What I love about gong fu brewing is that it's changed what used to be a mindless routine activity into a special moment where I pause my busyness to savour the aroma and flavour of the tea.
This is how I justify my tea spending to friends. With the increased amount of tea per g of leaf, and the vastly improved experience, it is well worth the extra price and effort.
Using tea leaves vs. Bags is like the difference between instant coffee and brewed coffee. Until I had a Mai Leaf tea, I hadn't really had tea. Even living in S. Korea and going to tea houses, I hadn't had a really high quality tea.
Until I discovered your videos I was thinking that tea could not taste anything but bitter. Now, after the tea epiphany, I am fully enjoying my new journey, experimenting as much as my budget allows. In my opinion your teas are miles away ahead of anything I have tasted so far and, as you so well said, the whole philosophy behind them gives you the opportunity to dive deeper into this world of flavours and aromas. I will conclude by saying that nobody deserves bad things in his/her life, whether we speak about tea, whisky or anything else. Best regards from Romania!
Well you have a point. But as a only tea head in my house I can say that my brothers really don't look for the details. They see only half of the diagram. Which is jump by 250% in price. Also you haven't consider when it comes to quality, people that are not that into tea don't have such a refine taste
£0.10/g is my comfort spot for buying tea, you can get some really nice teas for that price and lower, difference in quality is insane, number of infusion you can get out of them is insane, compared to a same priced teabag
Indeed and you can improvise a gong fu for simplicity. Before I bought mine, I used a coffee mug with a condiment cup as a lid. It fit perfectly for an easy filter and pour.
Thanks, again, for a another wonderful and informative video. When you addressed the subject of convenience, I thought you were going to address accessibility. I live in the metro-Atlanta area in the U.S; which is one of the largest cities in the U.S. To find local (cheap) loose leaf tea is difficult. To find quality loose leaf tea is even more difficult. The nearest tea shop from me is 61 km. The only way to get quality loose leaf tea is to order and wait. Unfortunately, this is not practical. So I tend to treat myself to quality loose leaf teas on certain evenings or the weekends. At other time...I have to depend on those dreaded tea bags. Cheers!
I was laughing a lot during video, because I guessed what will come. Especially when it came to the speed topic. And there is one more thing: with gong-fu you can drink almost after pour out the tea. With western style: cup and tea is so hot, you need to wait until it cool down! Last thing is the topic of throwing out the tea. Slightly easier with tea bags maybe, but this is just super-scrupulosity ;-) and make no difference. Thanks for dive in and winnow this fog of myths Don
Don, to be fair, you should add the time it takes to measure out the loose leaf. Still you’d get two infusions faster that a 3-minute teabag, but it would be closer. Also, cleaning out the Connoisseur afterwards adds some time. BTW, I’m drinking 2018 G’Bud. Love the maltiness. Desert island black tea for me, though I have yet to crack into my Wildwood (which Paul Weller would love!)🌱🥃🌱
Although I agree with you in most respects, and especially in that the price jump is justified, I still sometimes prefer a western brew with a lower quality tea (never teabags though). For example, if I am watching a film, I'd rather have a larger amount of already brewed tea and just sip away without any care. I feel it would be a waste of high quality tea to brew it while not paying attention to it, as for me, brewing nice tea is in part about wanting to brew it and enjoying the process.
That's all true. You could switch to a large Japanese Kyusu and decant into a cup of the same size. Much more simple without as much need for attention and no need to compromise on quality. Just my humble opinion
@@reubenk1615 I do that sometimes, but I like to keep my kyusu just for sencha or gyokuro. But I'm thinking of getting the gong fu solo thing for anything else (I really enjoy post-fermented tea in the afternoon)
@@rec11fdc you're better off going with a thick walled clay pot for fermented puerh to extract it fuly twords the end since it needs a lot of heat and the thicker walls will help with that by giving it more time to extract. I think you get more for your money if you get two cups and a singular tiny gaiwan though I might be wrong. You really can't go wrong with having a porcelain gaiwan for all types of tea for sure. Which cooked puerh is your favorite? So far my top two are After party enchanter and the latest float nomad is also very nice
@@reubenk1615 my fav was gem juice outlaw, but I liked after party enchanter a lot (although I found that drinking it would render me sleepless for that night). I'm dying to try the new milk float nomad!
I found your channel recently and have been enjoying learning more about loose leaf tea. I've always wanted to find a way to brew loose leaf teas conveniently but due to my constant on-the-go lifestyle, tea bags have been my staple. Recently I found a double wall glass tumbler that keeps the tea leaves at the top and away from the hot water with a filter in between. Just gently turn the bottle upside down to steep and gently flip it right side up when done, then open the bottle to enjoy. This tumbler has transitioned me to loose leaf tea almost completely and fits my lifestyle perfectly. I did not expect choosing this bottle over my gaiwan and teapot when I purchased it. Your channel spurred me to search for a way to brew loose leaf teas on the go, and I found it. No more teabags for me.
i'm still vaguely a newbie to gongfu brewing, and i don't even use a traditional gaiwan and cup! on amazon (and probably other online/tea stores) there's this thing called an "easy gaiwan". it's basically a gaiwan/cup hybrid, and i love it. great for gongfu brewing on a student's budget; it only costs around $10 (US)! i strongly recommend it for people who don't want to invest too much in gongfu equipment. besides, loose leaf tea is just better for the environment. who wants to waste all that paper for the tea bags? and i'll tell you what, after about a year or so of drinking loose leaf tea, you're going to notice that tea bags are much more bitter and astringent.
Gong fu is probably the most desk friendly tea making setup you can have from my experience. For a single person you just need some type of brewing vessel, a drinking cup, and a tea tray plus your hot water (a thermos has been a Godsend). While some tea appreciation focus may be lost, its great for daily teas.
28p is insane for a single teabag. I use teabags when I want milk tea because it would be a waste to use loose leaf for that, and I only buy teabags for 5p or less.
About speed I can add that if you brew some puerh which taste you know, you can do 3 fast infusions to have more tea to drink without reheating water etc I have many teas which I know and when I don't want to focus too much on taste, aroma etc, I just do 3 brews at once to my gong dao bei and then I pour it into my coup while doing something. Later I do 2 infusionns at once and later it depends. Next good thing about gong fu is that even if you pour hot water, you can drink it almost immediately after brew. If you drink from big mug it's too hot to drink stright after.
So true! With big mugs I always find the first third to be too hot, middle perfect temperature and last third too cold. I love that the temperature is always perfect with gongfu brewing!
I switched from teabags to loose leaf months ago and haven't looked back and can honestly say Even if Loose leaf took 5x longer to prepare I would still choose that over using tea bags anyday
@@reubenk1615 Well, no wonder! In a thermos it will definitely overbrew because the temperature is not dropping. I mean grandpa style in a large open mug or glass. As for the teeth straining, it depends very much on the leaf you use, with many teas it's no problem as they sink to the bottom of the mug.
I have found 1 teabag series that tastes excellent, you can leave the teabag in for 10 minutes and it does not become sour. While it is pleasant it can of course not compete with better quality tea.
Most comments here are pro loose leaf, I've had really really good green loose teas and pu erh but I usually have earl grey bigelow bags because it's just more easily available at stores close to me and less expensive on average (usually loose leaf, the better quality/tasting ones are at asian/specialty stores farther from me)
I think the biggest challenge of gongfu brewing is keeping the water hot enough. You can use a thermos to keep hot water in if you cant be by a kettle the whole time but that will slowly lose heat with each time the lid is open to pour.
Good point! That’s an issue I’ve been thinking a lot about this summer, because it rules out a couple of tea types for picnic or anywhere where your kettle’s cable won’t reach. I’d love a video that would solve that problem.
What is that tea bowl you poured the extra tea in? Is it the tea users version of a spit bucket? Is it where everything that is considered "spent", is saved for disposal later? Very interesting. Edit: "is saved".
The bowl is called a "waste bowl". Instead of using a tea tray (e.g. the Gong Fu Code) you use the bowl to dispense of tea rinse or the water you use for warming up your tea ware. You could also put your spent tea leaves in there. So yes, sort of a spit bucket à la gong fu cha!
I think it depends on the tea bag. there are these larger tetrahedral shapes where the tea also has space to spread out and inside there is mostly brocken tea and not this dust. I drank tea out of a tea bag at relative's place on holiday and it was OK, the cup was about the size of my gaiwan and I always took the tea out and after I finished drinking I put it back in and poured it back on, so that works too when the water in a teapot is next to it. For gong fu all I really need is the option of adding more hot water, it also works with two cups and a saucer on top to drain if there is no gaiwan. The other way around, you can also pack a tea bag in the gaiwan. It depends, but I can't drink China green tea at 80 degrees and have to wait, I can drink Sencha right away, I'll pour it at 60 degrees.
I was just a coffee drinker my first forty years of my life. Morning started with six coffeecups. Then something odd happened and I started to search drinkable tee. I love to have some brew from rooibos and blueberry, or "pakuritee". Now I want to learn the world of tee.
In my opinion the problem is that if you are alone and drink tea everyday you just want 1 quick infusion everyday, so the other infusions aren't needed, since you can't infuse infuse multiple times it's a waste of money (as said in an older video used tea leaves can be stored up to 10 hours), gong fu is very good and worth only if you have a session once every week. What do you suggest to a person that wants to drink high quality tea everyday but can't go gong fu style since it is too time and money consuming? p.s. going gong fu style everyday costs from 1,30€ to 3€, it goes up to 90€ per month
£0.10/g is my comfort spot for buying tea, so thats £0.50 per 5g session and it gives me about 1.5L tea. even with only 1 infusion or western brewing(at 2g) thats far cheaper than your numbers, you can also cold brew your infused leaves over night for extra cost savings
@@joshuathompson4242 Well, firstly I want to say that even if I were deaf I could have seen what he showed because deaf people can't hear what others say not show, secondly doing up to 8 infusions in a session takes a lot of time, while brewing in western style can be done also while you do other things and you don't have to watch it every second. I commented this video not to demean the gong fu style brewing method, because I also like it, but in my opinion it can't be done every morning :)
@@joshuathompson4242 You just deleted your first comment because you realised it was a bit rude, I don't want to argue, I just wanted to ask people for advise, please don't write silly stuff :)
the main thing for gear that seems more complicated about gong fu is having an electric kettle. i use a normal stovetop kettle and reboiling and then waiting for the right temperature each time takes a lot of time. and to get an electric kettle with a thermometer is a bit of money.
Electric (induction) kettle has some benefits vs stovetop kettle. It heats up water much faster usually, unless your stovetop is induction too. And some have integrated temp control which is nice, don't need thermometer which you will need with a stovetop kettle. I set a temp I want and kettle goes to it. Vs stovetop where you boil water, and then have to cool it down for some teas like green tea.
We tried but he decided not to because of his affiliation with another tea company. Shame as we would have loved to make this happen but understandable.
Hey Don, You're not gonna get any substantive disagreement from me that loose leaf is better in all categories (even with the marginally more expensive price tag) than tea bags. My question is: What do you say to people who just drink tea rather than coffee for the caffeine? I understand you can get multiple infusions with loose tea, which is great for people who just love tea regardless of caffeine content, but is caffeine the same between infusions or do you get most of it in the first couple infusions? Thanks!!
I've drunk many 2nd (and even 3rd) infusions of teabags (although western style, not gong fu), and they certainly lose *a lot* of flavour after the 1st infusion. It's like 3/4 - just guessing here though - is out of it after the first infusion. The smaller tea particles (lots of times literally dust size) cause more surface area, hence the aromas/flavours are extracted very rapidly all at once. About price, I've found supermarket tea bags, with a price of €0.49 for 50 grams. Yep, not so high quality though... And loose leaf gunpowder & earl grey for like €0.04 a gram. Better quality, but still nothing in comparison to true tea.
I can’t do tea bags. Sorry but no way. Our grocery store sells beautiful loose green tea. Much more tea than box of bag tea for less than half the cost of a box tea. Thanks to you I shopped for the loose tea myself and buy quality bulk sale. Tea in an American tea bag was swept off a floor somewhere. I was inspired by you to find real tea for a rural area
I only use loose leaf now. Great comparison but I understand postage to ship your tea to the US is expensive so you have to add that in. I cannot buy from you for that reason. But for comparison from other US companies this is good.
Thank you for the video, I have a question about the connoisseur and brewing tea for a single cup. While I understand the traditional appeal of the gaiwan I don't understand how the connoisseur adds anything to just having a filter that you fill with loose leave tea and then pull out of the cup when ready. To me it seems overly complicated to let the water drain out instead of just taking out the leaves, but I might be missing something. So maybe you could comment about taste or what your opinion on the matter is. Thank you.
Since temperature controlled kettles aren't very common wouldn't you need to account for time boiling the kettle and waiting for it to come to the right temp based on tea type between infusions? I think the main point when people say "quicker" is actually effort like you say, though. People like something they can chuck in their mug and walk away from which feels quicker because they're doing other things. Enjoyed the video, and am glad to have found this channel as I have just been gifted a gaiwan!
@@chrisuk1541 I've got a 20 inch dildo, doesn't mean it's common. Most people have a regular electric kettle. Hell, some people even still use stovetop kettles.
not those from the organic food shop when it comes to pesticides. for the other things please cite the source and do not just claim anything. I found one article that reported epichlorohdyrin coatings on tea bags. Black tea can have increased fluoride values, but as far as I know that has nothing to do with the tea bags but with what the plant stores in its leaves. well this presentation unfortunately only compares tea bags and not loose tea good that I hardly drink any black tea. I actually want the supermarkets to only offer loose tea, what else are there tea eggs for? Less waste and no coating that is toxic. www.teaadvisorypanel.com/assets/uploads/files/news/ec161-fluoride-content-of-tea.pdf www.gesundheute.com/ist-dein-teebeutel-giftig/ www.cleanplates.com/eat/tips-eat/these-teas-are-toxin-free/
AskiaLuna no such thing. Even organic contain pesticides. Do your own research. Many studies out there. Ex. www.drtaniadempsey.com/post/the-truth-about-pesticides-in-tea-tea-toxicity-chemicals-in-tea
@@SeaHearts1 With organic tea it is less likely to buy which one with pesticides and there is also this Stiftung Warentest, which is independent and tests some teas for harmful substances every year. Tamarind in food lowers the florid that is in the body and prevents new from being absorbed. I usually only drink tea that is really free of harmful substances and has proven certificates and laboratory tests or comes from a wild collection from Crete that I bought there. www.cleanplates.com/eat/tips-eat/these-teas-are-toxin-free/
This video is great, but the noise while drinking the tea is enhanced by the microphone and in my perception irritating. I would advise just being careful since there is the microphone. Otherwise great video
Good video overall. However (I drink gongfu daily) my main objection is the wasted water. Mostly from rinsing. I'm yet to obviously see Don or anyone else detail useful/productive habits for water that isn't drunk. Don had a bowl there for tea rinsing- yet did talk about it. But it is definitely extra kit/ware that teabags don't need.
teas that are clean do not have to be washed, this is more of a habit of some people. Usually the water is then poured onto the houseplant. The leaves only get two seconds of water and the air interacts with the leaves and is then properly infused or that is left out, whether that makes a difference I don't know. I've never done it because until now I've only had green tea that doesn't consist of whole leaves.
@@askialuna7717 Hiya, I understand and agree with you. The tea I drink most is dark/black teas- so I deal with tea dust lots. The point of my comment was in the vein of people who object/refuse to convert away from teabags. I've seen nobody really talking about the back end of tea drinking. 'wasted water' and digging tea leaves out of a gongfu pot. Yet this is a part of gongfu tea experience; and therefore should not be excluded if we are to inspire curiosity and confidence.
Hi :) I hope I'm not appearing supercritical here and I definitely don't mean this as an insult or an accusation, but I think that the numbers as shown at 7:46 are misleading. 1.) You are using different scales on the left and right side. If you are talking about a "33% increase in price" on the right side (which is roughly correct), you should be talking about a 150% increase in price on the left side (or an increase by the factor 2.5 on the left side and 1.3 on the right side). 2.) The numbers are rounded in a strange way. On the left side, you are rounding up by a large bit: 0.25/0.11 ≈ 2.27, but you are presenting the number as 2.5. On the right side, the number is rounded down, even though by convention it should be rounded up as 0.15/0.112 ≈ 1.339 ≈ 1.34. 3.) As mentioned by other commentators, you do not always have time to drink 8 infusions. If you only want to drink one quick infusion, the cost for drinking Gong Fu style goes up. This way, your presentation makes those numbers appear further apart than they actually are (25033 vs. 2.271.34), creating the illusion that Mei Leaf teas are seen as more expensive than they actually are. Don't get me wrong. I agree with the key message that Gong Fu brewing with high grade tea is worth it and I love your videos and your teas!
Ah you are right it should be 150 to 33 🙄 corrected in description. the rounding is just keeping things general. None of the above is an attempt to inflate the per g price difference (it would be in our favour to show this to be less if anything) or overexaggerte the savings which come from multiple infusions. Thank you for spotting the error and for tasting our Brews.
Gong fu brewing is more than just consuming tea. Teabags are just mindless consum, all the while Gong fu is a small exercise in mindfulness and attention thus leaving a calm and content feeling, almost like meditation.
@@frederikzitzmann3412 Thanks for your response. But, I still don't get why gong fu is more intense with the same (total) ratio (tea, water, and time). But, what's your suggestion if I need 800ml to 1L tea in my water bottle when I travel or do outdoor activity in a full day?
Two things immediately come to mind: 1.) Many herbal teas require quite hot water (close to boiling) and long steeping times. 2.) I suspect that many herbal teas will not do incredibly well with a large number of infusions. It is definitely something to experiment with, however. It's been on my mind to try out for a while.
@@Garrett_Rowland yeah that's pretty much what I was thinking too, I think it might depend on the herb. I think chamomile would probably work and peppermint and things like that but things with seeds and roots in it to get out all the flavor you'd probably have to brew it for a lot longer in one infusion
I know the steeping time is faster but if you are going to have a good session you are going to be locked down for about an hour to just enjoy that tea. However when someone with a teabag would just spend the time enjoying the one session compared to the 9 sessions of gongfu.
You can pause in a session and come back to it afterwards; you’d just have to rinse the leaves shortly to warm them up before you go on with the rest of the session. I (have to) do that quite often. There’s a Meileaf video about how to keep the tea leaves between infusions. It works; I’ve tried it myself. 🙂
I wonder what MBTI Don is..? When I saw the chart comparison I thought I maybe INTJ like me but then the more he kept talking I’m like nah he’s gotta be an ES smthg. ESTJ?
Lol my adhd really had my mind wandering but I WAS also listening to the valuable comparisons, thank you for the video. It’s my first time watching, got interested in gongfu tea making and came across your channel and decided upon this video first for some reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe bc I just had an internal struggle to overcome laziness and open/brew a new tin of my loose leaf chai versus using my moms open box of chai tea bags lol
Exactly, I had just watched this relaxing video on Chinese pottery, and then Don scrambled my brain with all these figures that have nothing to do with bag vs loose leaf. Sorry, Don, you lost me on this one!
if you're a zealot for one particular method of tea, then you will never be able to understand the true depth of experiences available. there is no "better" only different. smh my head
What I love about gong fu brewing is that it's changed what used to be a mindless routine activity into a special moment where I pause my busyness to savour the aroma and flavour of the tea.
I agree, this is why I switched from coffee to tea
This is how I justify my tea spending to friends. With the increased amount of tea per g of leaf, and the vastly improved experience, it is well worth the extra price and effort.
Just explain the cost once broken down. You just pay a lump sum upfront so it seems more expensive but the milage is tremendous
I wish he had Tremalking black though that would be worth it (:
@@joshuaraminha8339 Not my favourite, but at least it beats forkroot!
Using tea leaves vs. Bags is like the difference between instant coffee and brewed coffee. Until I had a Mai Leaf tea, I hadn't really had tea. Even living in S. Korea and going to tea houses, I hadn't had a really high quality tea.
Gong Fu is great for working from home. I start with a Yancha that lasts all morning and then a Tie Guan Yin after lunch for the rest of the day...
Until I discovered your videos I was thinking that tea could not taste anything but bitter. Now, after the tea epiphany, I am fully enjoying my new journey, experimenting as much as my budget allows. In my opinion your teas are miles away ahead of anything I have tasted so far and, as you so well said, the whole philosophy behind them gives you the opportunity to dive deeper into this world of flavours and aromas. I will conclude by saying that nobody deserves bad things in his/her life, whether we speak about tea, whisky or anything else. Best regards from Romania!
You changed my life forever . :)
For easy loose tea brewing, I use a brewing basket in a mug or, even easier, a few leaves of tea in the mug bowl brewing style.
Well you have a point. But as a only tea head in my house I can say that my brothers really don't look for the details. They see only half of the diagram. Which is jump by 250% in price. Also you haven't consider when it comes to quality, people that are not that into tea don't have such a refine taste
More good tea for us. 😜
£0.10/g is my comfort spot for buying tea, you can get some really nice teas for that price and lower, difference in quality is insane, number of infusion you can get out of them is insane, compared to a same priced teabag
Indeed and you can improvise a gong fu for simplicity.
Before I bought mine, I used a coffee mug with a condiment cup as a lid. It fit perfectly for an easy filter and pour.
Thanks, again, for a another wonderful and informative video. When you addressed the subject of convenience, I thought you were going to address accessibility. I live in the metro-Atlanta area in the U.S; which is one of the largest cities in the U.S. To find local (cheap) loose leaf tea is difficult. To find quality loose leaf tea is even more difficult. The nearest tea shop from me is 61 km. The only way to get quality loose leaf tea is to order and wait. Unfortunately, this is not practical. So I tend to treat myself to quality loose leaf teas on certain evenings or the weekends. At other time...I have to depend on those dreaded tea bags. Cheers!
I was laughing a lot during video, because I guessed what will come. Especially when it came to the speed topic. And there is one more thing: with gong-fu you can drink almost after pour out the tea. With western style: cup and tea is so hot, you need to wait until it cool down! Last thing is the topic of throwing out the tea. Slightly easier with tea bags maybe, but this is just super-scrupulosity ;-) and make no difference. Thanks for dive in and winnow this fog of myths Don
Don, to be fair, you should add the time it takes to measure out the loose leaf. Still you’d get two infusions faster that a 3-minute teabag, but it would be closer. Also, cleaning out the Connoisseur afterwards adds some time. BTW, I’m drinking 2018 G’Bud. Love the maltiness. Desert island black tea for me, though I have yet to crack into my Wildwood (which Paul Weller would love!)🌱🥃🌱
The ambassador for true tea that the world needs but not the one it deserves
Although I agree with you in most respects, and especially in that the price jump is justified, I still sometimes prefer a western brew with a lower quality tea (never teabags though). For example, if I am watching a film, I'd rather have a larger amount of already brewed tea and just sip away without any care. I feel it would be a waste of high quality tea to brew it while not paying attention to it, as for me, brewing nice tea is in part about wanting to brew it and enjoying the process.
That's all true.
You could switch to a large Japanese Kyusu and decant into a cup of the same size.
Much more simple without as much need for attention and no need to compromise on quality.
Just my humble opinion
I do enjoy doing a bowl brewing session for this reason- use a nice big bowl with a monkey picked and keep topping up.
@@reubenk1615 I do that sometimes, but I like to keep my kyusu just for sencha or gyokuro. But I'm thinking of getting the gong fu solo thing for anything else (I really enjoy post-fermented tea in the afternoon)
@@rec11fdc you're better off going with a thick walled clay pot for fermented puerh to extract it fuly twords the end since it needs a lot of heat and the thicker walls will help with that by giving it more time to extract.
I think you get more for your money if you get two cups and a singular tiny gaiwan though I might be wrong.
You really can't go wrong with having a porcelain gaiwan for all types of tea for sure.
Which cooked puerh is your favorite?
So far my top two are After party enchanter and the latest float nomad is also very nice
@@reubenk1615 my fav was gem juice outlaw, but I liked after party enchanter a lot (although I found that drinking it would render me sleepless for that night). I'm dying to try the new milk float nomad!
I found your channel recently and have been enjoying learning more about loose leaf tea. I've always wanted to find a way to brew loose leaf teas conveniently but due to my constant on-the-go lifestyle, tea bags have been my staple. Recently I found a double wall glass tumbler that keeps the tea leaves at the top and away from the hot water with a filter in between. Just gently turn the bottle upside down to steep and gently flip it right side up when done, then open the bottle to enjoy. This tumbler has transitioned me to loose leaf tea almost completely and fits my lifestyle perfectly. I did not expect choosing this bottle over my gaiwan and teapot when I purchased it. Your channel spurred me to search for a way to brew loose leaf teas on the go, and I found it. No more teabags for me.
i'm still vaguely a newbie to gongfu brewing, and i don't even use a traditional gaiwan and cup! on amazon (and probably other online/tea stores) there's this thing called an "easy gaiwan". it's basically a gaiwan/cup hybrid, and i love it. great for gongfu brewing on a student's budget; it only costs around $10 (US)! i strongly recommend it for people who don't want to invest too much in gongfu equipment. besides, loose leaf tea is just better for the environment. who wants to waste all that paper for the tea bags? and i'll tell you what, after about a year or so of drinking loose leaf tea, you're going to notice that tea bags are much more bitter and astringent.
Gong fu is probably the most desk friendly tea making setup you can have from my experience. For a single person you just need some type of brewing vessel, a drinking cup, and a tea tray plus your hot water (a thermos has been a Godsend). While some tea appreciation focus may be lost, its great for daily teas.
28p is insane for a single teabag. I use teabags when I want milk tea because it would be a waste to use loose leaf for that, and I only buy teabags for 5p or less.
About speed I can add that if you brew some puerh which taste you know, you can do 3 fast infusions to have more tea to drink without reheating water etc
I have many teas which I know and when I don't want to focus too much on taste, aroma etc, I just do 3 brews at once to my gong dao bei and then I pour it into my coup while doing something. Later I do 2 infusionns at once and later it depends.
Next good thing about gong fu is that even if you pour hot water, you can drink it almost immediately after brew. If you drink from big mug it's too hot to drink stright after.
So true! With big mugs I always find the first third to be too hot, middle perfect temperature and last third too cold. I love that the temperature is always perfect with gongfu brewing!
I switched from teabags to loose leaf months ago and haven't looked back and can honestly say Even if Loose leaf took 5x longer to prepare I would still choose that over using tea bags anyday
If I wanted to maximize the aspect of ease, i would prefer loose leaf grandpa style over a tea bag, it is exactly as easy as tea bags.
Nobody likes staining out the leafs with their teeth and the tea will overbrew. Had that experience in a thermos... not doing that again
@@reubenk1615 Well, no wonder! In a thermos it will definitely overbrew because the temperature is not dropping. I mean grandpa style in a large open mug or glass. As for the teeth straining, it depends very much on the leaf you use, with many teas it's no problem as they sink to the bottom of the mug.
@@maksspiga1106 Works well with monkey picked green tea.
@@reubenk1615 Thermos brewing should only be done with ripe puehr
Never even considered loose leaf tea but you've open my eyes. I've always thought it was just going to be messy.
I have found 1 teabag series that tastes excellent, you can leave the teabag in for 10 minutes and it does not become sour. While it is pleasant it can of course not compete with better quality tea.
Most comments here are pro loose leaf, I've had really really good green loose teas and pu erh but I usually have earl grey bigelow bags because it's just more easily available at stores close to me and less expensive on average (usually loose leaf, the better quality/tasting ones are at asian/specialty stores farther from me)
I think the biggest challenge of gongfu brewing is keeping the water hot enough. You can use a thermos to keep hot water in if you cant be by a kettle the whole time but that will slowly lose heat with each time the lid is open to pour.
Good point! That’s an issue I’ve been thinking a lot about this summer, because it rules out a couple of tea types for picnic or anywhere where your kettle’s cable won’t reach. I’d love a video that would solve that problem.
The look on your face when you prove how much faster the gong fu brew is lol. Love it.
What is that tea bowl you poured the extra tea in? Is it the tea users version of a spit bucket? Is it where everything that is considered "spent", is saved for disposal later? Very interesting.
Edit: "is saved".
The bowl is called a "waste bowl". Instead of using a tea tray (e.g. the Gong Fu Code) you use the bowl to dispense of tea rinse or the water you use for warming up your tea ware. You could also put your spent tea leaves in there. So yes, sort of a spit bucket à la gong fu cha!
I think it depends on the tea bag. there are these larger tetrahedral shapes where the tea also has space to spread out and inside there is mostly brocken tea and not this dust.
I drank tea out of a tea bag at relative's place on holiday and it was OK, the cup was about the size of my gaiwan and I always took the tea out and after I finished drinking I put it back in and poured it back on, so that works too when the water in a teapot is next to it.
For gong fu all I really need is the option of adding more hot water, it also works with two cups and a saucer on top to drain if there is no gaiwan.
The other way around, you can also pack a tea bag in the gaiwan.
It depends, but I can't drink China green tea at 80 degrees and have to wait, I can drink Sencha right away, I'll pour it at 60 degrees.
I was just a coffee drinker my first forty years of my life. Morning started with six coffeecups.
Then something odd happened and I started to search drinkable tee. I love to have some brew from rooibos and blueberry, or "pakuritee".
Now I want to learn the world of tee.
Tea
In my opinion the problem is that if you are alone and drink tea everyday you just want 1 quick infusion everyday, so the other infusions aren't needed, since you can't infuse infuse multiple times it's a waste of money (as said in an older video used tea leaves can be stored up to 10 hours), gong fu is very good and worth only if you have a session once every week. What do you suggest to a person that wants to drink high quality tea everyday but can't go gong fu style since it is too time and money consuming?
p.s. going gong fu style everyday costs from 1,30€ to 3€, it goes up to 90€ per month
£0.10/g is my comfort spot for buying tea, so thats £0.50 per 5g session and it gives me about 1.5L tea. even with only 1 infusion or western brewing(at 2g) thats far cheaper than your numbers, you can also cold brew your infused leaves over night for extra cost savings
Fiscal Tax Start drinking more tea
@@joshuathompson4242 Well, firstly I want to say that even if I were deaf I could have seen what he showed because deaf people can't hear what others say not show, secondly doing up to 8 infusions in a session takes a lot of time, while brewing in western style can be done also while you do other things and you don't have to watch it every second. I commented this video not to demean the gong fu style brewing method, because I also like it, but in my opinion it can't be done every morning :)
Oh look who’s the clever one! Give him an award!
@@joshuathompson4242 You just deleted your first comment because you realised it was a bit rude, I don't want to argue, I just wanted to ask people for advise, please don't write silly stuff :)
the main thing for gear that seems more complicated about gong fu is having an electric kettle. i use a normal stovetop kettle and reboiling and then waiting for the right temperature each time takes a lot of time. and to get an electric kettle with a thermometer is a bit of money.
Electric (induction) kettle has some benefits vs stovetop kettle. It heats up water much faster usually, unless your stovetop is induction too. And some have integrated temp control which is nice, don't need thermometer which you will need with a stovetop kettle. I set a temp I want and kettle goes to it. Vs stovetop where you boil water, and then have to cool it down for some teas like green tea.
I use a thermos bottle for my gong fu sessions.
You and James Hoffman need to make a video together! A tasting video of tea and coffee, that will be epic...
We tried but he decided not to because of his affiliation with another tea company. Shame as we would have loved to make this happen but understandable.
Yay new video!!!
Hey Don,
You're not gonna get any substantive disagreement from me that loose leaf is better in all categories (even with the marginally more expensive price tag) than tea bags. My question is: What do you say to people who just drink tea rather than coffee for the caffeine? I understand you can get multiple infusions with loose tea, which is great for people who just love tea regardless of caffeine content, but is caffeine the same between infusions or do you get most of it in the first couple infusions? Thanks!!
Have you experimented with brewing a tea bag in gong fu style? Love your love you the leaf!
I've drunk many 2nd (and even 3rd) infusions of teabags (although western style, not gong fu), and they certainly lose *a lot* of flavour after the 1st infusion. It's like 3/4 - just guessing here though - is out of it after the first infusion. The smaller tea particles (lots of times literally dust size) cause more surface area, hence the aromas/flavours are extracted very rapidly all at once.
About price, I've found supermarket tea bags, with a price of €0.49 for 50 grams. Yep, not so high quality though...
And loose leaf gunpowder & earl grey for like €0.04 a gram. Better quality, but still nothing in comparison to true tea.
I can’t do tea bags. Sorry but no way. Our grocery store sells beautiful loose green tea. Much more tea than box of bag tea for less than half the cost of a box tea. Thanks to you I shopped for the loose tea myself and buy quality bulk sale. Tea in an American tea bag was swept off a floor somewhere. I was inspired by you to find real tea for a rural area
No wonder why people sweeten their teas with sugar or honey. With loose leaf, I honestly don’t need either one.
You have the best tea! Thank you Mei Leaf!
I was missing the crash test dummy and the metal plates with "Busted" written on them ;)
I love the slight sass in this video 💁🏽♂️
How long can you leave the leaves in the brewer? Say I don't want the full number of infusions right away, could i do a few today and a few tomorrow?
I only use loose leaf now. Great comparison but I understand postage to ship your tea to the US is expensive so you have to add that in. I cannot buy from you for that reason. But for comparison from other US companies this is good.
ahaha i reveled in this whole video. i love the vibe. gonna buy my gaiwan tonight
Thank you for the video, I have a question about the connoisseur and brewing tea for a single cup. While I understand the traditional appeal of the gaiwan I don't understand how the connoisseur adds anything to just having a filter that you fill with loose leave tea and then pull out of the cup when ready. To me it seems overly complicated to let the water drain out instead of just taking out the leaves, but I might be missing something. So maybe you could comment about taste or what your opinion on the matter is. Thank you.
Do you ever sweeten your tea? I'm truly curious.
Mate, you rock!
hi mei leaf what does oil cut black oolong means? i see a lot of it in our market its black from what i see.
Since temperature controlled kettles aren't very common wouldn't you need to account for time boiling the kettle and waiting for it to come to the right temp based on tea type between infusions?
I think the main point when people say "quicker" is actually effort like you say, though. People like something they can chuck in their mug and walk away from which feels quicker because they're doing other things.
Enjoyed the video, and am glad to have found this channel as I have just been gifted a gaiwan!
Temp kettles are very common now
@@chrisuk1541 nah
@@3Dant yes. I’ve had one over ten years.get with the times 😀👍
@@chrisuk1541 I've got a 20 inch dildo, doesn't mean it's common. Most people have a regular electric kettle. Hell, some people even still use stovetop kettles.
@@3Dant strange boy
Tea bags contain micro plastics!! There’re many studied about it.
the glue contains that, the normal tea bags with string are stapled on top and not glued.
AskiaLuna those even worse contains high level of fluoride, paper particles & high level of pesticides
not those from the organic food shop when it comes to pesticides. for the other things please cite the source and do not just claim anything.
I found one article that reported epichlorohdyrin coatings on tea bags.
Black tea can have increased fluoride values, but as far as I know that has nothing to do with the tea bags but with what the plant stores in its leaves.
well this presentation unfortunately only compares tea bags and not loose tea
good that I hardly drink any black tea.
I actually want the supermarkets to only offer loose tea, what else are there tea eggs for? Less waste and no coating that is toxic.
www.teaadvisorypanel.com/assets/uploads/files/news/ec161-fluoride-content-of-tea.pdf
www.gesundheute.com/ist-dein-teebeutel-giftig/
www.cleanplates.com/eat/tips-eat/these-teas-are-toxin-free/
AskiaLuna no such thing. Even organic contain pesticides. Do your own research. Many studies out there. Ex. www.drtaniadempsey.com/post/the-truth-about-pesticides-in-tea-tea-toxicity-chemicals-in-tea
@@SeaHearts1 With organic tea it is less likely to buy which one with pesticides and there is also this Stiftung Warentest, which is independent and tests some teas for harmful substances every year. Tamarind in food lowers the florid that is in the body and prevents new from being absorbed.
I usually only drink tea that is really free of harmful substances and has proven certificates and laboratory tests or comes from a wild collection from Crete that I bought there.
www.cleanplates.com/eat/tips-eat/these-teas-are-toxin-free/
This video is great, but the noise while drinking the tea is enhanced by the microphone and in my perception irritating. I would advise just being careful since there is the microphone. Otherwise great video
You’re the man!
Tea bags can be musty in hold mold, and bacteria.
Loose leaf tea all the way everday!
Good video overall. However (I drink gongfu daily) my main objection is the wasted water. Mostly from rinsing. I'm yet to obviously see Don or anyone else detail useful/productive habits for water that isn't drunk. Don had a bowl there for tea rinsing- yet did talk about it. But it is definitely extra kit/ware that teabags don't need.
teas that are clean do not have to be washed, this is more of a habit of some people.
Usually the water is then poured onto the houseplant.
The leaves only get two seconds of water and the air interacts with the leaves and is then properly infused or that is left out,
whether that makes a difference I don't know. I've never done it because until now I've only had green tea that doesn't consist of whole leaves.
@@askialuna7717 Hiya, I understand and agree with you. The tea I drink most is dark/black teas- so I deal with tea dust lots.
The point of my comment was in the vein of people who object/refuse to convert away from teabags.
I've seen nobody really talking about the back end of tea drinking. 'wasted water' and digging tea leaves out of a gongfu pot.
Yet this is a part of gongfu tea experience; and therefore should not be excluded if we are to inspire curiosity and confidence.
Hi :) I hope I'm not appearing supercritical here and I definitely don't mean this as an insult or an accusation, but I think that the numbers as shown at 7:46 are misleading.
1.) You are using different scales on the left and right side. If you are talking about a "33% increase in price" on the right side (which is roughly correct), you should be talking about a 150% increase in price on the left side (or an increase by the factor 2.5 on the left side and 1.3 on the right side).
2.) The numbers are rounded in a strange way. On the left side, you are rounding up by a large bit: 0.25/0.11 ≈ 2.27, but you are presenting the number as 2.5. On the right side, the number is rounded down, even though by convention it should be rounded up as 0.15/0.112 ≈ 1.339 ≈ 1.34.
3.) As mentioned by other commentators, you do not always have time to drink 8 infusions. If you only want to drink one quick infusion, the cost for drinking Gong Fu style goes up.
This way, your presentation makes those numbers appear further apart than they actually are (25033 vs. 2.271.34), creating the illusion that Mei Leaf teas are seen as more expensive than they actually are.
Don't get me wrong. I agree with the key message that Gong Fu brewing with high grade tea is worth it and I love your videos and your teas!
Ah you are right it should be 150 to 33 🙄 corrected in description. the rounding is just keeping things general. None of the above is an attempt to inflate the per g price difference (it would be in our favour to show this to be less if anything) or overexaggerte the savings which come from multiple infusions. Thank you for spotting the error and for tasting our Brews.
Gong fu brewing is more than just consuming tea. Teabags are just mindless consum, all the while Gong fu is a small exercise in mindfulness and attention thus leaving a calm and content feeling, almost like meditation.
Are tisane teabags also generally lower quality than loose?
how about if I brew 4g of loose leaf tea to 800ml of water in 4mins, is it still a gong fu brewing?
@@frederikzitzmann3412 Thanks for your response. But, I still don't get why gong fu is more intense with the same (total) ratio (tea, water, and time).
But, what's your suggestion if I need 800ml to 1L tea in my water bottle when I travel or do outdoor activity in a full day?
Is it possible to do this with herbal teas and still get good results? Like chamomile for example or teas with roots in them.
Two things immediately come to mind:
1.) Many herbal teas require quite hot water (close to boiling) and long steeping times.
2.) I suspect that many herbal teas will not do incredibly well with a large number of infusions.
It is definitely something to experiment with, however. It's been on my mind to try out for a while.
@@Garrett_Rowland yeah that's pretty much what I was thinking too, I think it might depend on the herb. I think chamomile would probably work and peppermint and things like that but things with seeds and roots in it to get out all the flavor you'd probably have to brew it for a lot longer in one infusion
I know the steeping time is faster but if you are going to have a good session you are going to be locked down for about an hour to just enjoy that tea. However when someone with a teabag would just spend the time enjoying the one session compared to the 9 sessions of gongfu.
Even construction workers in Chaozhou China drink tea in Gongfu style. Also ppl running Marathons, let along passengers on trains...
You can pause in a session and come back to it afterwards; you’d just have to rinse the leaves shortly to warm them up before you go on with the rest of the session. I (have to) do that quite often. There’s a Meileaf video about how to keep the tea leaves between infusions. It works; I’ve tried it myself. 🙂
US "dollar cents"? What? As someone from the US, I laughed every time I heard this. You can just say "US cents" 🤣 next time.
It’s like keurig pods vs a pour over
I'm in the middle of the video and all I keep thinking is "man I love graphs and the breaking down of tea prices" :)
Lol i cant help but sense a bit of bias on the taste test. Still loved the video
And tea bags are not going to get you drunk. 😅
I wonder what MBTI Don is..? When I saw the chart comparison I thought I maybe INTJ like me but then the more he kept talking I’m like nah he’s gotta be an ES smthg. ESTJ?
Lol my adhd really had my mind wandering but I WAS also listening to the valuable comparisons, thank you for the video. It’s my first time watching, got interested in gongfu tea making and came across your channel and decided upon this video first for some reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe bc I just had an internal struggle to overcome laziness and open/brew a new tin of my loose leaf chai versus using my moms open box of chai tea bags lol
Ah you should have a math warning ⚠️
Exactly, I had just watched this relaxing video on Chinese pottery, and then Don scrambled my brain with all these figures that have nothing to do with bag vs loose leaf. Sorry, Don, you lost me on this one!
off topic, but my stomach churned a bit watching you rinse a top shelf silver needle. you lose so much of the wonderful downy hairs that way
Drinking tea from tea bags? Kinda cringe bro
Next time just say 14 cents
if you're a zealot for one particular method of tea, then you will never be able to understand the true depth of experiences available. there is no "better" only different. smh my head