Gongfu Brewing

Gongfu cha is a way of brewing tea that uses a lot of leaf in a small vessel with many short infusions [1]. Gongfu means doing something with skill and effort, and the practice is tied to Fujian and the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong [1]. Where a Western cup gets one steep of several minutes, a gongfu session gets ten or more steeps of a few seconds to a minute each, and the tea changes from one infusion to the next.

This guide covers the teaware, the starting numbers for each kind of tea, what happens to the tea across a session, and where the practice comes from. Bracketed numbers point to the References at the end.

Teaware

Gongfu vessels hold about 60 to 200 mL, with cups of 25 to 100 mL [1]. Most brewers use either a gaiwan or a small clay pot.

The gaiwan ("lidded bowl") has a saucer, a handleless bowl, and a lid. It dates to the Ming dynasty, holds about 100 to 150 mL, and is usually porcelain or glass [2]. It suits green, white, and oolong teas. Its wide lid lets heat escape, which makes it less suited to black tea [2].

Yixing pots are made from zisha ("purple sand") clay mined near Dingshan, west of Lake Tai [3]. The unglazed, porous clay absorbs tea over time and builds up a coating, so collectors keep one pot for one type of tea and never use soap [3]. The 17th-century potter Hui Mengchen made palm-sized pots of 60 to 120 mL at a time when many pots held half a liter or more. His small pear-shaped pots became a model for gongfu brewing [4].

Leaf, Water, and Time

Early infusions run 10 to 15 seconds and later ones get longer [1]. Many brewers start with a quick rinse that "awakens" the leaf and is poured off [5]. Typical starting points:

Tea	Leaf per 100 mL	Water	Infusions
Green, white	5 to 6 g	About 85 °C	10, 15, 20, 30, 45 s, then about 60 s
Oolong (rolled or Wuyi)	4 to 5 g	95 °C or higher	Same pattern
Black (red)	5 to 6 g	About 90 °C	Same pattern
Raw pu'er	About 6 g	95 to 100 °C	One 20 s rinse; 10 to 20 infusions
Ripe pu'er	About 6 g	100 °C	Two 15 s rinses; 10 to 20 infusions

Table source: Yunnan Sourcing [5].

Sources differ, especially on oolong. A reference summary suggests 80 to 90 °C, while tea houses and the Chaozhou tradition use water at or near a boil [1][5][6]. Wan Ling Tea House, for example, brews Tieguanyin at 95 to 98 °C with about 8 g in a 150 to 200 mL vessel [6].

Each infusion should be poured out completely, since leaves left sitting in water keep steeping. With ten or more infusions, each a few seconds longer than the last, a timer keeps the session consistent.

How Each Infusion Changes

The chemistry of repeated infusions has been measured. In a test with 3 g of tea in 150 mL steeped eight times for 30 seconds each, the first infusion held the most caffeine and catechins at 85 and 100 °C, and levels then fell gradually [7]. In a 2025 study of an ancient-tree pu'er brewed 14 times, caffeine dropped about 40% by the seventh infusion, and tasters rated infusions three to seven best [8].

A session therefore tends to start strong, settle into its best cups in the middle, and finish light.

Water

Lu Yu, author of The Classic of Tea, ranked water for tea. He put slow-flowing mountain spring water first, river water drawn far from homes second, and water from a busy well third. He warned against fast, cascading water [9]. Modern brewers judge temperature by the bubbles: small "crab eye" bubbles mark about 75 to 85 °C, and larger "fish eyes" about 90 to 95 °C. Distilled water tends to brew a flat cup [1].

Where Gongfu Cha Comes From

Its history is shorter than often claimed. The historian Lawrence Zhang notes that the term first appears in the Qing dynasty. The writer Yuan Mei (1716 to 1797) described Wuyi tea brewed in tiny pots and cups without using the word, and Yu Jiao used the term in a work published in 1801 [10]. Zhang argues that much of today's familiar set, including aroma cups and the fairness pitcher, was added by Taiwanese enthusiasts in the 1970s and 1980s, who called the practice chayi (the art of tea) [10].

The Chaozhou form remains a living tradition. It uses an unglazed Phoenix Mountain clay pot, a clay kettle on a charcoal stove, and three thin cups set in a triangle [11]. The pot is filled about 80% with leaf, infusions last about 5 seconds, and the host pours across all the cups in a circle so each gets an even share [11][12]. UNESCO inscribed Chinese tea processing and its social practices on its intangible heritage list in 2022 [13].

Brewing Gongfu With Tea Timer

Tea Timer's Gongfu mode sets the water temperature and the full infusion schedule for green, white, oolong, black, and pu'er tea, then times each infusion in turn. One-tap ratings adjust the timing of later sessions to taste.

Start a gongfu session