How to conduct a tea ceremony correctly.

To conduct a tea ceremony we will need:

• A suitable place can be a teahouse, a house, nature, an office, a street or any other place that seems good to you. The main thing is that you feel comfortable and nothing distracts you.
• Tools and utensils: teapot or gaiwan for brewing tea, chahai (or gongdaobei) for draining the infusion and chahe to get acquainted with tea, cups or tea pairs ; optionally a chaban , or tea pond or coasters for dishes or a tea towel; a tea figurine , tea tools with or without a stand - a scoop for dry tea, tongs or a cup grab, a needle for freeing holes in dishes from tea, a knife or an awl for splitting pressed tea , a sieve for small fractions, a brush for working clay dishes and / or for cleaning the chaban. If we cook water on the fire, we will need a shuikhu - a teapot made of heat-resistant material for preparing water.
• Tea in a teapot or a tea bag - any good tea that you like or are trying for the first time will do. The optimal amount of tea per volume of water comes individually over time, but for starters, you can focus on the standard of 7-10 grams per 100-150 ml of water when brewing by pouring (not infusing).
• Soft hot water is good for opening up the tea. Hard cold water is not suitable. Ice is good for cold brewing.
• A group of people who want to join the tea culture, preferably a small one, so that everyone can enjoy the tea, including you yourself. It is important that everyone is interested and involved.

The tea ceremony itself

First, we get acquainted with the tea in its dry form in chahe. Then we warm up the dishes, pour the tea into the teapot or gaiwan and evaluate how the aroma has changed after warming up.

Next, brew the tea and pour it into the chahai, then pour it into cups, or directly into cups if you are not using the chahai. Optionally , pour out the first infusion (this is necessary for better tea development) . Evaluate the difference in the aroma of the tea on the lid of the teapot, the wet tea leaf, the aroma of essential oils in the chahai and/or cups.

If we use a traditional Chinese tea pair, we first pour tea into a tall narrow cup ( wenxiangbei ) - a cup for tasting the aroma, then we cover the wenxiangbei with a flat wide cup (pinmingbei or chabei) - a cup for tasting the taste of tea. We hold the cups tightly and turn them over. In wenxiangbei , due to its shape, the aroma is well concentrated, and chabei reveals the taste.

We brew tea slowly, enjoy the process, observe the change in tastes, aromas, aftertastes of tea, monitor our condition. After drinking tea, you can examine the drunk tea - the so-called tea bottom .