Chinese Tea Ceremony in a Traditional Ceramic Teapot

This method is suitable practically for all kinds of tea. In the process of preparing the drink a required amount of dry tea leaf is placed into a well-heated teapot.

The tea is taken in the proportion of 3-5 g of leaves per 200-300 ml of water. Red (Black) teas are steeped for 3-5 minutes, Green and Oolongs – 2-3 minutes, Pu-erh, White tea (like Bai Hao Yin Zhen) or Yellow tea – 5-10 minutes. Most of the sorts can be brewed again up to three times, although semi-fermented and black teas bear 4-6 consecutive brews.

Undoubtedly, these parameters may vary depending on the selected method of steeping and personal preferences.

Boiling water is then poured over the leaves in a specific way. The vessel containing the hot water is carried around in a circle over the neck of the teapot three times, and then the pot is filled with water up to 80%, the water poured from above.

In the very end a method called “Three bows of Phoenix” is used when the vessel containing the water is lowered and lifted, this is repeated three times. This ritual symbolizes a bow of the Phoenix bird expressing gratitude to the guests by lowering and lifting its head. The tea is left to steep for several minutes and then poured into the cups gradually, ensuring that each cup contains the liquid of equal strength by pouring into each following cup just a tad more of the tea than the cup preceding it. The last cup is filled fully, after which the remaining liquid is poured into the cups in the opposite order.

The cups should never be filled to the very top so that the participants of the tea drinking would not burn themselves with the hot infusion.