I believe its often called a 'hat' shape, popularized in the song dynasty. In Japan this style is called 'sugi-nari' , 'ido-gata' or 'tenmoku-gata', but more traditionally reserved for drinking sake, rather than tea.

about 50ml

Chouzhou is where gong fu tea developed from (or at least one of three Zhous), and is usually presented as a having one of the traditions of gong fu tea. In a broader picture, gong fu tea is an approach to tea where you use skill and discipline in every detail to perfect the tea you make. Today some think that gong fu is just brewing tea with a small pot or gaiwan. This is not really correct though.

It's glorious, but also very hard not to sneeze

We used to sell some like these... don't have them in stock anymore, but we have similar ones.

you're too kind 🙏 But I suppose we've had lots of practice messing up shots, which teaches you what not to do 😂

Overdue, I know 😂

Can't go wrong with Hulk! It's out go to green tea a lot of days too, especially when we need to throw some tea in a thermos and get out the door fast

statistics show a 50% increase in quality of whatever you make while wearing them

Thank you, happy to be back! I know, we fell out of step for a while, but then I realized we had all this unused footage from our trip to Mengding, so it felt like a waste 😂These are fun to make, so we'll try to be more regular.

those are some of our Tea Meowster tea pets 😸 www.bitterleafteas.com/?s=tea+meowster&post_type=product

@@BitterleafTeas thank you!

I have some loose raw puer I got years ago it was sold to me in little paper bags I finally just opened one last night and it was amazing I wrapped the bag up and put it in one of my sealed tins but I'm doing research on puer because it seems I shouldn't have it sealed in the tin? I really only have one place in my small house to store tea and that is in my teas cabinet so it is with all of my other teas. I thought about maybe putting all of my puer teas together not intense but in a bamboo box but then they would all be together. I have a cake from 2015 I haven't opened yet It's my first cake and I'm not going to open it until I'm better at learning to taste and care for puer so I'm starting with all my little samples! The cake is and it's original paper in a sealed additional paper pouch that the vendor sold it to me in. I'm sure like anything there's a way to do this as best as possible and then there's a way that's good enough for most people and then of course there's all the wrong ways and I'm just looking for the B- to B+ plus way So it's more than possible but not going as far as to have a dedicated area where everything is separated etc etc.

That's just it. Especially when the experience is subjective, there's no one size fits all method. We're happy to share what we think is the best way according to our experience, but that's not necessarily going to work for everyone, which is fine. Even then, other variables can change and require adjustments, so it's important to be flexible and experiment.

The tea is Dancong oolong

These are made local Jingdezhen clay. Overall I don't think it matters too much what type of clay you use to make tea pets, as it just comes down to how you want it to look

@@BitterleafTeas thank you♡

We don't really have any hard set beliefs about what type of clay to use, but if you have lighter roasted Dancong, something more dense and less porous makes sense in order to retain the high fragrance (ie: Zhuni clay), whereas something more porous can help clean up teas that have had a darker roast or have been reroasted (ie: Duanni, Zini).

absolutely. You have to be even more vigilant to keep mold at bay in a high humidity environment.

Thank you so much 😊

🙏

I'm sorry, we've been neglecting the video side of things! It's been a busy year, but we'll try to get back on track for 2024

this gaiwan is around 50-60ml, I believe

Depends on if the bees and termites can get along and reach some kind of agreement

agreed!

I think people usually just call the side handle teapots a Kyusus (Japanese for "teapot"), but technically "Yokode Kyusu" would be side handles teapot, if I recall correctly. Disclaimer: We speak almost no Japanese

You could fill it with just the infusions and the works well too! We actually do that sometimes. But leaving some leaves in can be handy if we have the chance to top it up with more hot water. The adding cold water part is just so that the tea is a drinkable temperature. I can't tell you how many times we've thermos-brewed and the thermos works a little too well, making the tea still too hot to drink hours later.

@@BitterleafTeas Thanks!

Thank you! We still have some to catch up, so thanks for the reminder 😉

You can. A lot of people brew Yancha the exact same way. There are no rules though, so you could also experiment with other teas.

It was a surprisingly interesting and peaceful process. It was nice to just sit and watch her work in the morning, just going by feel to know when the tea is ready.

the greenest time of the year 💚

Coming right up 😊

You should! Some greens do really well gongfu brewing, but I find grandpa style is just so convenient and produces great results with almost anything

Thank you!