Heat retention is the practical argument and seasoning is the traditional one. For a heavily roasted yancha or an aged shou pu-erh, a clay pot demonstrably holds temperature through a long session in a way a thin porcelain gaiwan does not.

Equipment

• Yixing teapot — Unglazed zisha stoneware clay
• Fairness pitcher (cha hai) — Glass, porcelain or clay
• Tea tray (cha pan) — Bamboo, wood, stone or ceramic

Tea types it suits

Recorded on the method rather than inferred from the catalogue. A type missing here is not ruled out; it simply has not been written down.

• Oolong
• Dark tea and pu-erh
• Black tea

Common problems

• Using one pot for several teas, which defeats the entire point of a porous vessel
• Washing with detergent, which the clay absorbs and then returns to every subsequent session
• Buying a pot before knowing which tea will be drunk in it
• Storing it closed and damp, which grows mould inside the clay

Diagnosed problems

Written from the symptom, with the likely causes in order and a question to rule each one out.

• Every infusion in my gongfu session tastes the same — The cups are pleasant and interchangeable, with none of the change from steep to steep the method is supposed to show.
• My clay pot has changed how the tea tastes — A tea that tasted right in porcelain comes out muted, differently scented, or carrying something that was not in the leaf.
• My first infusion is always the worst one — The opening cup is thin, dusty or flat, and the second is markedly better — consistently, across different teas.
• My gongfu brewing falls apart when I have guests — Sessions that work perfectly alone become chaotic with three or four people: the tea is inconsistent, the pours are rushed, and the cups arrive at different strengths and temperatures.
• My gongfu tea is bitter even at five seconds — The timer says five or ten seconds and the cup is over-extracted anyway, with the later infusions dropping off sharply.
• My roasted oolong tastes only of burnt toast — Char and ash dominate, and none of the fruit, mineral or floral character the tea was described as having comes through.
• My tea goes cold before I finish it — The cup is lukewarm within a few minutes, and in a gongfu session the later infusions arrive noticeably cooler than the early ones.
• My young sheng pu-erh is unbearably harsh — A recent raw pu-erh is aggressively bitter and drying from the first infusion, with a rasping quality that stays in the throat.
• Tea runs down the outside when I pour — Liquor escapes past the lid or dribbles down the outside of the gaiwan or pot instead of going into the pitcher.
• There are black spots inside my teapot or infuser — Dark speckling inside a spout, under a lid seal, in the mesh of an infuser or around the gasket of a travel bottle.
• There are brown stains inside my teapot and cups — A brown or grey-brown film builds up on the inside of the pot and in the bottom of cups, and rinsing does not shift it.

Teas with parameters authored for this method

39 teas have a parameter set written for gongfu brewing (yixing pot), in alphabetical order. Each row is transcribed from that tea’s own record.

Other gongfu methods

Same family, so the approach is close — the vessel, the ratio and the intent still differ.

• Chaozhou gongfu brewing (three cups) — The eastern Guangdong household form of gongfu: a red-clay pot well under 100 ml packed with strip leaf, water off a hard boil, seconds-long infusions, and the liquor distributed by a continuous rotation into three cups rather than poured one cup at a time.
• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) — A high-leaf, low-volume, many-infusions approach: a great deal of leaf in a small vessel, steeped for seconds at a time and poured off completely, repeatedly.

Sources