Well, first you get out the gaiwan, pitcher, and cups. You put the tea in the gaiwan, pour hot water in, steep about 20 seconds, then dump the "tea" into a waste bowl, the sink, wherever. Then you pour in more water to make your first actual brew.
He goes, "Wait, wait, wait. You DUMP your first brew?"
"No, you dump the rinse. Anywho, then you brew 20 more seconds and pour into the pitcher, using the lid to hold back any leaves so they don't get into the pitcher. Then you pour from the pitcher into the cup or cups."
He makes several exclamations about how involved it sounded and why don't you just use tea bags or some other method, etc. I go, "Of course it's involved. That's the point. It's a way to not only get really, really good tea, but also a way to focus your mind on something. It's almost a form of meditation… it's relaxing, calming, soothing. It requires the commitment of time and a little bit of work to truly appreciate. Not only that but I don't even have the smelling cups… there are sets that include those, as well… you pour the tea in one of those, then cover with the sipping cup and flip over. When ready to consume, you gently lift the smelling cup and put it to your nose. The steam from the hot tea stays in there because it covered the tea while it was upside down over it. Then you drink the tea from the sipping cup. It apparently completes the experience. I have yet to do that, though… I generally sniff the tea as I'm about to drink it right from the cup, and often as I'm pouring it from vessel to vessel."
Like with many things I tell this particular person, he got this look of "Wow" on his face and shook his head in that mild disbelief he's so good at.
So, this morning, while tripping over the kitten Gizmo, I performed the following steps as I often do:
- Boil water.
- Pour water into carafe for long-lasting heat.
- Arrange teaware on tray.
- Dump yesterday's waste water/tea leaves from the waste bowl.
- Rinse everything carefully with hot water from carafe.
- Place tea leaves into gaiwan.
- Pour hot water over leaves.
- Wait 20 seconds or so.
- Dump rinse into waste bowl.
- Pour more hot water into gaiwan.
- Wait 20 seconds.
- Dump first brew into pitcher.
- Pour more hot water into gaiwan.
- Pour tea from pitcher to tiny cup.
- Drink tea from cup and repeat pitcher-to-cup-to-drink process repeatedly.
- Dump tea from gaiwan into pitcher. (Second brew. Sometimes this mixes with First Brew if I haven't finished the tea before the Second Brew finishes steeping. With some teas, I simply leave them steeping a while but with most I can't do that because they will either not taste right or they'll be very bitter.)
The last few steps continue until I'm done, the tea is no longer brewing strong enough, or the water runs out, whichever comes first. Then everything, in theory, gets washed and put away. I say in theory because usually, like this morning, I rinse everything from yesterday for today's morning brews.
Another aspect of this is that if I do this before work, I sometimes bring the entire tray out to the front porch and sit there drinking it while I wait for Dale's car to pull out and go to work. Then I finish up and come back in. But mostly I just stare out the window at the pretty scenery out there.
In the meantime, the kitten Gizmo climbs all over me, tries to get on my desk, chases his aluminum foil ball all over the bathroom, pulls my DVDs or CDs (or both) out of the rack, stares at the wheeking guinea pig, and attacks our other two cats. But I'm mellow as a golden pancake.
Serenity. :)
~w
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