New to tea, need some direction.

Any tea can be prepared Gongfu style, in a gaiwan. It doesn’t work well at all for CTC / ground up black teas but that’s beside the point of drinking better tea anyway. For some black teas and green teas Western style works just as well (or rarely even better), but more often results are just slightly different. To me most oolongs work out better made gongfu style. I like Dian Hong, Yunnan black teas, better prepared Gongfu style.

About temperature, different people say different things. It’s my opinion that it doesn’t necessarily work to discuss temperature without splitting the cases of Western and Gongfu preparation. It’s easy to moderate infusion strength brewing Gongfu style by shifting timing and that enables using hotter water and applying that change as a control. Green teas still do tend to need cooler water but just off boiling point temperature works well across most other range. The natural concern comes up, what about an optimum, not just considering what works ok. I think tea type and even quality level come into play, and preferences. I disagree that it works well to divide teas into 5 or 6 broad groups and then specify one limited set of parameters for each. To me that’s way too simple. To get back to what works ok that might apply but if the concern is getting best possible results then it’s too rough a take. Personal experimentation helps settle the matter related to those factors for someone related to specific teas.

This might seem like an odd question, but I do overthink things at times. I’ll be using a stovetop kettle because that’s where I have. So when you are brewing gongfu style do you just keep the kettle on a low flame while you are doing multiple infusions? Or do you let it sit there and then reboil to get it back up to temp? I guess an electric kettle would have settings to keep the temp more stable.

Some electric kettles do have a keep warm setting; I find it really handy. Another options I’ve seen is to pour the heated water into a double-walled vacuum-insulated water bottle. Thermoflask is one brand, but there are many. These bottles will keep water at temperature for quite a while.

I find that reboiling water tends to produce a flat result. If you’re using a kettle on a stove, yeah, I would want to try to use a very low setting to keep the water at temperature.

So I pulled the trigger and bought the bonivita variable temp electric kettle. I’m really excited to use it! I just hope it lasts.

That is the standard solution, even the kettle brand name that comes up most. We have a filter and dispenser system in our house that produces hot water so I use it from that and use a thermos to not walk back and forth. Using the other type of kettle lets you experiment with different water types, or vary that related to what you brew. Different people have different takes on how far to go with all that makes sense but for me low cost and simplicity are essential. As far as ideal water mineral compounds that’s tricky to identify, but on the opposite side as long as water isn’t too hard (with too high a level of calcium and magnesium compounds) it’s probably ok.

That’s the one I have. I got it almost a year ago and I use it about daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I’m still very happy with it!

i want to echo all john’s very good advice but would like to add something i wish someone had told me when i first started brewing gong fu and drinking nice teas:
first, it’s easy to get caught up in equipment and teaware etc, but if you want to drink good tea you need to focus on the quality of your water, the quality of your tea, and learning how to brew for your tastes.
unless you have a really good water source, and/or built in filtration, tap water is going to make your tea taste measurably worse. I don’t recommend bottled water for environmental reasons. Some folks will say a filter pitcher strips the good stuff and the bad stuff from water, taste-wise, but when you’re starting out i think thats a good first step.
For tea, i’ll second the websites that John gave you, but I recommend experimenting. A good rule of thumb is, if the site sells teaware, but doesn’t sell gaiwans or other gong fu equipment, skip it. I just bought some nice tea from wuyiorigin.com , and when you’re feeling more confident maybe see how you feel about white2tea.com
and as far as technique goes, and learning to brew your nice new teas, build a starting foundation, but don’t let what someone else says is correct out-weigh what tastes best for you. really experiment and change things up. use more and less leaf, use hotter and colder water, brew for longer and shorter times. for me personally, i’ve found using a bit extra leaf and hotter for shorter times gives me strong, flavorful tea. everyone is different, and be wary of sources that will prescribe correctness and incorrectness. with some digging you usually find its based on absolutely nothing.

cheers and good luck

Cindy of Wuyi Origin is one of the few online tea contacts who really feels like a friend to me, and their teas are great (two ideas that don’t necessarily connect or contradict). With that for context this reminds me of discussing how tea quality works in a few different contexts of tea discussion. Wuyi Origin teas are good, but I could relate to people wanting to spend less on tea, since their versions are pretty far up the quality scale and sort of priced to reflect that.

On the one hand I’ve tried a fantastic range and volume of tea, and I can appreciate and to some extent even identify tea quality for a broad range. On the other I can appreciate basic teas too, versions that aren’t supposed to be well above average quality. Oddly I was just talking to someone about how for most types I feel as if I’ve only tried upper medium level quality teas, not the best of any given kind. How all these ideas make sense together is funny. It definitely is a long story.

What someone means by “good” shifts over time, with different exposure, and that’s part of the related background. Before I tried Cindy’s teas I’d not tried anything quite that good, and her teas shifted the Wuyi Yancha scale for me. Their Dan Cong is good too, but I have had other varied quality versions of those. Part of all that relates to tea spanning such a broad range; it’s all but impossible to get far across all of it. I haven’t done much with Japanese or Korean teas, in comparison with other producer sources, but beyond that I’ve been all over the map, versus even trying to focus. Even for Japanese and South Korean teas I’ve tried what might seem like a good sample of both, just not related to someone focused on that page for awhile, especially for South Korea. I have tried North Korean teas, but that’s something else, and more about bragging than standard exploration.

The point that better tea serves as a foundation for the experience completely works. It’s just hard to cover exploration across a broad range, and easier to limit that scope a lot, and it’s natural to try better versions or closer matches for preference after some sorting out.

For me it’s not about mastering a subject (sub-theme or type), or “getting far,” it’s just about varied experience, so being all over the place kind of works. Organic exploration also works for me, focusing more on a couple themes at once and letting the rest go quiet, then shifting that focus when it comes up. People can get competitive about having spanned a certain range or getting to a level of expertise and to me it works better to stay away from competing; it doesn’t add anything.

Thanks for all of the in-depth information everyone! I’m looking forward to experimenting with tea. I just wanted a large cup of tea last night, so I made some oolong tea. I guess you can say it was more western style. I used my 100ml gaiwan. I put 1.5-2g of rolled oolong in the gaiwan and let it brew 2min. Then for the second infusion I added 30 second. I just put both in a large coffe mug. Lol anyway it tasted really good!. My wife even liked it and she doesn’t drink tea. She’s a coffee drinker.

Haha. I hope not! More for me. Lol. I wish I did like coffee, it always smells so good. I tried it a few times. I don’t like the taste at all, and I had to add so much cream and sugar.