Boiling aged tea vs brewing it gongfu
The two things to do with a compressed dark tea, and they suit different points in its life. Gongfu shows the change from infusion to infusion; boiling extracts everything at once and produces a single thick, sweet, uniform liquor.
brewing method
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha) | Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Leaf goes into a kettle of water and is brought to a simmer. | Leaf in a small vessel, steeped for seconds and poured off completely. |
| What it shows | A single integrated character, thick and sweet. | The change across a session, which is the reason to bother. |
| Leaf it suits best | Aged, well-broken or already spent leaf, and coarse dark tea. | Good leaf with something to reveal across ten infusions. |
| Effort | Very little once the water is on. | Continuous. |
| When it is used traditionally | In winter, and as a normal way to finish leaf that has given its best steeps. | As the main event. |
| What it forgives | Almost everything, including leaf that is coarse or fragmentary. | Very little; a slow pour shows up immediately. |
The short answer
The two are sequential rather than alternative in normal practice: a session is brewed gongfu until it thins, and the leaf then goes into a kettle. Treating boiling as the poor relation misses that it is the traditional second act, and it is where a good deal of what is left in the leaf actually goes.
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