Tea Practice - 工夫茶 Gōngfū Chá - Brewing Red Phoenix 紅茶 Hóng Chá

Brewing a Spring 2024 Red Phoenix 紅茶 Hóng Chá “Red Tea”, from 烏岽山 Wūdōngshān in the 潮州 Cháozhōu region of northeastern 廣東 Guǎngdōng province, China.

Thunder peals through the Hudson Valley this morning and I find myself longing to sit by the tea table accompanied by the sound of my boiling kettle and a fine pot of tea. Having just finished the last of my packing and shipping off of the most recent orders from the Summer 2024 Seasonal Tea Collection, I opt to brew one of the teas from this limited series, a hóng chá produced from tea leaves that are typically destined to become an 單欉 dān cóng (“single bush/grove) oolong. I pull out a small heap of the leaves and set them atop an antique 白銅 báitóng (lit. “white copper”, cupronickel) tea leaf viewing vessel with inlay of jade and brass in the shape of banana leaf. I bring out a scoop made of bamboo, a tea leaf pick snatched from the one surviving tea plant which grows in my garden, cups and their corresponding wooden rests. Next, I place a vintage 茶船 cháchuán (lit. “tea boat”) is made of zhūní clay from Yíxìng. Finally, I set the tea brewing vessel, a thin-walled, wheel-spun 黃泥 huáng ní (“yellow clay”) teapot made in the late 1990s by 福建 Fújiàn-based ceramicist 陳東鑄 Chén Dōngzhù (b. 1965).

I arrange the four cups in a diamond form. From one cup to the next, vignettes are revealed, each depicting tiny landscapes for each invited guest to enjoy. Hills and mountains, flying birds and a tidal bore, spangled trees on water’s edge, rocky outcroppings and a boat underneath. As the tea leaves cascade into the empty pot and steep in hot water poured from my vintage Japanese 鉄瓶 tetsubin, I’m left to examine each scene rendered in cobalt on porcelain. The feeling is refreshing on a hot Summer’s day.

A moment in silence passes before I decant the tea. Pouring the contents of the tiny thin-walled pot into each wide-rimmed cup, the color of the red tea is revealed, darkening and deepening as each cup fills further. Each of the miniature scenes glow as they’re bathed in the rich-hued liqueur of the hóng chá.

I pass each cup to my three guests, turning the porcelain vessels so as to allow their vistas to be viewed properly. I serve myself. As we sip the tea, its sweet, honey-like aroma emerges and flavors play across the palate. Sweet potatoes, cacao nibs, spice, all swirl and conjoin. As I finish the cup, I enjoy the cold scent of the emptied vessel, and take time to inspect the scene along its outer walls. A painting of a scholar looking out from his mountain hermitage. Perhaps the scene is of his Winter sequestering, a cooling image to assuage the heat of the day.

As cicadas hum outside my own studio, I continue to brew the tea until its color shifts from a deep amber to bright gold. The flavor remains, becoming sweeter and more refreshing as each steeping progresses. With the final steeping complete, I clean the cups and remove the leaves from the pot. They appear as darker versions of what would have been a Phoenix oolong. The remaining flavor is remarkably complex, exchanging the classic astringency of a dān cóng in favor of a smooth, silky finish that still lingers.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little video, that maybe you learned a little bit about how to approach a tea like this, and that you have the opportunity to brew high-quality tea for yourself and others. Regardless of what wares you have at your disposal, so long as you make the time to focus and practice, you can bring out the best flavors in any well-crafted tea. In the meantime, share with me any thoughts, feedback or questions you might have.

Thank you.

🍃 🍵 ♥️

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