Sit down, please. Breathe. Welcome! 

If you just want a quick jolt of caffeine then this is not the place for you. Stand in a Starbucks line for your Vente Soi-Chai Latte with a double shot of expresso (with room ...) and don’t bother me again! Repeat this meaningless exercise on a daily basis at $5 a pop for the next 60 years and die having never tasted anything!

Now would the chosen people please sit down and Take Time For Tea. Take time for a fascinating ritual that will enhance your enjoyment of refreshing green cha and give you focus by serving it Gong Fu style. 

No Kung Fu is the Science of Inflicting Pain, Gong Fu is the Art of Spilling Tea! 

It is the messiest way of serving anything and yet there is a beauty that only zen monks could devise! Only the enlightened would pour the first weak infusion over the very pot that brewed it, washing it in the efficient process - 'nothing is wasted in my temple!'

The first 'brew' is really just to clean the leaves and so you pour this back over the pot to clean it and use the rest to clean the cups.  

That is why you need a collecting tray underneath your tea pot with a slatted top to catch everything you pour away!! 

Only the Chinese could devise these cute little tea pots that brew enough for one hot cup at a time resulting a hot mouthful of tea every time

There is so much more to it - lets learn the ritual and find out what these dangerous looking utensils are for, and then find why it is perfect for students.

Next - Learn the Gong Fu Ritual

©1998JB